Not satire.

Via HuffPo:

Contentious as it might sound, there are significant similarities between the Islamic State terrorist organization, ISIS, and the National Rifle Association (NRA). Of course there are differences as well, but examining issues of congruence adds another dimension to the gun violence controversy.

The most important parallels between ISIS and the NRA are:

– Institutionally, both organizations are remorseless about the deaths of victims

– Both use fear and intimidation to obtain their objectives

– Both assume their ideology is superior to the wishes of the majority of citizens

– Both have intensely loyal followers

– Both recruit and indoctrinate members who are ignorant of the basic facts

– Both are relatively small organizations that have impact far beyond their size

– Neither organization will apologize for the harm they cause

Perspective:

It is estimated that in 2015 ISIS killed about 6,000 people, a majority of them Muslims. ISIS also conducted a few terrorist attacks in Europe and fostered a couple of sympathetic incidents here in the U.S. Based on those killings and other related activities, ISIS is considered a global menace. Concern about ISIS resonates as a political issue. Congressional leaders vociferously called for increased action to mitigate that threat including the use of military force. As then-Presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz put it, “We ought to bomb them back to the Stone Age.” In response to the perceived threat, we deployed the U.S. Air Force to bomb targets in Syria and Iraq. In addition, we sent hundreds of ground forces into harm’s way to act as advisors while providing both funds and materiel in support of countries in the region that are focused on degrading ISIS capabilities.

During the same period there were approximately 33,600 gun related deaths in the U.S. Allowing that an estimated 60 percent of gun deaths were suicides, it can readily be determined that more than 10,000 Americans died from gun related homicides. Of course, not every victim who is shot dies and far more survive than are killed (about 1:4). Using four or more victims as the accepted definition of a mass shooting, there were 372 such incidents in the U.S. last year. As there is no national requirement to report shootings, the total number of victims of gun violence is unknown but it is several times more than those killed by ISIS.

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