Jon Stewart accuses NRA of fear-mongering at convention

The National Rifle Assn. held its annual convention last weekend in Houston, where conservative pundits like Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck railed at efforts to enact tighter gun control measures -- and, as Jon Stewart pointed out Monday on “The Daily Show,” a whole lot of other things, too.

Between Palin taunting New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg over his war on tobacco and Texas Gov. Rick Perry boasting about his job-creation record, to Stewart the NRA confab seemed less like the meeting of a gun-rights group and more like the Conservative Political Action Conference held just two months ago.

When the subject of guns finally did come up, Stewart was not convinced by what he heard. He suggested it was hypocritical for someone like Beck to accuse gun-control advocates of fear-mongering, while simultaneously stoking up fears of government takeovers or constantly lurking rapists to rally support for 2nd Amendment rights.

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“Don’t let liberals say it’s a dangerous world and scare you into gun control,” Stewart said, characterizing the NRA’s position. “Let us say it’s a dangerous would and scare you into gunapalooza!”

Stewart also wondered why, in a world where as NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre suggested, there are terrorists and criminals waiting in every corner, it shouldn’t be harder to purchase guns.

“Because of this guy, they can get a gun on the Internet with no background check! You’re welcome, everybody!” he said of LaPierre.

From there, Stewart tried to find some common ground with groups like the NRA.

“We all want the same thing: bad guys not to have guns,” he said. “Some people including myself believe a good way to do that, at least to start, is to check who’s buying them, or make the guns somewhat traceable so when the bad guys get them, we can figure out how, not wait for a bad guy to draw and then draw faster.”

Stewart even said he’d welcome such a debate, but ended the segment by drawing a clear line in the sand: “Stop pretending that background checks are the the last barrier standing between a free America and Obama-sponsored government mom rape.”

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