(no subject)

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

After a week of supposedly respectful silence from the NRA in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, CT, the group's executive vice president and public voice, Wayne Lapierre, had promised that today would be a "big announcement" from the organization. Nobody seriously believed the group would endorse even very modest measures like making sure purchases of guns at gun shows were subject to criminal background checks like regular sales. And certainly nobody expected the group to endorse banning large ammunition magazines or any restrictions on the types of weapons sold.

Still, one could have held put hope for an endorsement of tighter background checks and improved access to mental health care resources. One could have, but this is what we got instead:

NRA calls for armed guards at every school in the country.

The astonishing predictability of Mr. LaPierre and the breathtaking lack of imagination in confronting such a complex phenomenon as America's gun violence leads me to conclude that his favorite breakfast cereal must be Mercury O's.

Comments

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

The thing was, this kid was a model NRA kid. He was trained in the proper use of firearms. He was a good shot too, and the guns worked flawlessly. They didn't jam or nuthin.

Basically the NRA is admitting that they have no idea how to protect anyone from their weapons and want everyone in society armed to the teeth.

Its like a bad Dr. Seuss story.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

"Green Eggs and Powder Burns"

"Hop on Pop's Sucking Chest Wound"

"The Cat In The Hat Is Stuffed And Mounted On My Living Room Wall"

"Oh The People You'll Shoot"

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

Since when was he "a model NRA kid"? Do you have proof that he was in the NRA?

When I was eight or nine years old, my asshole step-father (no longer step-father, thank God) taught me how to shoot a BB gun. That was my only foray with guns so far, but I'd like to go target shooting at some point and learn how to clean and care for a gun, possibly purchasing one myself.

Does that make me a member of the NRA? Nope.

Sick of this bullshit. Stop laying everything on the NRA because some poor excuse for a parent took her developmentally disabled child to a gun range. JFC

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Everyone understands that the NRA represents gun manufacturers, not gun owners -- right?

[american-geist.livejournal.com]

No they are standing up for ARE FREEDOM

[telemann.livejournal.com]

There have been calls for rank-and-file members to leave and participate in a different organization that wasn't essentially the arm of the gun companies. And I wonder if some states have considered acting against the NRA much in the same way they went after big tobacco over the costs of lung and heart disease.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Which is why they're so ready to arm guards at our schools...

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Conservatives are going to line up to pay the tax increases necessary to hire and maintain all of those police officers, right?

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Just bill it under National Defense and you can run up the deficit as high as you want.

[tniassaint.livejournal.com]

Limited government limited to their whims and interests.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite part was the realization that the NRA is calling for the federal government to put armed guards in America's schools to protect them from... NRA members.

[rowsdowerisms.livejournal.com]

http://gawker.com/5970497/while-the-nra-was-on-tv-talking-about-the-need-for-more-guns-some-guy-was-walking-up-and-down-a-road-in-pennsylvania-shooting-people (http://gawker.com/5970497/while-the-nra-was-on-tv-talking-about-the-need-for-more-guns-some-guy-was-walking-up-and-down-a-road-in-pennsylvania-shooting-people)
And this happened....

[paft.livejournal.com]

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

[il-mio-gufo.livejournal.com]

i'm telling you - we as a country need an exorcism. what is this?

[awdrey-gore.livejournal.com]

And cue the tin foil hat wearers shouting that Penn shooter was a liberal brainwash plant trained to kill so as to limit their right to build school obliterating arsenals.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Because nothing guarantees peace like turning schools into barracks. Sometimes I think the NRA views guns as magic talismans instead of realizing that a weapon should be treated as just that: a weapon. Designed to kill people. Something to be respected and feared, and not mistaken for a peacemaker.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Gee. Maybe silence on an issue directly related to a heinous national tragedy doesn't mean "respect" after all.

Ya think?

[il-mio-gufo.livejournal.com]

you can't fight fire with fire....and you can't fight guns with guns?

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Actually, in certain situations you *can* fight fire with fire. Controlled burns, for instance.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I think this might be the first time in my lifetime that the NRA has really done something that has hurt the cause it advocates for.

[awdrey-gore.livejournal.com]

Did any part of you bleed as you typed that, Jeff?

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Pretty much.

My thoughts reading the OP... "This has got to be joke right? Someones taken an Onion article seriously again haven't they?"

Clicks link. "Nope"

*Head-desk*

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite part is where they use videogames as a scapegoat.

Like, why just videogames? There are violent movies and television shows out there.

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite part is where they use videogames as a scapegoat.

Gun homicides (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jul/22/gun-homicides-ownership-world-list) in United States - 9,146, Japan 11.

It's a good thing they never heard of video games in Japan

[vehemencet-t.livejournal.com]

I would rather just see schools be allowed to keep a gun cabinet secured under lock and key so that in an emergency teachers or staff who have the password or keys can have the chance to
mitigate a threat, assuming they have some kind of base competency and the safe is stocked
with enough effective weapons.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Riiiight... because when an active shooter busts into the school, teachers will be able to safely get to the office where the guns are stored under lock and key, get the key, access the safe, ready the weapons, and return fire... before the kids or the teachers themselves are slaughtered under a hail of bullets.

I'm a trained Soldier. I might have a SLIM chance of reacting like that in a crisis. The average teacher? NO WAY IN HELL. I can guarantee you that it would only make things worse.

Besides, how many demands do we want to make on teachers? They have to educate this nation's lazy-ass children, coach their fat asses, run after-school activities, take home large piles of homework themselves, deal with demanding parents, play slave to the school boards, and put up with politics fucking with the content of their science lessons. Now, we want them to be trained security guards who use firearms? Sorry, no.

You want to secure a school? Have it so that there's only a single ENTRY point into the building, and you have to be buzzed in if you arrive at any time other than the beginning of the school day (during which time the entrance is monitored). That alone will do more to secure a school than any other measure.