Robert L. Wood: A bloody windfall

The Orlando massacre has been followed by a bizarre, if somewhat predictable, surge in gun sales. This surge benefits gun manufacturers and retailers, who certainly pass some of the bloody windfall along to their industry lobby.

By the trickle-down economics of the NRA, fresh cash finds its way into the “right” lawmakers’ coffers. Our own Sen. Richard Burr, himself an NRA “A rated” senator, flush with hundreds of thousands of its cash is apparently OK with the moral dilemma of actually benefiting from mass shootings.

Burr said he would support barring the sale of guns to people on the “no fly list” (“Burr says he supports ‘no fly, no buy’,” June 19 news article), but only if this prohibition can never inconvenience a would-be gun buyer who might have been wrongfully put on the list.

Does he really believe the theoretical risk of an errant “no-fly” rating should trump his constituent’s risk of dying in a mass shooting at the hands of a known terrorist with a legally purchased assault rifle?

I hope not, but Burr’s NRA shackles permit him no choice anyway. We should remember that we do have a choice in November.

This story was originally published June 25, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Robert L. Wood: A bloody windfall."