A revealing moment occurred during this year’s annual National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Indianapolis when Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre launched into a stunning tirade against the rule of law at the organization’s Members’ Meeting. “How can good, decent Americans be expected to have faith in law and order,” LaPierre asked those in attendance, “if the law is selectedly enforced, if the law is changed at the whims of the powerful, if the law is used for the advantage of the political elites and the disadvantage of the rest of us? How can citizens respect laws in the nation in which those laws are so unequally and arbitrarily applied? The character of our nation and all of our values are at risk.”

It was a curious exhortation to make to well-armed individuals in the immediate wake of the crisis in Bunkverville, Nevada involving radical rancher Cliven Bundy—who refuses to abide by federal laws regarding the maintenance of public lands. To be fair, however, LaPierre’s remarks probably weren’t meant to trigger a mass uprising. More likely, his fearmongering was intended to encourage the NRA’s adherents to buy even more guns, thereby ensuring the profits of a lobby that is now intimately connected with the gun industry.

NRA President Jim “War of Northern Aggression” Porter also had his eyes on the prize during the convention, launching into the following broadsides against the 1968 Gun Control Act, the federal law that prohibits convicted felons, fugitives from justice, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill from owning and purchasing firearms:

You know, Thomas Jefferson wrote that every generation needs its own revolution. For my dad and his colleagues revolution came in Cincinnati at the 1977 NRA annual meeting. Had it not been for the revolt in Cincinnati we wouldn’t be here this morning. Back then, the NRA had reached a critical crossroads. Some though the NRA should focus solely on wildlife conservation and habitat, that NRA should be a sort of national hunt club. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a lifelong hunter, and I’m proud of the fact that no other organization does more to preserve hunting, protect access to hunting lands, and promote responsible wildlife conservation than the NRA. But at that Cincinnati meeting the Gun Control Act of 1968 was the law of the land. It just about put NRA out of business for good. You know that bill was passed, that terrible law was enacted, for one simple reason, and one reason alone: The NRA was not in the game. There was no Institute for Legislative Action. We didn’t even have a registered NRA lobbyist. Or association at that time wasn’t just ill-prepared to fight against a terrible bill, we wasn’t even there. We wasn’t even on the playing field. The House Conference report passed by just 32 votes. 25 Democrats and 41 Republicans voted Present or didn’t vote at all. They took a walk. If only half of those 67 Congressmen had been reached and opposed the bill, the 1968 Gun Control Act would have been defeated. It would have never become law and gun owners wouldn’t have been subjected to the abuse of rights that law wrought on good, decent gun owners. All because the NRA at that time stayed out of that debate.

The law also established a system of regulation for Federally Licensed Firearms Dealers (FFLs) and enacted provisions to curb the interstate trafficking of firearms. Put simply: There would be no federal background check system for gun buyers without the 1968 Gun Control Act. Because how could you possibly screen gun buyers if no one is prohibited from buying guns and no dealer is required to obtain a license and keep records of gun sales?  The matter would then be left for the states to deal with, and state gun laws in the United States are a very mixed bag. For example, only 25 states have adopted laws regulating firearm dealers.

So much for keeping guns out of the hands of “Bad Guys.”  After all, the sale of a firearm to a violent, unstable individual generates the same profit as one to a “Good Guy.”

In truth, the NRA is not breaking new ground here. Their lobbying has helped to facilitate the arming of criminals and other dangerous individuals for decades. And it was just one week ago when Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed a radical new gun bill endorsed (and likely authored) by the NRA which contains the following provisions:

• Allows criminals illegally carrying firearms in public to seek immunity from prosecution under the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
• Allows first-time criminal offenders—including violent misdemeanants—to obtain concealed handgun permits.
• Prevents law enforcement from stopping someone carrying a gun in public to determine if they have a permit to do so legally.

You couldn’t imagine a better giveaway to criminals. And maybe the NRA’s on to something with all of this. After all, you don’t have to summon “faith in law and order” if there are no laws left to break.