Rosanne Cash: Time for Country Artists to Rebuff the NRA

Rosanne Cash has long been an advocate of tougher gun laws, but the shooting in Las Vegas has her making a special plea to her fellow artists in country music. It's time for them to disavow the NRA, she writes in the New York Times. Country artists in particular have been wooed by the group over the years, as evidenced by its folksy "NRA Country" campaign. "That wholesome public relations veneer masks something deeply sinister and profoundly destructive," writes Cash, before delivering her most scathing line: "There is no other way to say this: The NRA funds domestic terrorism."

Cash warns any country artist who speaks out to expect a backlash from the NRA and from fans in its sway. People might burn records or demand ticket refunds and the like. "Find the strength of moral conviction, even if it comes with a price tag, which it will," writes Cash. "Don't let them bully you into silence." The NRA has somehow managed to conflate lax gun laws with patriotism, and country artists can be a force in finally untangling it all. Click to read her full op-ed. (More Rosanne Cash stories.)