Let me begin with one fact. There was an armed security guard at Columbine High School in 1999, and another was nearby. They were unable to prevent the massacre there. There is no way that Wayne LaPierre does not know this. Therefor he has to know that his so-called solution to gun violence is hogwash. From that it follows that he and the leadership of the NRA would rather see Americans slaughtered than allow the gun industry to lose a penny in bloody profit.
Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, would have been better advised to remain wherever he had been hiding after the Newtown, Conn., massacre, rather than appear at a news conference on Friday. No one seriously believed the N.R.A. when it said it would contribute something “meaningful” to the discussion about gun violence. The organization’s very existence is predicated on the nation being torn in half over guns. Still, we were stunned by Mr. LaPierre’s mendacious, delusional, almost deranged rant. Mr. LaPierre looked wild-eyed at times as he said the killing was the fault of the media, songwriters and singers and the people who listen to them, movie and TV scriptwriters and the people who watch their work, advocates of gun control, video game makers and video game players.
The N.R.A., which devotes itself to destroying compromise on guns, is blameless. So are unscrupulous and unlicensed dealers who sell guns to criminals, and gun makers who bankroll Mr. LaPierre so he can help them peddle ever-more-lethal, ever-more-efficient products, and politicians who kill even modest controls over guns.
His solution to the proliferation of guns, including semiautomatic rifles designed to kill people as quickly as possible, is to put more guns in more places. Mr. LaPierre would put a police officer in every school and compel teachers and principals to become armed guards… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Times>
Photo credit: Mother Jones
Like most other influential Republicans, he claims the damage they have done is everyone else’s fault.
Lawrence O’Donnell discussed LaPierre’s shameful diatribe with Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Eugene Robinson.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Here’s an easy way to derail La Pierre’s absurd proposal. I ball-parked the cost of putting an armed guard in every school in America at around $7 billion. Would LaPierre agree to funding that effort with a tax on every gun and every round of ammunition sold. Frankly, I think his insane rant yesterday would appear calm and collected in comparison to his reaction to that suggestion.
Finally, let me say that I am not referring to you of you are one of the majority of NRA members, whom LaPierre’s proposal does not represent. The only thing you are doing wrong is staying in an organization that does not represent your views.
16 Responses to “A Voice of Pure Evil”
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Watching his speech yesterday made me want to barf. We can't call it a press conference because he refused to take questions from the press. There is no one on the Right Wing Nut Job side who is able to accept any blame for anything they do. Why is that? Is it because their black little hearts feel no remorse for the destruction they cause? Or does Supply-side Jesus condone their actions because they follow his teaching of "Do unto others before they do it to you"? Sorry, I digress.
I found this page when I decided to find out how much LaPierre was paid to promote violence.
"This website is the property of the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. It is in no way affiliated with the National Rifle Association (NRA) or any other organization"
http://meetthenra.org/nra-member/Wayne%20LaPierre
In the words of our Weeper of the House, "I was flabbergasted!".
Me too. Thanks for the excellent article.
Evil it is! To have expected anything other is being naive. Same with both repugs,dims and the bama. We're not even going to be able to keep what we have now with these guys but that's another issue.
Remember too the badges at Columbine hid behind cars until the shooting stopped before they entered.
Note to the NRA:
Columbine had an armed guard on campus … FAIL
Virginia Tech had its own entire armed Police Department … FAIL
Ft. Hood is a MILITARY base – so lots of guns … FAIL
That's 0 for 3 … FAIL!!!
AMEN!!
Fly, I agree with most of that, except that, since I try to dwell in the realm of the possible when it comes to political support, Obama and the Democrats are the only firewall we have between us and totalitarian fascist plutocracy.
I agree with the article and the comments – evil has been added to evil. It seems to me that the Far Right would allege they could cure a drunk by putting him in a liquor store!
Thanks Pat. That's an excellent example.
First, if you hold a "press conference" and then refuse to take any questions at all (as LaPierre did) – then that is no longer a "news conference" … that's an Infomercial. Or in the NRA's case, a MISinfomercial.
Second, if it's true that "Guns don't kill people – people do" than rather as the NRA proposes to have volunteers "work with schools to arm and train school guards" – why don't they have their volunteers help Mental Health Centers to aid people since the NRA contends they are seen as the sole cause of mass killings.
…aka propaganga!
…and their party kicked the mentally ill out of hospitals and put them on the street.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/21/nra-full-statement-lapierre-newtown?intcmp=239
I would say that one of those monsters is Wayne LaPierre. He is truly insane. His plan would only increase the death count and be akin to vigilante justice.
Consider this. If the public did not respond so favourably to this type of "news and entertainment", the media conglomerates would change it because they are in the business of making money from the entertainment of their viewers. What the media conglomerates sell is a reflection of the values of various segments of society and not necessarily of the media companies themselves.
Please don't get me wrong, nobody can place a monetary value on a human life because life is invaluable. But when you consider that there have been 62 mass shootings over the past 10 or 20 years I believe, not all in schools, and the number of schools in the US, the possible $7 billion cost for guards in every school is a lot of money not really being spent wisely. In addition, cities and states have been laying off police and firefighters for budgetary reasons.
IMO, humble or not, there needs to be a complete paradigm shift in how Americans think about guns and gun control. When you consider that the 2nd amendment guaranteeing the right to bear arms was written at a different time and under different circumstances, it is less relevant than it was in 1789.
As I said in yesterday's open thread, if guns were regulated like cars — registration of each gun, training, written test, practical test, health requirements, liability insurance, renewals and inspections — not only do I find this very reasonable, but in my estimation, it does not contradict the constitution. Although I am sure that some idiot, like Wayne LaPierre, will say it does because it puts conditions on the right to bear arms.
But looking at the second amendment, the right to bear arms seems to be in the context of a militia, a citizen militia. Is such a citizen militia in place? That being the case, is it reasonable to assume ALL gun owners could be 'called up' to duty if the country was invaded, and be subject to military command and the rules of war?
I don't think so. And I'll bet that LaPierre would be running in the other direction.
Amen to all the above.
There are 16,799 firearms homicides per year, more than 2/3 of all homicides. In addition there are over 17,000 firearms suicides per year. School shootings, however high profile, are only a tiny fraction of the gun carnage in the US.
The intent of the second amendment was to keep State militias strong, in place of a federal army, which States saw as a threat to losing the ability to act militarily on their own. It's (2nd amendment) original reason for being hasn't existed for over 200 years, and it's original intent was never to ensure every single American had a right to own a gun.
Reading:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/overcoming-delusions-abou_b_2322195.html:
AMEN!
Always amazes me how statist justices like Scalia & Thomas want our Constitution preserverd in amber so it can never change …
EXCEPT when it goes against their own proclivities.
"A well regulated militia …" is eminently damn clear on what the Founding Fathers intended.
And that does NOT iniclude "hunters" obtaining 100-clip assault weapons from the trunk of a car at some damn gun show with no checks at all.
Well said, and I agree. The part of the 2nd Amendment that the NRA types so conveniently ignore is that bit about "well-regulated." There is nothing about our current situation that is even slightly well regulated. Until the gun culture is able to step back from their absolute opposition to any kind of reasonable regulation of firearms ownership and use, we will be in an adversarial deadlock where nobody wins.
Plop my butt into the Amen corner. Sadly, the Republican dominated courts have so badly misrepresented the Amendment's meaning, that it is about individual gun rights for all practical purposes. The only way that will change is to change SCOTUS.