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The blind leading the blind ... with guns

The NRA released a video this week arguing that blind people shouldn't be unarmed. A few days later, the clip was quietly taken down.
A woman fires her handgun during a Multi-State Concealed Carry class at a shooting range in Centennial, CO July 27, 2013.
A woman fires her handgun during a Multi-State Concealed Carry class at a shooting range in Centennial, CO July 27, 2013.
Last year, with the national debate over gun policy still raging and with the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre still fresh in Americans' minds, Stevie Wonder suggested he might try to buy a gun just to help demonstrate the ways in which current laws defy common sense. "Imagine me with a gun," the blind musician said. "It's just crazy."
 
As it turns out, not everyone agrees.
 
NRA commentator Dom Raso released an interesting video this week arguing that just because someone is blind, that doesn't mean he or she should be unarmed.
 
"The biggest concern I hear is having blind people carrying in public," Raso said. "Are you envisioning the person waving the gun around or pointing it at anybody for no reason? Because that's what it sounds like. Do you think because they're blind, they're going to start shooting in every direction and kill everyone? Fact is, it's been proven that people that lack vision have an increased awareness of their hearing and spatial surroundings."
 
Raso went on to describe a scenario in which a blind person might want to shoot an attacker trying to kill or rape him or her.
 
As it turns out, the NRA, which posted the video to its site and YouTube on Monday, took the commentary down this morning.

[O]n Thursday, the two-minute video was replaced by a six-word message: "This video has been removed by user." An NRA spokesman did not immediately respond to a question Thursday about why the video had disappeared.

If you were eager to see the video the NRA quietly removed, you're in luck.
 
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America captured the video before it was taken down:
If Ruso's name sounds familiar, the NRA commentator also generated some controversy recently comparing gun-safety measures to Jim Crow Laws, and in June, Ruso complained that news organizations shouldn't necessarily use the word "shooting" when reporting on mass shootings.