EJ Montini

The Republic | azcentral.com

So, why hasn't the National Rifle Association railed against the "jack-booted thugs" -- as the group's Wayne Lapierre once called government agents -- now operating in Ferguson, Mo.?

People are beginning to wonder.

Cliff Schecter of The Daily Beast put it this way in a recent column, "Not a peep from (the NRA's) LaPierre on this extended assault on citizens of Ferguson, at least that I can find.

"If I were suspicious of their motives--and I am--I might point out that when I visited their nine acres of militarized gun-fun also known as their convention in Indianapolis, I saw fewer black faces than in your average episode of The Dukes of Hazzard."

In the Canadian weekly MacLean's Mart Patriquin wrote about how Lapierre raged against the government's assault on the compound of cult leader David Koresh.

When that was happening Patriquin writes, "The National Rifle Association came out, if you'll excuse the pun, guns blazing. 'If you have a badge, you have the government's go-ahead to harass, intimidate, even murder law-abiding citizens,' said Wayne Lapierre, then the NRA's executive vice-president, calling the agents 'jack-booted thugs' Along with the 1992's Ruby Ridge assault, in which government agents killed the wife and son of white supremacist Randy Weaver, Waco became a stump issue for the NRA.

"It's easy to see why. Both incidents fueled the group's reigning paranoia that Americans are forever under threat from well-armed, Kevlar-wearing government commandos. We see the results in the NRA's ensuing campaign today: weak gun laws, a lack of comprehensive background checks and a hobbling of the ATF itself through budget restrictions and politically motivated laws.

"It's why the NRA's silence in the tear-gas wake of Ferguson, Mo., is so telling. The four-day police operation following the police shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown has essentially shut down the city of 21,000."

Likewise, Francis Wilkinson of BloombergViewwrites, "The NRA has previously lamented 'black-suited, masked, massively armed mobs of screaming, swearing agents invading the homes of innocents.' LaPierre has expressed grave concern over 'federal agents wearing Nazi bucket helmets and black storm trooper uniforms to attack law-abiding citizens.' Surely, if anyone in the U.S. is concerned about police forces abusing their lethal powers, it must be LaPierre, self-styled guardian of individual rights, protector of the little guy, scourge of overzealous government agents.

"Yet once again, an unarmed black boy or man has been shot dead by police, and LaPierre is silent. I just can't figure it out."

Then again, maybe we can.