The AR-15 that the NRA says is a perfect Valentine’s Day gift is designed especially for women and features a pink trigger.
“A crowning jewel—just like your special lady,” says the NRA Family web page.
Who cares that Valentine’s Day is the first anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a 19-year-old armed with a legally purchased AR-15 killed 17 classmates?
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Back at the time of the Parkland killings, the NRA suffered what may have been a momentary attack of decency, but was more likely just an attempt at image triage when it deleted a retweeted Valentine’s Day image of two semi-automatic pistols atop a heart-shaped red candy box.
But, even as a group of Parkland survivors began their ongoing Never Again campaign for meaningful gun control, the NRA had devised a strategy to oppose them that is shameless, even by its standards.
Three weeks after the shootings, the strategy began to take public form with an NRA Post on Facebook coinciding with International Women’s Day. The post showed a woman clutching a pistol with a two-handed combat grip, her arms extended.
“Gun Rights are a Women’s Rights issue,” the posting proclaimed.
That seemingly loopy contention joined the NRA’s usual Second Amendment assertions when the movement sparked by the Parkland survivors led to the Florida state legislature raising the minimum age for buying a firearm from 18 to 21.
But even this lone and modest effort to make such school slaughter less likely in the future was too much for the NRA to accept. Fewer guns sold means smaller profits. And industry profits, not gun rights, are the real agenda of those who run the NRA.
The then-Florida governor, Rick Scott, had no sooner signed Section 790.065(13) into law than the NRA filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block it. The NRA contended that raising the minimum age for purchase of firearms violates not only the Second Amendment but also the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The suit argues that the restriction is particularly unfair to young women because they commit little of the violence that the measure is intended to prevent.
“Females between the ages of 18 and 21… pose a relatively slight risk of perpetrating a school shooting such as the one that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, or, for that matter, a violent crime of any kind,” the lawsuit says.
The suit does not mention that females were at considerable risk of falling victim in the shooting at Parkland. The 14 students who were murdered, along with three staff members, included eight young woman whose uncontestable right to life was monstrously and irrevocably violated.
The sole female the NRA makes party as a plaintiff in its suit is a young woman only identified as Jane Doe. She happens to be 19, the same age as the Parkland gunman, who is not mentioned by name.
“Jane Doe desires to purchase a handgun for self-defense,” the suit says, “Ideally, she would like to purchase a Glock 17, because she prefers its 9mm caliber. But for Section 790.065(13)’s blanket ban, Ms. Doe would purchase a handgun forthwith, either from a friend of her family, who lawfully owns several handguns and is able to sell her a handgun under existing federal law, or from another private seller.”
The suit continues, “Ms. Doe also desires to purchase a long-gun for self-defense and other lawful purposes. But for Section 790.065(13)’s blanket ban, Ms. Doe would purchase a long-gun forthwith.”
In an affidavit, Jane Doe says that she wishes to remain anonymous due to “the highly controversial nature of this litigation,” which leaves her “afraid that if association with the lawsuit became public, I would be subjected to harassment, intimidation, threats, and potentially even physical violence.”
Jane Doe's affidavit and the complaint it accompanies fail to note that the suit is controversial because the law it challenges was sparked by the mass shooting at Parkland, eight females among them.
The judge allowed that he understood Jane Doe’s worries, but ruled against her as a matter of case law. The NRA appealed and the decision is pending.
Meanwhile, as we come to Valentine’s Day and the first anniversary of the Parkland mass shooting, the NRA is touting the LWRCI Diadem AR-15, made especially for women, complete with a pink trigger.
“MSRP: $1,499,” the NRA Family page notes, that standing for Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price, gun manufacturers comprising the industry for which the NRA serves as a shill.
Along with the AR-15, the NRA also suggests a particular pistol and a particular shotgun that it says would make great Valentine gifts.
“These are sure to be a hit and score you points on the day all women want to be spoiled,” the NRA says.
