Today in gun greed ...

I've got nothing against those of my fellow citizens who are deeply attached to their guns. I'm an urban person so I don't quite get it, but my one of grandfathers and his brothers bequeathed a good supply of hunting rifles to the family. We hung 'em up as decoration and thought them normal accouterments of a house in the country.

But I've got a lot against the NRA. The National Rifle Association don't seem so much devoted defending the right of law abiding citizens to keep their guns as defending the right of anyone who can get a gun to use it with impunity. That's a "right" I don't think any of us, including law-abiding gun owners need.

• Item: the NRA opposes a simple technical measure that would help law enforcement figure out what gun was used in a crime. According to the New York Times,

  ... what if a shell casing picked up at a murder scene could immediately be tracked to the gun that fired it?… the technology, called microstamping, has been swept up in the larger national debate over gun laws and Second Amendment rights, and efforts to require gun makers to use it have stalled across the nation.
  
  “I think it is one of these things in law enforcement that would just take us from the Stone Age to the jet age in an instant,” said Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld III of the Baltimore Police Department. “I just can’t comprehend the opposition to it.”
  
  But legislation proposed in several states to require manufacturers of semiautomatic weapons to use the technology has met with fierce opposition. Opponents, including the gun industry and the National Rifle Association, argue that microstamping is ineffective and its cost prohibitive. They say the proposed system would unfairly focus on legal gun owners when most crimes are committed with illegally obtained guns.

  You know what -- get over it. Anonymity for shooters just isn't anyone's right. The NRA is just shilling for gun manufacturers who don't want the expense of retooling. Their stance has nothing to do with rights and everything to do with an industry's irresponsible greed.

• Item: the NRA is selling insurance to cover costs of criminal defense. Sure, go ahead, use your gun to shoot someone (perhaps under something like Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law), and the NRA has just the product for you. According to Think Progress:

  The basic liability plan costs either $47 or $67 annually, for coverage up to $100,000 or $250,000, respectively. Though the coverage amounts stay the same, a policy holder can add the self-defense insurance by paying $118 or $165 for the lesser coverage, or between $187 and $254 for the larger plan.

  The NRA's insurance product reads just as confusingly as that from any other insurer. I wonder whether they pay off if criminal defense fails?

The NRA's insurance business was uncovered by cartoonist Matt Bors. Here's his take: