Head of NRA Pins CT Massacre on Pols, Monsters and Media, But Not Guns
Head of NRA Pins Connecticut Massacre on Politicians, Monsters and Media, But Not Guns
Breaking his organization's week-long silence in the aftermath of the shooting spree at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. that left 26 people, including 20 first-grade students, dead, Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, finally addressed media today.
"The National Rifle Association-4 million mothers, fathers, sons and daughters-join the nation in horror, outrage, grief and earnest prayer for the families of Newtown," LaPierre said in a ballroom at the Willard Hotel in downtown Washington. "Out of respect for the 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 silent. Now, we must speak."
In 25 rambling minutes-the full text is here-LaPierre blamed elected officials, the entertainment industry and journalists-especially journalists-for creating a society that he said leaves schoolchildren vulnerable to the actions of people like 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who carried out the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School before taking his own life.
"Politicians have issued laws for gun-free school zones," LaPierre said. "They post signs advertising them, and in doing so they tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk." (OP note: I caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan't)
Because schools and other public spaces are declared gun-free areas, LaPierre said, children are left virtually abandoned to the wills of people like Lanza: "We as a society leave them every day defenseless."
LaPierre's solution: More guns, virtually everywhere. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," he said.
Lamenting that too few schools, in his estimation, are protected by armed police officers, LaPierre called on Congress to authorize the funding to place a gun-carrying guard in every single one of the United States some 99,000 public schools.
In the mean time, LaPierre announced that the NRA will be establishing a program to help schools establish safety protocols that include the presence of armed guards. The goal, LaPierre said, is to "create a national school shield safety program with the only line of defense that's proven to work." In other words, if governments will not spend billions on placing full-time cops in every school, the NRA will take things into its own hands.
LaPierre touched very briefly on mental illness, which has been been more widely discussed in the wake of the Connecticut tragedy than after other mass shootings. "Our society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters," he said, calling for the establishment of a "national database of the mentally ill."
Some states that do keep track of mentally ill people who are potentially dangerous to themselves and others have themselves been the sites of scenes of carnage like the one visited upon Newtown last week. Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman in the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech, had been flagged by Virginia's database but was not prevented from obtaining the weapons he used to gun down 32 people before killing himself.
LaPierre was briefly interrupted by protesters from the organization Code Pink. "We need to stop the killing, the NRA is killing our children," one of them said before being removed from the ballroom.
But LaPierre's sharpest words were reserved for media, which he accused of antagonizing the NRA and skewing the facts about Lanza's rampage at Sandy Hook. "Rather than face their moral failings, the media demonize gun owners," he said. "The media call semiautomatic firearms machine guns. They tell us that the .223 round"-the size of the bullets used by Lanza last week-"is one of the most powerful rifle calibers. They don't know what they're talking about."
LaPierre also cited video games like Mortal Kombat and films like American Psycho as contributing factors.
He also accused journalists of waging an open campaign against the NRA and gun owners. "What if when Adam Lanza started shooting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School he had been confronted by armed security?" LaPierre asked. "Is the press and the political class here in Washington, D.C. so consumed by fear and hatred of the NRA and American gun owners that you're willing to accept a world that the only defense to evil monsters is an unarmed school principal?"
LaPierre, who did not take any questions from reporters, said that he expected to be unenthused by the coverage of his address. "I can imagine the headlines, the shocking headlines you'll print tomorrow," he said. "Your implication will be that guns are evil."
He only had to wait a few minutes.
source
Breaking his organization's week-long silence in the aftermath of the shooting spree at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. that left 26 people, including 20 first-grade students, dead, Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, finally addressed media today.
"The National Rifle Association-4 million mothers, fathers, sons and daughters-join the nation in horror, outrage, grief and earnest prayer for the families of Newtown," LaPierre said in a ballroom at the Willard Hotel in downtown Washington. "Out of respect for the 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 silent. Now, we must speak."
In 25 rambling minutes-the full text is here-LaPierre blamed elected officials, the entertainment industry and journalists-especially journalists-for creating a society that he said leaves schoolchildren vulnerable to the actions of people like 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who carried out the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School before taking his own life.
"Politicians have issued laws for gun-free school zones," LaPierre said. "They post signs advertising them, and in doing so they tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk." (OP note: I caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan't)
Because schools and other public spaces are declared gun-free areas, LaPierre said, children are left virtually abandoned to the wills of people like Lanza: "We as a society leave them every day defenseless."
LaPierre's solution: More guns, virtually everywhere. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," he said.
Lamenting that too few schools, in his estimation, are protected by armed police officers, LaPierre called on Congress to authorize the funding to place a gun-carrying guard in every single one of the United States some 99,000 public schools.
In the mean time, LaPierre announced that the NRA will be establishing a program to help schools establish safety protocols that include the presence of armed guards. The goal, LaPierre said, is to "create a national school shield safety program with the only line of defense that's proven to work." In other words, if governments will not spend billions on placing full-time cops in every school, the NRA will take things into its own hands.
LaPierre touched very briefly on mental illness, which has been been more widely discussed in the wake of the Connecticut tragedy than after other mass shootings. "Our society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters," he said, calling for the establishment of a "national database of the mentally ill."
Some states that do keep track of mentally ill people who are potentially dangerous to themselves and others have themselves been the sites of scenes of carnage like the one visited upon Newtown last week. Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman in the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech, had been flagged by Virginia's database but was not prevented from obtaining the weapons he used to gun down 32 people before killing himself.
LaPierre was briefly interrupted by protesters from the organization Code Pink. "We need to stop the killing, the NRA is killing our children," one of them said before being removed from the ballroom.
But LaPierre's sharpest words were reserved for media, which he accused of antagonizing the NRA and skewing the facts about Lanza's rampage at Sandy Hook. "Rather than face their moral failings, the media demonize gun owners," he said. "The media call semiautomatic firearms machine guns. They tell us that the .223 round"-the size of the bullets used by Lanza last week-"is one of the most powerful rifle calibers. They don't know what they're talking about."
LaPierre also cited video games like Mortal Kombat and films like American Psycho as contributing factors.
He also accused journalists of waging an open campaign against the NRA and gun owners. "What if when Adam Lanza started shooting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School he had been confronted by armed security?" LaPierre asked. "Is the press and the political class here in Washington, D.C. so consumed by fear and hatred of the NRA and American gun owners that you're willing to accept a world that the only defense to evil monsters is an unarmed school principal?"
LaPierre, who did not take any questions from reporters, said that he expected to be unenthused by the coverage of his address. "I can imagine the headlines, the shocking headlines you'll print tomorrow," he said. "Your implication will be that guns are evil."
He only had to wait a few minutes.
source