The NRA held a press conference today to discuss its contributions to the gun control debate in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting. I warned a few days back that the NRA might be planning to sell us out, and suggested spreading the word in an effort to prevent that from happening.
I’m happy to announce today that they did not sell us out, quite the contrary.
Press Conference Summary
The press conference started out with David Keene, the President of the NRA. Keene spoke briefly on the Sandy Hook tragedy, and then passed off to CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.
LaPierre started by addressing the Connecticut shooting and stated that “gun free zones” are largely to blame for the tragedy, saying that “they tell every insane killer in America that schools are their safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.”
LaPierre then turned the focus away from the guns, and onto the culture of violence that we have in America today. He blamed Hollywood, video games, and the music and entertainment industries for creating and feeding this culture of violence. He then blamed the media and insinuated that they were complicit by covering up the true problem.
LaPierre gave an example of this violence in Kindergarten Killer, a disgusting online game hosted at gold-online-games.com where you shoot teachers and children. Here is a screenshot of the instructions for the game and the instructions for Level 1. I couldn’t bring myself to continue any further, it literally made me sick to my stomach. I took screenshots because this game will likely get quietly pulled.
Kindergarten Killer Instructions
Kindergarten Killer Level 1
LaPierre accused the media of not reporting on such problems as this horrible game by saying “It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?” A very good question.
One last thing on the game. The credits at the start of the game say “A Game by Gary Short” – I don’t know who you are Mr. Short, but you are a sick, vile man.
LaPierre then went on to deliver his now famous line, “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun”, and the focus turned back to what can and should be done to keep schools safe. He introduced what the NRA is calling the National School Shield Program, an NRA-sponsored, multi-faceted program that will be developed by industry experts aimed at keeping schools safe.
More below.
Interruptions
No high profile NRA press conference is complete without at least one idiot interrupting with a sign blaming the NRA for killing children, and this one was no exception. There were two interruptions, both rather weak in my opinion, and both were quickly escorted out.
National School Shield Program
The National School Shield Program (NSSP) is a multi-faceted program that will provide a comprehensive security plan to schools, from armed security to building design and access control to information technology to student and teacher training.
The NSSP effort will be led by former Congressman Asa Hutchinson, who will act as Director of the program. The NSSP will have a budget provided by the NRA, of “whatever scope the task requires.”
Hutchinson outlined two elements that this program would encompass.
- The program will be a model security plan, a “comprehensive strategy for school security based on the latest, most up-to-date technical information from the foremost experts in their fields.” This model will serve as a template for any school that is interested, and can be tailored to each school’s specific needs.
- The program will not depend on massive funding from local authorities or the federal government, and will instead by made up of local volunteers.
Wrapping Up
In summary, I’m extremely pleased with the way the NRA handled the press conference, the message they sent to the corrupt media, and the National School Shield Program. It’s days like today that I am reminded why I have been a member of the NRA for many years, and why I will continue to be a member of the NRA. The NRA did not cave in, they stood firm, offering real solutions to very real problems, using their own money to implement.
Is the NRA perfect? Absolutely not, and I have certainly been disappointed with them in the past. But in a society and political climate that is constantly at war with the Second Amendment, we need to seize any ally we can get.
Most importantly, the big takeaway from today’s press conference is this. The NRA’s strong message and stance was a shot across the bow to members of Congress who are considering gun control legislation, and that’s exactly what we needed.
This thoughtful response by the NRA makes our Government look like the foolish morons that they actually are. Figuring out the true problem and offering a plan to resolve it can only come from an organization pledged to the Constitution !
Damn, I am very pleasantly surprised by the response from the NRA. They not only did the “do not blame guns”, use statistics to prove their point (which just leads to the other side spouting their stats), point out “research proving it is not gun owners” – again, other side raises their research, but rather, pointed out the problems with the “violence is the answer” culture (movies and video games being the worst- but since I don’t listen to current music – can’t beat classic rock – I don’t really know what current music suggests other than it is very derogatory to women). I think it was/is also a good idea to point out that the “news” media has a part to play in this, however, I do think this point will be ignored or downplayed at best.
It is nice to see that they have a well thought out plan, and have already started working on that plan. It would be even better if they could meet with the “committee” that the president put together to try and get their plan integrated with whatever the “committee” comes up with, or maybe have the committee support their plan. I also think that they need to involve people from the industry with experience like Clint Smith, Larry Vickers, Rob Pinkos, from the gun/law enforcement industry, people from the security industry, etc. to help work on the plan so that they truly get input from the industry experts to help them “white board” the plan to make sure that nothing is overlooked.
Once again, great job NRA.
Eric
The only issue I have with the NRA response is their “conclusion” that video games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto will lead people to commit crimes like those depicted, or will lead to someone wanting to shoot people. If that were the case, with as many copies as these games have sold, there would be more mass killings than there have been. There is no true correlation between First Person Shooter (FPS) games and actual violence.
Now that these horrible and needless deaths have had a a week to stir in our minds. One thing will always ring true. We are a reactionary society. We need to be a proactive one. No matter how much common sense we try to impart on our officials, they will always jump to a knee jerk reaction so they are seen as doing something. When a tragedy happens, something gets banned. This will be no different. We need to change our mental health pipeline. We need to take a really hard look at the moral decay in the world today. A gun is simply a tool. Your mind is a weapon. It was the mind the invented the gun in the first place. Make a quick search with google. Armed with instructions and a 9th grade understanding of basic chemistry, make trip to the Home Depot, then Walmart, and finaly Pepboys. for a small amount of money you can craft a device that will cause more death and carnage in a shorter amount of time than you ever could armed with a gun. Are they going to ban pvc pipe, household cleaners and contstruction tools too? what about outlawing teaching chemestry in our schools for fear of turning our children into mass killers. Hundreds of people die every year from being hit by drunk drivers. Cars that can tripple the speed limit are sold every day. Yet No one wants to ban liquior and lmited the sale of cars to those cannot exceed the speed limit. By the way, a bottle of liquior doesn’t require the back ground check that a gun does. I could go on but I think you get the poing I am trying to make. THE PROBLEM IS THAT WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY WHO’S MORALS ARE ALL BUT GONE. Yet we wonder why these things continue to happen!!!!!
Calling Hollywood out might have been a bit much…Hollywood has money and political connections. That might have stired up some fight where it didn’t need to be. But, I’m glad the NRA seems to not be talking “compromize”.