Friday, December 21, 2012

NRA: Arm The Schools

The NRA promised to provide us with “meaningful contributions that would prevent tragedies like the Sandy Hook murders from ever happening again.”
This morning, in one of the most self serving and bizarre news conferences that we have ever witnessed, NRA Executive Director Wayne LaPierre told us that the way to stop events like Sandy Hook from ever happening again is to provide armed security at every school in America.

(NOTE: There WAS an armed security guard on site at the time of the Columbine shooting.)  
Mr. LaPierre called on congress and local authorities to provide the funding that would put armed guards at each and every school in America by the time the children return from their holiday vacations.  He noted that the NRA sponsors a nationally acclaimed security training program that they would be willing to offer free of charge.
Mr. LaPierre said that: “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.”

As one pundit noted: "According to the NRA, the way to protect our children is to marshall an army of George Zimmerman's and turn them loose in our schools."
At no time did Mr. LaPierre address the assault weapons or the place they play in the proliferation of violence in our country.  In fact he blamed the media for propagating the unfounded vilification of assault weapons and the individuals who own them.  Mr. LaPierre attributed the cause of the mass shootings to deranged monsters and the media that glorifies them.  He also blamed the entertainment industry that produces graphically violent video games and once again the media for failing to report on the affects of these videos on our children.  Finally he blamed the parents who allow their children to watch these videos.
Mr. LaPierre took no questions and was interrupted twice by protestors carrying signs.
It is hard for us to know where to start.
First of all mass murders like Sandy Hook do not just occur in schools. If we are to follow Mr. LaPierre’s logic then we should have armed guards at every mall, cinema, grocery store, church, temple, mosque, civic center etc.  Are we to become an armed society where everyone carries a gun as a matter of course?  In Mr. LaPierre’s world…yes.
Second, the United States of America is not the only country that produces violent video games.  Japan and Great Britain produce the vast majority of violent video games viewed worldwide. Yet their gun related instances are infinitesimal when compared to ours.  Could it be that is because they have very stringent gun laws?
Finally, we are not the only nation that has citizens that are mentally challenged.  Once again their gun related instances pale in comparison to ours.
Our violent crime rates are off the charts compared to those in every other industrialized country.  The only difference is the proliferation of firearms in our society.  Mr. LaPierre would like to see that number increase.
This was not a press conference.  It was an advertisement on behalf of the NRA presented by a cold, self serving man who is out of touch with the majority of Americans.
The Republican Party dances to the tune of the NRA.  Their members court “A” ratings from the NRA and count on NRA funding for their campaigns.  Republicans are so in bed with the NRA that they have remained noticeably silent on the Sandy Hook shootings this week awaiting today’s much anticipated words of wisdom.
Now Republicans have their marching orders.
The way to combat the proliferation gun violence in our society is by increasing the proliferation of guns in our society. Brilliant!
This is the "meaningful contribution" that the NRA waited a week to tell us...the same nonsense that they preach after every gun related tragedy.  Their answer to gun violence is to put more guns on the streets.

Congratulations to Wayne LaPierre and the NRA.  With today's out of touch tone deaf "press conference" you may have galvinized the anti-gun community in a way that they have never been galvinized before.  
   
  

             

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