Maria Butina Wanted to Start a Chapter of the NRA in Russia
by John Lawrence, July 31, 2018
What's wrong with that? Russia is in the process of becoming more like America, and the NRA goes international. Isn't that what Americans want? More countries to emulate us and our institutions. So here's this woman Maria Butina who goes all through the American University in Washington, DC and gets a Master's degree in international studies. Then after all that we decide she's a spy and put her in jail. We should applaud her as being the first in her family to go to college or the first Russian to get a degree from an accredited US university. Where were the watchdogs when she was earning her degree?
A chapter of the NRA in Russia would only mean that more Russians would be killing each other with guns - just like us. She might even have advocated for Russia to amend their Constitution along the lines of our sacred Second Amendment giving every Russian the right to own as many guns of whatever type as they please. Certainly Americans would have applauded that. The media would be saying, "They're becoming just like us." It's well known that Russians want to be just like us. President Trump recognizes that, but he seems to be the only one. A lone voice crying out, not exactly from the wilderness, because his megaphone is much louder than yours or mine.
Anyway, here's this beautiful creature who by dint of hard work got her Master's degree at American University, bent on going home to Russia and working her magic to make the Russians more like us so that Russians could be as gun loving and gun wielding as us Americans. I think putting her in jail sends a bad message to other Russians who want to make the Russian system more like America. They all must be saying, "If this can happen to her, I don't want to earn a degree at an American university where I will be indoctrinated into the American way of life only to wind up in jail. If a get a rich Russian to sponsor me, they will say he was my "handler," taking orders from the Kremlin."
Sadly, the murder by gun count in Russia will not be going up because the NRA did not take Maria Butina's advice and start a chapter in Russia. That leaves the US in the enviable position of being the world's leader when it comes to gun violence, and Maria Butina will get a real taste of what American life is like - in jail!
