The National Rifle Association, quite conspicuously, said literally nothing in the wake of last week's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary at Newtown, Conn. Instead, the group very carefully took its time, crafted a specific message to present to the public, which would present the NRA and its vision in the best possible light.
And this train wreck is what the group came up with.
To call this a press conference is to mislabel what transpired. The NRA's Wayne LaPierre decided to give a speech, and the group refused at the outset to consider questions from the reporters that had been invited to the event.
It went downhill from there. It was hard to tell at times whether LaPierre was serious or had become a spectacular performance artist, making a dramatic statement about the absurdity of the NRA's increasingly twisted worldview.
Regardless, his performance is worth watching, if only to marvel at its farcical qualities, but don't brush past the substance of his message. As LaPierre sees it, there's a very long list of culprits that bear responsibility for gun violence -- but guns have no place on that list.
The NRA leader this morning blamed gun-free school zones, the media, the entertainment industry, video games, music he doesn't like, existing gun-control laws, and President Obama as all sharing collective responsibility for tragic violence. Guns, however, are fine.
LaPierre was willing to call for a new national database. Of firearms? No. Of gun owners? No. What the NRA wants instead is a new national database of Americans with mental illness.
This was a public-relations fiasco that only John Boehner can properly relate to.
But let's pay special attention to LaPierre's most important policy proposal.
As the NRA leader sees it, the only proper solution to "a bad guy with a gun" is ... wait for it ... "a good guy with a gun." With that in mind, LaPierre's big new idea is armed guards at every school in the United States.
No, seriously, that's what he wants.
Of course, school campuses can be awfully large, and the guards can't be posted at every entrance, so I'm not sure why the NRA isn't also suggesting armed guards be assigned to every student in every school.
Indeed, massacres aren't limited to schools, so it stands to reason that the nation will also need armed guards "deployed" -- a word LaPierre used in his speech -- to movie theaters, shopping malls, and houses of worship.
And what happens when people go home? People are sometimes shot by criminals in their own house, which suggest we'll need armed guards at all U.S. homes, too.
You get the point.
Honestly, it seemed like LaPierre was going out of his way to alienate even people who might be skeptical about new gun laws and sympathetic to his arguments. Gun-control advocates shouldn't have been annoyed by the NRA's public-relations disaster, they should have been thrilled.
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The NRA says the cure for gun violence in schools is more guns in schools.
Other solutions I expect the NRA to propose any day now:
Cure global warming by increasing carbon-gas emissions.
Prevent STDs by having more unprotected sex with multiple partners.
Prevent colera by having everyone drink right from the sewer.
Cure lung cancer by smoking more.
One point I have not seen or heard in the media at all is that the NRA is a front group for gun and ammunition manufacturers' lobbyists. It has turned from a group of citizens who use guns for hunting into a corporate lobbying group which its citizen members are subsidizing. Can you think of any other industry lobby that receives money from ordinary citizens to campaign for the industry benefit only?
The only purpose of LaPierre's NRA is to sell more guns and ammunition. They succeed in that goal by not only suppressing any discussion of gun and ammunition control politically but suppressing any government funded research into what works and doesn't work in gun control. They also succeed in that by ginning up their members into going out and purchasing more guns every time the national conversation turns to gun control and even when it hasn't. They even ginned up their members by threatening that Obama would "take away our guns" when he had not ever lifted a political finger to do so prior to the Newtown massacre.
I would like to see research that correlates the sale of guns with the anti-gun control campaigns, media appearances, mass killings, and speeches of LaPierre. He is a great salesman and he knows how to play on the fears and prejudices of his so-called constituency in order to increase the wealth of his real constituency, the manufacturers.
I have a question for Mr. LaPierre:
"If I see someone coming at me carrying a gun, should I ask him if he is one of the "good guys" the NRA recommends carrying them?
The good guys wear white hats, the baddies wear black,, :>)
Gregg, Oh, thanks for clearing that up. LOL
So then it's OK to shoot anyone with a red hat or a blue hat?
Depends on the hat. If it's one of those beer hats, then I think it's mandatory. :)
Wayne just mooned America in service of his true masters - the "big donation" gun manufacturers, and their revolving-door jobs. What demented teenager doesn't want a Rambo Rifle with a thirty round clip and is willing to pay Wayne's masters big money for it? Then there are the adults crouching in their tinfoil hats to protect them from Martian Mind Rays, as the marines come kicking through the door to take their guns.
Here's what would really happen if one of these hateradio-brainwashed idiots took on the marines:
"Oh, gee another 'prepper aiming a shotgun out the window. Charlie Delta, get a bird in the air and dust that house." --CO
"Gatling, cannon, or rocket, Captain?" --Sgt
"Ah, use 'em all - light it up!" --CO
This guy makes me sick. His answer to the growing gun problem is more guns. You will burn in Hell.
Jason Linkins' piece in huffpo today [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/nra-wayne-lapierre_n_2348277.html] was eye-opening. He'd be a good guest.
lol, these comments are ridiculous.
"If this is such a great country and so much better than everywhere else, why can't we prove it by resolving our disputes in a civilized manner, like—oh, I don't know—reasonable discourse and democratic elections, instead of shooting each other and overthrowing the government all the time?"
Why can't we settle disputes in a civilized manner? Simple answer: human nature.
If you haven't picked up yet that humans are naturally terrifying and instinctively resort to violence, then living in a clueless dreamworld of elections and discourse will sooner or later get you or your kin killed further down the line in history.
Too many of you are used to the comfortable safety of America. It's not fear-mongering to fear anarchy and to "cling to" your guns, it's necessary to defending ourselves, from ourselves.
So take your discourse and elections and see how many kids that keeps from getting killed.
*quoting is not an indication of agreement, nor disagreement; but rather for emphasis*
Yeah lock that was my reaction to. I'm about done with this thread here. The nuts on this issue are just....tooo nutty. I'd rather go back to our religious debates than this.
Understood, agree. Some comfort: Americans have faced many challenges, and I have unbreakable faith we shall fully engage this as well to the betterment and well being of America.
Little FYI...both the Oregon shooter and Sandy Hook shooter STOLE guns to achieve their destruction. In that scenario, background checks are bypassed completely.
Perhaps the real problem here IS with the society itself: bad parenting.
Amendment II.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
it appears that many have fallen for a narrow, and possibly inaccurate, definition of the purpose of the second amendment. there is nothing in the amendment that indicates that it is to protect the people from the State. rather it appears to say that the Militia is to protect the security of the State.
there have been many writings suggesting that the second amendment is to protect the people from the State but none of that language is present in the amendment itself.
justice scalia, being such a strict constructionalist, must be turning himself inside-out to defend this aberrant opinion.
if there are arguments to the contrary i would like to hear them but, please, refer to the amendment and not any other document unless it too is part of the constitution.
I believe we can better understand what the Founders intended by reading various state Constitutions. Virginia was the home of Jefferson and Madison. So what does the Virginia Bill of Rights say about guns?
http://www.nhinet.org/ccs/docs/va-1776.htm
Section 13 states:
"That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free State; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power."
Popular new gift trend for Christmas: body armor for your 5 year old. If the NRA gets their way, that's what I see. Pink for little girls, blue for little boys.
I shudder!
4,000,000 mothers...
He could have stopped there.
I propose we place a tax on the purchase or transfer of all weapons to fund the policeman in every school proposed by the NRA.
Our little town of 20,000 has 8 public schools, so that will pretty much double our police force. a quick Google says $100,000 is the probable cost per Cop.
The tax for the US will only amount to a couple billion dollars annually. If the NRA idiots want guns everywhere they need to pay for it.
#198, Well, we could arm the hall patrols. We wouldn't have to pay the kids.
Of course, that would only work in high school. Let's arm just the teenage boys on the football team!
Well, for the sake of political correctness, let's arm the cheerleaders, too.
They could take turns walking the halls when they have a free period.
What do you say, Wayne? Think you're the only one with great ideas?
Did his proposal include private schools? What about day cares? Head Start? Should there be armed gunmen in watchtowers on playgrounds?
An amazing set of headlines-Gun deaths and violence today in America:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
If ol' Wayne had a mustache, it would be even more spooky!
The NRA finial had a good idea. We do need arm police at every school in the
nation, I heard on the way home from work that it would be about 100,000 new
police personal nationwide to cover all the schools. So how to pay for it? The NRA said congress should do what every it
takes to pay for it and the only solution to this would be a yearly tax on the
guns you own. There is some 350,000,000
guns in the U.S. and it would cost about $10 billion to pay for the new 100,000
police needed so that comes out to about $33 a gun per year. Wow the NRA and the Republican party are
willing to do whatever it takes to staff this every school that is great. Oh Yah that means all guns will need to be
registered so they can be taxed as well.
That's a great idea!
R St. Louis
I think it's important for all of us to keep in mind that Dave King, Wayne La Pierre, and the NRA are the "front man".
It is both the NRA burying it's head in the sand with it's sham of a ad campaign that repulsively infers-"Guns don't kill..." when we see the death that has been caused by a loaded gun aimed and spent in the direction of the human being as in the case of the Sandy Hook children.
We cannot feasibly arm-guard all that we hold precious in the US today from every gun-toting human that would endanger another.
There exists a National one-sized fits all protective measure that will protect our children.
As in removing the cigarette from our children's lung to protect their breathing---we need to protect our children's lives from the bullet that would pierce their bodies as protected by the NRA-remove the guns from the field of play today!!
Stop having the NRA blame all but the toy shooter of their fetish and collector desire. I call on every lawyer that has any merit to work with the cigarette makers in removing their substance from healthful fun to cancer and questionable health risk. Let them fuel the fire to move guns from death free tool to coffin lead for kids and the rest of the family including spot too!
Tell Congress to sue the NRA and the gun makers and the gun lobby today before congress reconvenes. Stop the slaughter on the street and trust our militia to the military complex we have today!! That is the cordon of protection we need from the NRA and the rest of the Gun Lobby today that would super pac their way past the child in the kindergarten classes of the USA!! Children of the USA have civil rights too!!!
This is one of the more STUPID comments I have heard in a while.
I'd love to see every assault weapon taken away -- but even if they passed some kind of ban there are still plenty of mentally ill people that posses a weapon now. I don't know if this idea would work but what about outfitting all schools to be able to "lock down" into a panic room type mode? Classroom doors would have to be steel with covers to come down over the window in the door and some kind of cover coming down over the classroom windows so that each classroom is secure. God help anyone stuck in a hallway and this idea does nothing for other public places but it would be something to work on while the fighting is going on over weapons bans. The money for the project should be paid for by taxing weapons and ammo -- would the NRA object to that?
http://chucksmomentoftruth.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/wayne-lapierre-the-nra-and-archie-bunker/
1-By putting police officers in schools, the police will be the first targets.
2-Our schools have been built for a trusting, non-threatening world. Many of our schools should be analyzed for traffic control inside and outside the schools.
3- NRA should be margianalized for the damage it has done to the US. 31 attacks since Columbine yet gun shows can sell 100's of weapons without checks of any kind.....better business that way.
Wayne LaPierre gave new meaning to NRA - NO RATIONAL ANSWERS!
His response to the senseless slaughter in Newton, CT is MORE guns and armed guards in every school. Brilliant. What’s next, bullet-proof vests for kids?
In noting that we protect our money, our airports, our communities etc. with armed personnel, he reinforced the Second Amendment's "well regulated militia" reference; not gun ownership for every single citizen!
He also criticized the media and blamed video games, movies and music videos for exposing children to a violent culture, as he obviously overlooked the First Amendment right to free expression, though his organization constantly uses the Second Amendment as an excuse for unrestricted gun ownership and refuses to support background checks at gun shows.
While there was a window of opportunity for the NRA to make some concessions for a few common sense solutions, instead, it literally stuck to its guns and called for armed guards in every school in America.
It’s time for conscientious gun owners, the group’s members and Congress to denounce LaPierre and the NRA before the number of innocents slaughtered by guns continues to rise.
"What the NRA wants instead is a new national database of Americans with mental illness."
I completely agree. Anyone who feels the need for assault weapons, body armor, high capacity clips and a stockpile of ammunition is quite likely paranoid and a potential danger to himself and society. These individuals should be evaluated to determine if they have a mental illness and should not be allowed to own a gun.
I have no issue with owning a gun or several guns if you are mentally stable. I own several for hunting and self protection. If you need more than 10 rounds or need to wear body armor when hunting, unless you are hunting with Dick Cheney or the deer are shooting back at you , you don't belong in the woods.
Of course the NRA is correct. As a person with extensive security background both military and civilian, Nukes with a top secret clearance. Installations in Vietnam. Cobra bases, ammo dumps, industrial, commercial and residential security. Hospitals Personnel. Considered an expert in the military with five weapons who has had to arm myself twice since coming home, once to protect my business, life and once to protect someone elses..
Mass murderers are cowards...they will stop coming to schools when they know for certain there are armed personel there. Notice these guys never attack a police station.
Confirmation bias is a terrible thing:
http://digitaljournal.com/article/303052
http://www.freep.com/article/20121112/NEWS02/121112030/Southfield-police-station-shooter-was-a-veteran-in-poor-health-motive-unknown?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
http://www.allvoices.com/news/8331073-gunman-shoots-deputy-in-la-sheriffs-office
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Police-ID-men-killed-in-Vacaville-shooting-3165873.php
http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/Shots-fired-in-McKinney-100887449.html
Where do the VETs come down on background checks for all guns and registration and no internet sales and close the gun show loop holes and assault weapon bans and big clip issues?
Will someone please say that the Second Amendment was written at a time when a man was able to shoot about three rounds a MINUTE! One would hope that the Second Amendment as written then would never pass today with the weaponry that is now available, with no questions asked, at your favorite family gun show coming soon to your community. Every American was entitled only to a MUSKET of their choice: NOT an assault-type weapon. The NRA has blood on its hands once again... Children's blood.
Come on folks - give the guy a break. I actually like the idea ...in fact why just limit it to school, I think I need an armed guard 24x7! Whats even better, lets get all guns registered every quarter, and have a tax surcharge at registration that pays for my 24x7 security. Lets take it one step further - why put another individual to protect me - instead add a surcharge to fund cloning research. The clone can then be trained in any and all weapons as well as brainwashed to take all the bullets for me....how about an on demand download of any skill (fly chopper for example...who knows what else would be needed given the exciting life that I live!) .....hmm this may actually work...why not just create a matrix in which we all live virtual lives...I would like to add my suggestions for consideration along with LaPierre's...