The eye-popping procession of Republican talent at this year's National Rifle Association convention is especially timely, with law enforcement across the country increasingly under fire, former Navy SEAL and FBI agent Jonathan Gilliam says.
"It's more important all the time with the way that law enforcement is being restricted and law enforcement is afraid to do their job a lot of the time," Gilliam said Friday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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Gilliam's comments come in the wake of several suspects being killed by police officers — from Michael Brown in Missouri to Eric Garner in New York to Walter Scott in South Carolina last Saturday.
"These different things that are happening — most of them are good shoots or the officers reacted wisely — but somebody died and they blow it up into something bigger, and now cops are more and more afraid to do their job," Gilliam said.
"As things become more violent and more dangerous in this country and law enforcement backs off, it's going to be more important for people to understand what groups like the NRA are about."
On Friday, a parade of GOP stars fired up a cheering crowd in Nashville as they trumpeted the importance of the Second Amendment's guarantee of the right to bear arms and how it must not be diluted.
They included Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Ben Carson, a renowned neurosurgeon now active in conservative politics.
"When we have politicians that go there and actually take a deep breath and go speak at something like this, you're going to see people watching this or take an interest that they probably wouldn't have before," Gilliam said.
"People need to start looking at this and being educated on this. Whether or not you like the NRA or you agree with the Second Amendment or not, people need to start looking into this and stop just making gut opinions and gut reactions."
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