The New York Daily News had a doozy of a cover on Wednesday: “NRA’S SICK JIHAD,” it declared.

The story detailed why H.R. 1076, despite its name, may very well go nowhere in Congress. Why? Because the National Rifle Association opposes it—and naturally, because of that, Republicans are blocking it. Even in the wake of Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris. Even though, per the Government Accountability Office, more than 2,000 suspects on the FBI’s Terrorist Watchlist bought weapons in the U.S. over the last 11 years.

The story offers an insight into just how hypocritical the right has been in its ongoing xenophobic panic. So much oxygen has been devoted to turning away Syrian refugees, but here in the U.S., the primary terror threat comes not from Daesh or other typically brown terrorists, but from white supremacists and fundamentalists. But those folks can vote, and they certainly aren’t voting Democratic. So that’s why we see Republicans stumbling over themselves to punch down at helpless Syrian refugees.

In keeping the possibility open that suspected terrorists will get their hands on weapons, the NRA is asking us to consciously mistake recklessness for freedom. And Republicans are so much under the NRA’s sway, that they will stand in the way of a bill called the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act—all while claiming that they’re the real patriots. The Daily News’ jihadist metaphor is apt.