The National Rifle Association broke its silence today on last week's shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school. The group's top lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre blamed video games, movies and music videos for exposing children to a violent culture day in and day out. "In a race to the bottom, many conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate, and offend every standard of civilized society, by bringing an even more toxic mix of reckless behavior and criminal cruelty right into our homes," he said.
NRA Blames Movies, Games For Gun Deaths
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s largest gun-rights lobby called Friday for armed police officers to be posted in every American school to stop the next killer “waiting in the wings.”
The National Rifle Association broke its silence on last week’s shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 children and staff dead.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” the group’s top lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre, said at a Washington news conference.
LaPierre said “the next Adam Lanza,” the man responsible for last week’s mayhem, is planning an attack on another school.
“How many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame from a national media machine that rewards them with wall-to-wall attention and a sense of identity that they crave, while provoking others to try to make their mark,” LaPierre said. “A dozen more killers, a hundred more? How can we possibly even guess how many, given our nation’s refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill?”
He blamed video games, movies and music videos for exposing children to a violent culture day in and day out. “In a race to the bottom, many conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate, and offend every standard of civilized society, by bringing an even more toxic mix of reckless behavior and criminal cruelty right into our homes,” LaPierre said.
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He refused to take any questions after speaking. Though security was tight, two protesters were able to interrupt LaPierre’s speech, holding up signs that blamed the NRA for killing children. Both were escorted out, shouting that guns in schools are not the answer.
LaPierre announced that former Rep. Asa Hutchison, R-Ark., will lead an NRA program that will develop a model security plan for schools that relies on armed volunteers.
The 4.3 million-member NRA largely disappeared from public debate after the shootings in Newtown, Conn., choosing atypical silence as a strategy as the nation sought answers after the rampage. The NRA temporarily took down its Facebook page and kept quiet on Twitter.
Since the slayings, President Barack Obama has demanded “real action, right now” against U.S. gun violence and called on the NRA to join the effort. Moving quickly after several congressional gun-rights supporters said they would consider new legislation to control firearms, the president said this week he wants proposals to reduce gun violence that he can take to Congress by January.
Obama has already asked Congress to reinstate an assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 and pass legislation that would stop people from purchasing firearms from private sellers without a background check. Obama also has indicated he wants Congress to pursue the possibility of limiting high-capacity magazines.
Comments (3)
Robert Pumo says:
December 21, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Well, I just lost a bet– I thought for sure this time the NRA would admit a tiny bit of responsibility for the events in Connecticut, but they went their typical route; blaming everybody but themselves, and proposing to arm even more people around our children.
Ellen Samrock says:
December 21, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Exactly. The NRA can busy itself pointing their fingers everywhere else, but the truth is there is blood on those fingers. The US could have had a meaningful ban on assault weapons years ago but thanks to the NRA the law that was enacted was relatively weak and only set to run for a 10 year period. The ban expired in 2004. Now that this tragedy has once again pushed the issue of assault weapons front and center, maybe this time we’ll get some legislation that is meaningful and permanent. And instead of arming guards at schools maybe we can use armed guards to keep the NRA lobbyists out of Washington as the issue is debated and voted on. Now there’s a use for guns I can get behind.
Gene Johnson says:
December 21, 2012 at 4:47 pm
The NRA is one of the most irresponsible, if not the most irresponsible lobbying organizations around, particularly given its asserted “influence” in Congress, and the lethal nature of the “product” for which it lobbies (the unfettered and unregulated sale and ownership of guns, including assault weapons, cop killer bullets and high capacity ammunition clips, for which there is no logical or rational purpose for the average homeowner or hunter).