I didn't watch the NRA's news conference, but I did read the transcript. (You can read it at The Washington Post's site, though I prefer the transcript PDF at the NRA's own site, which has a lot more italics.) It's easy to mock Wayne LaPierre for desperately seeking things other than the proliferation of guns to blame -- Hollywood movies (including Natural Born Killers, which came out the year Adam Lanza turned two), video games (including a crude, primitive, unpopular game from 2002) and even music videos (I guess the ones from 2001 and earlier, given the fact that no one's seen a music video on TV since then).
The headline recommendation from LaPierre's press conference is this:
I call on Congress today to act immediately, to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every school -- and to do it now, to make sure that blanket of safety is in place when our children return to school in January.We can laugh, we can be appalled, but all over America the response of the usual noisy minority of gun extremists is: Yes, exactly. Here's what that means: it means that, in many school districts in America, LaPierre and the NRA have created another school-shooting scapegoat: any parent who questions the NRA's approach. In many cities and towns, pro-gun people are going to demand that skeptics accept this approach. They're going to say that skeptics are literally putting children at lethal risk.
Before Congress reconvenes, before we engage in any lengthy debate over legislation, regulation or anything else, as soon as our kids return to school after the holiday break, we need to have every single school in America immediately deploy a protection program proven to work -- and by that I mean armed security.
(I know: they've been saying this for years about gun-free zones. But this ups the ante: it's not just that guns should be allowed in schools, it's that they should be required.)
Oh, and the NRA is branding this:
The NRA is going to bring all of its knowledge, dedication and resources to develop a model National School Shield Emergency Response Program for every school that wants it. From armed security to building design and access control to information technology to student and teacher training, this multi-faceted program will be developed by the very best experts in their fields.I don't think this means the NRA is going to pay the armed para-cops, buy the weapons, buy the ammo, or pay to insure and indemnify the armed personnel. Nevertheless, I guarantee that, all over Red America, there'll soon be schools sporting some snazzy new NRA National School Shield Program logo somewhere on the building or grounds. And if any mass shooting takes place in any school or mall or hospital or church in America (in the world, really) that hasn't adopted this NRA program, the smugness from program participants is going to be insufferable. (If a shooting happens at an NRA-program location, well, that fact will be swept under the rug.)
Former Congressman Asa Hutchinson will lead this effort as National Director of the National School Shield Program, with a budget provided by the NRA of whatever scope the task requires....
Under Asa's leadership, our team of security experts will make this the best program in the world for protecting our children at school, and we will make that program available to every school in America free of charge.
We're talking, of course, about either (a) a volunteer George Zimmerman in every school or (b) a paid cop in every school. Business Insider estimates that the latter would cost about $5 billion overall. My first thought was that we should defray the cost of this with a hefty tax on the gun industry -- but then I read that the gun industry claims to generate only about $32 billion in direct or indirect economic activity. So we'd be talking about a 15% tax on all gun-related economic activity.
Hmmm ... maybe that's not such a bad idea.
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ALSO, TOO:
Columbine had an armed guard. VA Tech had a SWAT team. Didn't stop heavily armed spree shooters motherjones.com/mojo/2012/12/n…
— AdamSerwer (@AdamSerwer) December 21, 2012
RT @sshavelson: And there may have been some guns available at Ft Hood.
— davidfrum (@davidfrum) December 21, 2012
My initial reaction is, can you imagine what type of person will "volunteer" to be armed, and protect the schoolchildren?
ReplyDeleteSay what you will about them, neither the Catholic priests, nor Jerry Sandusky, walked around, packing heat... let me rephrase that - carrying GUNS!
My next reaction is, is it either to late to hope for that killer comet, or for the Mayan Apocalypse?
And if we can't talk about gun control, can we at least talk about secession?
Let them go and form their own country - RedAndWhitesOnlyJesusGlockSerfistan.
Moronic response from the NRA, but you have to give them points for consistency.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they (the NRA) realize just how many schools there are in the country. NYC alone has over 1,000; I'm not sure if it's 1,300 or 1,400 or maybe even more now. That's a lot of schools.
ReplyDeletePurpleGirl,
ReplyDeleteWhat makes me laugh, is this talk of arming the teachers.
Less than two months ago, they were SocialistFascistCommunist Union scum thugs - and now, they want to arm all of them?
One sub-atomic particle of consistency would be greatly appreciated.
Every middle and high school in my county already has an armed, sworn police officer in it every day, including my daughter's high school, one of the state's largest. One cop in the main office isn't going to stop a guy with a 100-round drum in the science building. God, I wish stupid and disingenuous were agonizingly painful.
ReplyDeleteSure let's get the kids accustomed to chain link, razor wire, metal detectors, and guys in black Kevlar with high powered assault rifles in the halls.
ReplyDeleteThen when they get to prison, it won't be such a shock.
The NRA can say all they want but the facts remain Brutal and crystal clear.
ReplyDeleteOne country I've spent time in (Australia) has gun CONTROL not "No guns." it hasn't had a mass shooting in real terms since they brought in the the laws. OH yes they're still a democracy AND they don't have armed anything in their schools...no need.
Not even metal detectors nor lock downs go figure?!
PS they still have all the problems like violent computer games and mentally ill ...Oops I forgot they have Universal health care including Psychiatric... the disgusting decadent lot!
Guess where my children migrated to?
Fat low information buck seventy-five an hour white dogs who can't be cops, were rejected by the military and probably even the airport groppers... in short what they're put there to "guard" against.
ReplyDeleteSome math. USA pop ~ 300M. Lets say ~ 1M schools. So, given we need at least 1 cop per school and we have to provide those cops with at least some days per year of vacation, sick leave etc. we need, lets say, 1.25M guys/gals who actually pound the beat.
ReplyDeleteSo, we are going to recruit, train and deploy 1M+ cops in the next few weeks. And of course it will cost nothing.