Atlantic Wire suggests NRA threatened from surprising direction

Since the Sandy Hook Elementary atrocity, a theme one sees repeated ad nauseam is that the "gun lobby" (generally presented--falsely--as synonymous with the NRA) is dead, or at least mortally wounded. U.S. News and World Report quotes United States Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) gloating about a "turning point":

"The NRA has been a staunch and steadfast opponent for decades, but we have growing momentum on our side," Blumenthal says. "Newtown was a call for action and we have made tremendous progress. Three plus months ago, these issues were politically untouchable. This time is different. I think we have reached a tipping point, a turning point and there is no going back."

Rabidly anti-gun NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg claims the NRA's power is "vastly overrated," while he mobilizes his billions of dollars to simply buy the forcible citizen disarmament edicts he demands, and former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords has started her own super PAC for oppressive gun laws. Exploiter of murdered children and advocate of "government monopoly on force" Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) says it's time to "stomp on" the NRA. Tom Diaz, formerly of the Violence Policy Center, calls the NRA a "paper tiger." Michael Moore claims that leaking the crime scene photos of the murdered children of Newtown would be enough to stir Americans to "finish off" the NRA.

Meanwhile, Senator Feinstein's (D-CA) attempt to ban so-called "assault weapons" is dead, or at least on life support. Although this has been widely predicted for months, the situation is a bit difficult to reconcile with the notion of a "gun lobby" in swift, dramatic and irreversible decline.

The Atlantic Wire also sees the possibility of "the end of an era" for the NRA, but the supposed challenges of the new "era" are not the kinds of problems gleefully touted by Bloomberg, Nadler, Diaz, Moore and friends:

We've reported on Defense Distributed a number of times before, a group which aims to offer 3D-printable weapons components for free online. The group already has a search engine available, including plans for a lower receiver and grip for an AR-15. . . . Meaning that the only roadblock to broadly distributed, hard-to-regulate gun ownership is a piece of technology that, over time, will almost certainly become commonplace.

How is that a problem for the NRA? Atlantic Wire's reasoning is that when people can "print" their own guns, they will no longer need a lobbying powerhouse defending their right to buy them.

Or, farther in the future: Why donate to the NRA every month when you have access to any weapon you could want, on demand?

Let's think about that, though. St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner has been as enthusiastic as anyone about the revolutionary change Defense Distributed's "Wiki Weapon" project is bringing to the gun rights/"gun control" debate. Still, the day when the ability to easily produce fully functional guns at home will render gun rights advocates indifferent to gun laws is a very long way off. The ability to print a gun, for example, does not address laws that forbid carrying it for self-defense.

While the government will soon lose any say it now has in what kinds of guns citizens can own, and which citizens can own them, most of us would still prefer not to be branded "criminals" for enjoying this new access to freedom.

Regardless, the NRA had might as well embrace the "printed gun" revolution, because like the government, it will be powerless to stop it. And that's a good thing.