After yesterday’s mass murder of young children in Connecticut, there has been a lot of justifiable anger at the National Rifle Association (‘NRA’). But the NRA is simply the public face of the gun traffickers. The organization that, in state after state, has successfully beaten down even the most minimal of gun murder prevention laws is the American Legislative Executive Council, aka ALEC. I’ve written about ALEC misdoings before–all you need to know is that, if there is a morally reprehensible position on any issue that allows someone to make a dirty buck, ALEC will lobby for it.

What matters for the issue of gun massacre prevention is that ALEC, which has successfully championed “Stand Your Ground” legislation in multiple states (and was deeply involved with the Friday vote by Michigan’s state legislature to allow the use of guns in many public places including schools–no I didn’t make that up) provides the lobbying and legislative infrastructure across multiple states. They have good relationships with most Republicans and some conservative Democrats, which have been forged on other issues, so they can easily use their influence and network to aid and abet gun manufacturers. For the details, check out Digby.

Fury at the NRA is appropriate, but the water carrier on this issue during the last couple of years has been ALEC. Until ALEC is destroyed–or at least politically radioactive–not much will change for the better.

So we will just have to learn how to get used to the mass murder of children.s