Thursday, February 22, 2018

Gun Violence Up; NRA BS Intense; Trump Fails: Gun Sales Not Up: But Deaths Mount

Congress always solves the wrong problem - no surprise there 

NRA's same simple message to the GOP
(More guns to stop more bad guys with guns) 

NRA chief Wayne LaPierre at CPAC conference pushed the same agenda on school security as Trump did – as he claimed schools were “wide open targets, adding evil walks among us and God help us if we don’t protect our schools. Schools must be the most hardened targets in this country, and evil must be confronted with all necessary force to protect our kids.” 

LaPierre CPAC address here from PBS NewsHour: 


Meanwhile at the White House: Trump doubled down on his proposal to address school shootings by giving some teachers guns on Thursday, tweeting that it would be a “great deterrent” to killers (also refer to notes 5 - 10 below):

“What many people don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, is that Wayne, Chris Cox and the folks who work so hard at the @NRA are Great People and Great American Patriots. They love our Country and will do the right thing. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Related from Trump then more from LaPierre:

1.  President Trump tweeted Thursday that the heads and members of the NRA are “Great People and Great American Patriots”
2.  Trump said the NRA would “do the right thing”
3.  The powerful gun lobby has vigorously opposed gun controls in the past
NRA has yet commented on Trump banning “bump stocks”
4.  FYI: The NRA spent $31 million to back Trump and oppose Hillary Clinton in 2016 
5.  Trump's proposed at White House event to arm teachers 
6.  The next day Trump tweeted “never said I wanted to give teachers guns”
7.  Trump floated the concealed carry proposal hosting grieving students and parents from the FL school shooting at the White House
8.  Trump said teachers with guns would be a “GREAT DETERRENT” to shooters
9.  Trump said if teachers were armed “ATTACKS WOULD END” 
10.  Trump said teachers with guns would confront a “savage sicko”

Wow – what load – load of BS mostly. Now back to CPAC & NRA nutty CEO:     

LaPierre in his speech above emphasized that the NRA had helped build the current background check system but also said We all have to be careful that this doesn’t become a runaway train. What if all of your medical records ... do we really want all that on a government list, in a government database? I even heard a TV pundit suggest that people seeking to buy a firearm should be interviewed first. Who’s going to conduct that interview and what will they ask? This growing socialist state dreams of manipulating schoolchildren to squeeze them for information about their parents asking: do mommy and daddy own a gun? And all of this private information will be entered on to that ultimate list, that cloud of data storage ... and then it’s just a short hop to the systematic destruction of our basic freedoms in this country. If these so-called European socialists take over the House and the Senate and god forbid they win the White House again our American freedoms will be lost forever, and the first to go will be the second amendment to the US constitution.

He then he ended his speech by repeating the notorious mantra he had issued after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012:  
“To stop a bad guy with a gun it takes a good guy with a gun.”

My conclusion: La Pierre has one focus and only one focus: More guns and the more the merrier at any cost or outcome, period. A very sick narrow view of life.

We have a long way to go on this issue and have for years and yet the deaths rise and so do gun sales – that does not speak well for us as a contemporary people.

A long fight lies ahead and well, as we wait for the next school or other mass shooting …

Thanks for stopping by.

No comments: