“It’s very dangerous for younger Americans to be indoctrinated with the viewpoint that the Second Amendment allows every American to lawfully possess a firearm,” [Brady president Kris Brown] said.
The NRA pushes the absolutist idea that gun regulation is unconstitutional and has successfully opposed bans on assault weapons, government-funded gun violence research, and even modest proposals for tighter background checks and limits on “bump stock” devices and silencers.
“They’re selling a lie, and it’s a very dangerous lie,” Brown added. “They are selling it to your kids, and they don’t care if it’s killing them.”
As a Manhattan judge presides over the civil corruption trial of the gun lobby and its outgoing CEO, Wayne LaPierre, a panel of NRA judges is now reading through hundreds of 2023 essay contest entries from the next generation of gun rights advocates.
Winners in the K-8 “Junior” category and 9-12 “Senior” category will be awarded $1,000 when judging ends later this year, with lower cash prizes for runners-up, according to the NRA’s website.
An NRA spokesperson declined to comment on the contest, held every year since the late 1990s.
The winning essays are not published, though excerpts from the two top prize winners from 2015 were included in the 2016 blog post.
“I may hunt, target practice, and some day conceal carry because of the leaders that fought for this right in the past,” reads the first prize-winning essay from the K-8 category.
“In a world where things happen in an instant and danger is always lurking, the firearm provides the individual with an added measure of security,” the blog says, quoting from the winning essay in the Senior category for the 2015 contest, written by a girl from Miami.
Defense of the Second Amendment is a core mission for the NRA. In opening statements in the New York corruption trial, defense lawyer Sarah B. Rogers told jurors, “The NRA is the largest and probably the most successful Constitutional rights advocacy organization in the country.”
— Laura Italiano in The NRA Wants Your Kid to Love Guns: Programs Promote 2nd Amendment Absolutism to Kindergarteners on Up