| No Images? Click here   By Nick BaumannAs HuffPost reporters and editors investigated last weekend's massacre at an El Paso Walmart, they discovered something interesting: The alleged shooter's rhetoric sounded eerily similar to the message the National Rifle Association has been sending to its members for decades. So Jessica Schulberg wrote a story about the parallels — and we asked her about it. How did this story come about? It was [HuffPost Enterprise Editor] George Zornick's idea! After the El Paso shooting, it became clear that the shooter was motivated by the same racist ideology that is becoming increasingly mainstream on the right. I first pitched a story that involved figuring out how much money Facebook brought in from Trump campaign ads that referred to immigrants as invaders, but it ended up being too hard to quickly get that data. (Readers, if it's actually not hard, tell me how!) George, who covered the NRA when he was at The Nation, made the very good point that the gun lobby has played a huge role in convincing Americans that they need to defend themselves from a wave of violent, criminal foreigners. What was the hardest part about reporting, writing or editing this piece? There were so many examples of the NRA being extremely racist and xenophobic, it was hard to decide which ones to include. I also always worry when I write about white supremacy that I need to make a clear effort not to simply parrot their ideology to a wider audience. I try to always emphasize that their claims about immigration and crime are false and not based in any evidence — even when doing so can feel clunky and obvious. What was the most surprising thing you discovered? I had never heard of Harlon Carter, the former NRA chief executive who, as a teenager, shot and killed a 15-year-old Mexican boy. The fact that it happened was horrifying, but I was also shocked that this isn't just something everyone knows about the NRA. What has the reaction been like? More positive than I expected. One reader — who said he canceled his NRA membership in the 70s because of the group's nativist shift — emailed me a pretty crazy tip that I'm working on nailing down. What do you want readers to take away? The NRA's xenophobic anti-immigration stance should be just as widely understood as its pro-gun stance. I think people sort of accept the NRA's influence as the political reality in a country that is deeply attached to a certain reading of the Second Amendment. But the NRA's messaging goes beyond "You have the right to own a gun." This tremendously influential group is telling people "You need an assault rifle to protect yourself against the imminent threat of dangerous foreign invaders from Mexico." We can't tolerate that kind of messaging and then act surprised when someone commits a massacre in the name of staving off a "Hispanic invasion."  🔥 More Must Reads 🔥
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