Last week, when the infamously anti-regulatory National Rifle Association stated that bump fire stocks — the rearm accessory that gave the Las Vegas shooter fully automatic firing capability — should be subject to additional regulations, politicians and reporters heralded a change of direction for the group. News outlets reported a surprising reversal, and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy touted “the first significant crack in the NRA’s political facade,” predicting that the anti-gun movement is now on its way to countering the pro-gun lobby.

With Las Vegas, the NRA has finally found a massacre terrible enough to warrant a minor concession on accessories that make little money for weapons manufacturers. By admitting the necessity of bump stock regulation — though explicitly opposing an outright ban — the NRA appears open to reasonable change, taking one vaguely positive step forward after decades of militantly aggressive steps back. Their concession, however, pushes popular discourse farther away from more effective solutions to gun violence. Recall after 20 first-graders were murdered inside their Sandy Hook classrooms, the vast majority of Americans — including 74 percent of NRA members — supported legislation for universal background checks on rearms purchasers. Unsurprisingly, this legislation died in the Senate without NRA support. In 2016, North Carolina Senator Richard Burr — one of many senators financially rewarded for their vote against the bill — received $6.2 million from the NRA.

The NRA and the repressive Saudi Arabian monarchy utilize similar strategies: politically disenfranchise the public politically and financially, through lobbyists or control of oil revenues, and justify their actions with so-called national values, citing the Second Amendment or the Quran.