I'm on board with you on all of that. It's a much deeper issue. There is a connection with individual donors and corporate donors outside the nra though, and alot of people's central ethos politically center around gun rights issues. I'm niether pro or con nra. Im not much for organizations or movements, or ideological clubs,, doesn't mean I don't understand the constitution or bill of rights etc......I am however anti - corruption. That- irregardless of whichever political issue. ...and the corruption and undue influence problems reach into every corner in politics- from dirty town, down to local municipalities and county administration. The only thing that's really going to have a chance at solving the massive problems- in my view- is a consensus of the people, and enough people in government to force it all to be exposed. Transparency. Open books. Accountability. Insider trading needs to be prosecuted- irregardless of wether you are a sitting representative or not. The grifting that occurs needs to be eradicated. Really...where do people think they get all the information? Well...we know.

There's a kind of awareness lag that occurs in all of this: unless you are directly involved in the field like yourself and actually have ethics, or as old as me, and have paid attention to it all...people assume it's not as bad as you or myself would attest to. People are generally busy living their lives.

You explained yourself pretty well. The devil is in the details, the connections, the meetings, the quid pro quo. Business, corporate, even international interests , and special interest groups utilize"lobbying" under the guise of "petitioning the government " ....in order to influence representatives for their own benefit. It's gotten way out of hand , breeding corruption. There's even an inside and outside club that exists in d.c. it's been a chronic problem for years.

Elected representatives first, some would say only duty, is to carry out their chosen service [ by virtue of being elected by those they are to represent] i.e. public service - constitutionally, within the framework and scope of their office. That is not occurring efficiently or ethically. Laws, ordinances, mandates, state contract requirements that arise from special interest lobbyists [ +many other issues] are being green lighted and fast-tracked ahead of the basic duties they are entrusted with. We are currently discussing the root of the problem concerning this.

Homeless veterans? Should be zero. Undocumented immigration? Shouldn't happen. 100,000 drug overdose deaths? Almost seems like someone is facilitating this. Anyone have a homeless epidemic in their area? No one seems to know where BILLIONS of dollars set aside in local municipalities goes with absolutely no effect on the problem. Your housing crisis is directly from a combination of corruption in the political sphere, the corporate sphere, and local assessment authorities that love the false valuation assessments that produce more tax revenue that they can vanish through a complex system of regulations, laws, ordinances, general funds, waste write offs, and payouts through multi million and multi billion dollar contracts to.....business and corporations. It's a circle of corruption. Not everyone can see it.

The issues are so extensive, I would die writing a book. I'm not from south Carolina, have no idea what your political views are personally or publicly. I hope you have an ethical fire in you that possibly may start a larger one. It's nature. Eventually the Forest has to get cleaned out.