Out of respect for the Newtown victims and families, the National Rifle Association waited one week before blaming everything and everyone except guns. The NRA says it kept respectfully silent for a week, while others, presumably gun-control advocates, “tried to exploit the tragedy for political gain.” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre was at the microphone Friday, giving a poorly-timed recruitment speech disguised as a news conference.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," said LaPierre. He went on to say that the solution for schools is to put an armed police officer in “every single school in the nation”. Estimates have put the cost of doing this as high as $18 billion a year, and it should be noted that Columbine High School had armed guards in 1999, so a shoot-out between good guys and bad guys might not work.
While LaPierre was explaining the need for more guns, the rebuttal to this argument was being made by some guy walking up and down a rural Pennsylvania road shooting people. The shooter killed three people before he was fatally shot in a gunfight with state troopers. The gunman was stopped, but as in most of these types of incidents, too late.
The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was the last straw for a majority of Americans. Most want some sort of change in the gun laws. The NRA's poorly timed “news conference” turned out to be a public relations disaster. In the context of tragedy, the country wants a solution, not a sales pitch meant to benefit gun manufacturers.
As protestors repeatedly interrupted his speech, shouting that the NRA was “killing our kids,” LaPierre spewed blame everywhere except for where it belongs, going after the media, video games, and music videos. The solution is more guns - in schools, in businesses, and apparently in Chuck E. Cheeses.
LaPierre makes about $1 million a year as an NRA executive, so he must be doing this for the money. And where does that money come from? Gun owners, gun lobbyists, gun manufacturers... Do any of them have kids? Do they even care? The membership of the NRA can't possibly stand in unity with their cold-hearted buffoon of a spokesman.
If “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”, then what happens to the people standing in the middle? And how do you stop a crazed lunatic with an assault rifle and a kevlar vest? Let's hope your aim is good, because you might only get one shot.
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This is very sad. How does this guy sleep at night?
ReplyDeleteThis was the wrong time for the NRA to hold a news conference. It doesn't matter whether it was a day or a week later, this was incredibly insensitive and in bad taste. They waited a week so they would have time to promote their agenda on a slow news day, after all the funerals and memorials and analysis about the gunman were over. The media should have ignored this LaPierre guy. This isn't news, and it was exactly what was expected from the NRA.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a pathetic response to the tragedy...and the timing couldn't be worse. Most Americans can see that this is nothing more than greed. There's a lot of money at stake if we cut down on the number of guns sold. So a week after the tragedy, they call for more guns. And they are saying gun-control advocates are trying to exploit the tragedy for personal gain. The NRA made a p.r. blunder with their insensitive remarks in response the shooting of 20 small children. They died because of guns, and the NRA looks foolish saying differently.
ReplyDeleteMost Americans are outraged over the NRA statement and the timing. They would have helped their organization much better if they hadn't said anything. With a spokesman who seems completely out of touch, they need to make some changes, or else they won't be in business much longer.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the guns that were allowed to be sold by Obama's administration during the Fast and Furious mess are still being used to kill masses in Mexico.
ReplyDelete"The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was the last straw for a majority of Americans. Most want some sort of change in the gun laws..."
ReplyDeletePlease provide the source of your data.