The NRA's in trouble. Doesn't matter who their spokesperson is. The worm has turned.
They don't have any answers and people want to vilify someone. What easier target than an organization that is trying to turn back the tide of anti-gun legislation. People clearly want more gun control because they feel that legislation is at least trying to address the problem.
Just about everyone here knows it isn't going to change anything. The AR's and AK's will come from somewhere just like any firearm any criminal uses to commit a crime.
Another big problem I see looming is patrol officers not wanting to engage a shooter with a semi auto rifle. That's going to take a lot of cajones, especially if you don't have the fire power or tactical training. That's more akin to a military operation than anything else, especially if the shooter has military training. Just to refresh everyone's memory here.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/08/us/philando-castile-alton-sterling-protests/index.html
It's pretty tough to prepare for something like that.
This problem of domestic terrorism is somewhat similar to the 9/11 attack, it's just coming from a different place with fewer casualties. Trying to legislate this away would be like congress trying to legislate radical Islamic terrorism away. Everyone knew that wasn't going to work because flying aircraft into buildings was already illegal and something needed to be done pronto.
The solution was databases and a whole new department (DHS) designed to combat the threat. My name happened to be in one of those databases ( no criminal record and a natural born citizen) but I still had to jump thru hoops with delays to board a plane.
That's what it's going to take in this situation. A lot more tax dollars at the local level and a whole new approach to identifying these would be shooters with prompt investigations, firearm censures, arrests and data into a new NCIC database. Maybe some legislation not aimed at the entire population of rifle purchasers but aimed at people who express a desire to shoot up schools or carry out other domestic terrorist attacks. I'm not seeing anyone addressing that, just a lot of AR owners or potential buyers being thrown under the bus.
The NRA has made these points but nobody is listening and they won't until it becomes clear that regulating rifles and magazines isn't the answer.