(The NRA and some Congressional Republicans broke their silence reflecting on last week's tradgedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Above, is an exchange between MSNBC "Morning Joe'' host Joe Scarborough, a former Repbulican Congressman from Florida and Rep. Tim Huelskamp, (R-Kan.) Below, is the official statement of the NRA given at the press conference held Friday.)
The National Rifle Association's 4 million mothers, fathers, sons and daughters join the nation in horror, outrage, grief and earnest prayer for the families of Newtown, Connecticut ... who suffered such incomprehensible loss as a result of this unspeakable crime.
Out of respect for those grieving families, and until the facts are known, the NRA has refrained from comment. While some have tried to exploit tragedy for political gain, we have remained respectfully silent.
Now, we must speak ... for the safety of our nation's children. Because for all the noise and anger directed at us over the past week, no one — nobody — has addressed the most important, pressing and immediate question we face: How do we protect our children right now, starting today, in a way that we know works?
The only way to answer that question is to face up to the truth. Politicians pass laws for Gun-Free School Zones. They issue press releases bragging about them. They post signs advertising them.
And in so doing, they tell every insane killer in America that schools are their safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.
How have our nation's priorities gotten so far out of order? Think about it. We care about our money, so we protect our banks with armed guards. American airports, office buildings, power plants, courthouses — even sports stadiums — are all protected by armed security.
We care about the President, so we protect him with armed Secret Service agents. Members of Congress work in offices surrounded by armed Capitol Police officers.
Yet when it comes to the most beloved, innocent and vulnerable members of the American family — our children — we as a society leave them utterly defenseless, and the monsters and predators of this world know it and exploit it. That must change now!
The truth is that our society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters — people so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons that no sane person can possibly ever comprehend them. They walk among us every day. And does anybody really believe that the next Adam Lanza isn't planning his attack on a school he's already identified at this very moment?
How many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame — from a national media machine that rewards them with the wall-to-wall attention and sense of identity that they crave — while provoking others to try to make their mark?
A dozen more killers? A hundred? More? How can we possibly even guess how many, given our nation's refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill?
And the fact is, that wouldn't even begin to address the much larger and more lethal criminal class: Killers, robbers, rapists and drug gang members who have spread like cancer in every community in this country. Meanwhile, federal gun prosecutions have decreased by 40% — to the lowest levels in a decade.
So now, due to a declining willingness to prosecute dangerous criminals, violent crime is increasing again for the first time in 19 years! Add another hurricane, terrorist attack or some other natural or man-made disaster, and you've got a recipe for a national nightmare of violence and victimization.
And here's another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal: There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.
Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here's one: it's called Kindergarten Killers. It's been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn't or didn't want anyone to know you had found it?
Then there's the blood-soaked slasher films like "American Psycho" and "Natural Born Killers" that are aired like propaganda loops on "Splatterdays" and every day, and a thousand music videos that portray life as a joke and murder as a way of life. And then they have the nerve to call it "entertainment."
But is that what it really is? Isn't fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?
In a race to the bottom, media conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate and offend every standard of civilized society by bringing an ever-more-toxic mix of reckless behavior and criminal cruelty into our homes — every minute of every day of every month of every year.
A child growing up in America witnesses 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence by the time he or she reaches the ripe old age of 18.
And throughout it all, too many in our national media ... their corporate owners ... and their stockholders ... act as silent enablers, if not complicit co-conspirators. Rather than face their own moral failings, the media demonize lawful gun owners, amplify their cries for more laws and fill the national debate with misinformation and dishonest thinking that only delay meaningful action and all but guarantee that the next atrocity is only a news cycle away.
My editorial comment: "What her sign, says."
6 comments:
By the way, was this really a press conference? NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre DID NOT take questions from any of the print (or broadcast) journalists assembled.
The benefit of the CEO's lack of answers was that it would guarantee the NRA media attention when they decide to answer the question on their statement.
The idea of putting guns in the school to protect the students I think is extreme. While I believe that there should be a change to prevent a future attack in the school, increasing the amount of guns near students is not a solution to the problem.
Arrghhhhhhh this is kind of a tough one. While I agree that it's seems really risky and dangerous (to say the least) to be putting guns all over the place, and that guns have caused a lot of horrific situations, people who are more defensive of 2nd amendment rights have a few logical reasons for it as well. I'm not sure what exactly the call to action here is (banning all guns, banning guns in certain situations/places, or banning assault rifles), but if it's banning all guns, I feel like that would prevent sane, law-abiding citizens from getting guns for legitimate self-defense (yes, people do actually successfully use guns to defend themselves sometimes), while the really crazy criminals would still find ways to get guns off the black market - "if there's a will, there's a way". Also, before such gun restrictions become effective, there would probably be a massive spike in gun sales (which actually has already happened), which also isn't exactly ideal. I think people feel like adding armed, trained officers/guards ("good guys") in schools would be more effective than trying to take away guns from everyone.
I do think that assault rifles should be banned, though. There is absolutely NO legitimate reason for anyone to be owning an assault rifle, period. A handgun is more understandable (if you live in a sketchy/high-crime area, especially), but assault rifles are just unneeded and ridiculously extreme.
I think it was technically a press conference (looking at the Google definition of being "An interview given to journalists by a prominent person in order to make an announcement or answer questions"), but I do think he should have taken questions. There needs to be legitimate discussion about this issue between both sides.
Solely based on what his statement was...."Putting armed guards in every school", I believe although Wayne LaPierre answer isnt the only solution to this overwhelming problem, honestly I would feel safer if I had a police officer standing next to me if someone did try to kill me in school and I feel a lot of parents would feel the same too if a police officer was in their childs school to protect them if such a horrendous incident did occur. Although it isnt perfect, it does increase chances of stopping the killer.
Im not saying that we shouldnt try to ban assault rifles or pass any legislation, I just think his statement isnt as bad as people are making it to be. I think its just cause he's the leader of the NRA, which kinda has a bad reputation, that people are getting so upset saying that more guns is a terrible idea.
I was actually pleasantly surprised by the NRA CEO's comments. I was expecting some nuts response that disrespected the victims and their families. What we got instead, was a somewhat reasonable proposition. While I wholeheartedly disagree with it, I don't think his statement is oh so horrible. We must ban assualt weapons, and that should be a top priority. Past that, we have a lot of work to do as a nation.
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