A former gun executive spoke to CNN on Sunday to explain that gun culture was once about hunting and target shooting, but after former President Barack Obama was elected, it became about something else.
Ryan Busse, writer of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America, explained, "There's also this gun culture now developed since Barack Obama became president in 2008, but really a hateful conspiracy-driven, racist-driven gun culture that's on the fringes and that is the part of gun culture that's taken over much of the politics and spurred many people to march on Jan. 6 and part that's controlling the politics now."
CNN host Pamela Brown asked how a fringe minority could manage to be running the politics of a nation.
"Much like a loud minority of what, I think, Americans control the right side of our country," Busse continued, "so too are loud minority gun owners controlling the politics of the NRA and the politics of guns, which is very intricately involved in the politics of the GOP because they're loud and good at what they do and excellent at drumming up conspiracy theories and getting people frightened."
He said that it isn't just that gun companies are praying on fear. They're actually creating the fear. When Obama was elected, for example, pro-gun groups believed that their guns were about to be taken away. So, they stocked up on guns and bullets with the anticipation that the country was about to end. It never did and Obama never took away any guns. But the gun manufacturers made a lot of money by scaring people into buying the weapons.
Brown also noted that there are a few extremely vocal people demanding access to as many weapons as possible and because they're so loud, they're the only ones elected officials seem to listen to.
"What you report from constituents is why this issue is so difficult," Busse explained. "They hear background checks poll at 80 percent. And why can't we get those passed? Because the politics of gun radicalism are woven through the DNA of the GOP. It looks like a pebble but it is attached to a boulder which is the DNA of the Republican Party. What I say to people that believe those things is, no right exists without balancing those responsibilities. And we have to balance the rights with responsibility. There's nothing anti-gun about being OK with background checks or being OK with red flag laws or being OK with outlawing armed intimidation. That's not anti-gun. That's just pro-responsibility."
He closed by saying that in no other area of American rights where the right is "so absolute that they will eventually undo our democracy."
See the exchange below: