Just days after mass gun violence again captured Americans' attention, the National Rifle Association's online magazine declared that the “real epidemic” in the United States is “extreme anti-gun groups.”

In a December 1 article at America's 1st Freedom, the NRA attacked a petition created by the National Gun Victims Action Council that calls for President Obama to declare gun violence an “epidemic” under The National Emergencies Act. (As the NRA article concedes, presidents invoking this act must still operate within the bounds of the U.S. Constitution, and according to USA Today the act is invoked so often to give the executive branch increased flexibility that there are around 30 current “national emergencies.”)

The term epidemic is often used to describe the level of gun violence in the United States, especially by medical organizations, given that there are more than 30,000 gun deaths each year, with an approximate 70,000 additional Americans wounded by gunfire annually.

The NRA's characterization of the country's “real epidemic” comes just days after a heavily-armed gunman opened fire with an AK-47 style assault weapon at a Planned Parenthood health center in Colorado, killing three people -- including a police officer -- and wounding nine others. The suspect in that incident, who has a long history of criminal charges and other troubling behavior, was arrested with a duffel bag filled with handguns and rifles.

From the December 1 edition of America's 1st Freedom: