NRA Wants to Choose Our Next Surgeon General

The post of U.S. Surgeon General has been empty since July of last year.  President Obama has nominated Dr. Vivek Murthy.  

Dr. Murthy has medical and business degrees from Yale and is an attending physician and an instructor at Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School.

what eye thynk:   This confirmation would seem to be as simple as any confirmation can be; but Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and the National Rifle Association are running a loud and proud campaign against him. 

Why?  Because Dr. Murthy supports a ban on assault weapons, (which the NRA hates because you never know when you're going to need an AK-47 to save yourself from a rampaging duck),  mandatory safety training (which the NRA hates because safety is so over-rated) and limits on ammunition (which the NRA hates because no one wants to run out of ammunition when they're trying to kill as many 6 year olds as possible before the police show up and ruin all the fun.) 

The NRA has made it clear that they will be grading Senators on the way they vote on Dr. Murthy.  Support the NRA and vote "No," you get a gold star.  Vote "yes" for the qualified candidate who dares to support common sense gun regulations--the same regulations that are supported by a majority of the Americans you were elected to represent--and you will be targeted in your next re-election effort.   This isn't "lobbying"; this is blackmail dressed up in a three piece suit, and Senator Rand Paul is apparently happy to walk the runway dressed in the latest NRA couture.

Gun violence, including suicide by gun, kills 30,000 Americans every year.  The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all called for stronger gun laws.  Given the opinion espoused by these major medical organizations, I don't see how it would be possible to find a doctor, any doctor, in this country who wouldn't draw the NRA's ire because of his or her support of stricter gun regulations. 

Which brings me to my biggest problem with the NRA's interference in this confirmation: Why is the NRA involved in the vetting of a U.S. Surgeon General candidate in the first place?  Did Wayne LaPierre add an M.D. to his name when no one was looking?

I have a suggestion.  When members of the American Medical Association get to vote for the next president of the NRA, then the NRA can put itself into the middle of the confirmation hearing on the Surgeon General.  Until then...butt out!