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Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 | 8:53 a.m.
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 Friday on last week's shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 children and staff dead.
The group's top lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre, said at a Washington news conference that "the next Adam Lanza," the man responsible for last week's mayhem, is planning an attack on another school.
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," LaPierre said.
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.
He refused to take any questions after speaking. Still, 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.
More than a dozen security officers checked media credentials at various checkpoints and patrolled the hotel ballroom.
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.
And is the NRA going to pay for theese armed guards?
This was their "contribution" to the national conversation on the issue? Why am I surprised??? The "out of touch" with reality crowd wants more of what got us into the mess.
Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% in favor of gun ownership, but the assault weapons, etc. have gotta go. I also know, guns don't kill people... people do... so let's go forward with better ways of identifying the crazy people, though this will probably violate their "freedoms". I'm tired of catering to fringe elements of our society. It's time the center majority start speaking up as loudly as the nut-bags (both right AND left) do.
This is a complex problem, therefore complex solutions are in order... and before you say it, no it won't solve every potential shooting... not even close, but like the President said, "that's no excuse not to try to curtail the problem".
As expected, the NRA recommends still more guns.
An excise tax on hollywood movies could fund it.
Comment removed by moderator. Off Topic
Their proposed solution only covers schools! What about the movie theaters? Do we need armed police at every shopping center.. restaurant.. outdoor meeting place, sports event?
Lets just put armed guards everywhere! Actually we have places just like that.. their called prisons! That seems to be their solution to the problem.
I'll point out the obvious....
After this tragedy occurred, there was not one single word came from Mr. LaPierre and his NRA gaggle of gun goons.
Because they figured they would do just like they did before with other mindless violence involving guns. Keep a low profile. Hunker down in their offices. Wait for the din to die down. Then they would come out and act like nothing happened.
This time was different.
Mr. LaPierre waited ONE FULL WEEK. Then realized it wasn't dying down.
So, what does he do? He comes out and tries to make money off of it by selling more guns. To please the manufacturers he works for.
All very predictable.
Take Mr. LaPierre, the NRA and all those other pro-gun lobbyists out of this equation. Because they aren't a help. They just want to sell guns.
It's way past time we start to ignore these people.
Because if you listen to them, more bodies will pile up.
Tax every fricken bullet and apply the revenue directly to the class rooms and mental health programs. Just like cigarettes.
Columbine had an armed guard.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/1...
Is this really the only solution the NRA can support?
If I recall, there was an armed sheriff's deputy at Columbine High School in 1999. Thirteen innocent people died even with an armed presence on campus. This seems like a non-starter to me.
Every place we go has armed security guards: banks, stores, airports, courthouse, patrolling the streets etc. But we cringe at the sight of a policeman protecting our schools. IT is the only answer. Buzzing in doesn't work for the armed gunman but is at least a way to slow them down entering the school. It would have been nice if that principal was armed as she charged the shooter. Most principals would do the same thing even knowing you had no chance. You see your school students as your children, even the misbehaving ones.No system is perfect but at least a gunman might think twice if he knew he must fight his way into the school. Gun laws do not keep guns out of the hands of criminals or black market dealers. Quit deluding yourselves. An interesting article is how many school shootings have occurred where schools already employ armed police in their schools. It might give us a valid insight into the real solution. You can't fix crazy and stupid. You must confront it.
Has anyone thought about the cost and inefficiencies of placing a sworn peace officer in EVERY school in the country? Most corporate executives would rightly be fired for making such a preposterous suggestion.
Guns will not be banned or eliminated, so the problem of mass shootings will always be a threat. There must be a multilateral approach to this complex problem of unexpected gunmen showing up in schools.
It seems Mr. LaPierre, as well as many others, are guilty of the same sort of misattribution that the religious right has become notorious for. Blaming everyone else except the individual and/or the parents.
If the gunman had been of a darker complexion, and killed others in say, an apartment building instead, Mr. LaPierre and Mr. Huckabee would have blamed the individual for being crazy, his family for having unsecured guns around, knowing he was mentally unstable and the government for not recognizing he was lunatic when he was in school.
Only those requiring metal health care would expect facilities hosting unarmed occupants to be protected by locks-n-disarmament laws against armed criminal attacks.
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Relying on 'armed volunteers' to guard schools fills me with dread. Who is vetting these armed volunteers? It creates another layer of bureaucracy for the school system to vet these volunteers, especially their competency to carry a weapon and use it responsibly.
Police officers are trained for weeks to tackled an armed assailant in various environments. To believe a volunteer is qualified to do the same and exercise good judgment isn't practical.
This is a 'paper over cracks' solution.
I for one would feel much safer with an anti-gun blow hard than an actual human trained in protection utilizing a real gun with live bullets.
The sarcasm font even refused to justify that garbage.
If you anti-gun liberal, put a flower in the gun barrel types, were as off put by criminal behavior as you are about the phony war on women this whole argument would be a moot point.
Stop burying your head in the sand and wake up to the obvious. The violence in movies, the internet and video games is the genesis for these warped individuals and the breeding ground for their actions.
Armed police at every school. That is all I read to know the NRA does not give a rats you know what about this latest tragedy. These tragedies are not going to stop and will continue. That is the sad truth. Why does anyone need an assualt weapon of any kind? Why? Why? What a turmoiled mess we all live in. Mentally ill people are in your very neighborhood people and guess what? You can't make them take their meds even if they are able to afford them. I don't know what the answer to the problem is but more guns certainly aren't going to help. Has nobody learned a darn thing from Columbine??
Wayne LaPierre and the NRA have been lobbying to block laws that would identify guns used in criminal activities.
One of the technologies the NRA has been blocking is that of 'microstamping'. A microscopic code is stamped on the tip of its firing pin. This code is imprinted into the shell casings found at crime scenes.
The code could lead the police to the gun used in the crime. A study funded by the Department of Justice has found that when two shell casings are recovered, the code can be read 90% to 99% of the time.
However, the NRA and gun lobbys have fought the implementation of microstamping which has no connection to owning a gun for self defense.
America is No. 1 out of the top 26 high and middle income countries in gun mortality. In an average year, almost 100,000 people in the U.S. are shot or killed with a gun.
The level of mortality is directly linked to the number of guns available. In America, there are approximately 10.2 deaths/100,000 due to firearms. In Britain, the rate is 0.25. Note that the absence of guns reduces their gun mortality rate 40x. Yet, the NRA says more guns, particularly in schools is the answer.
The NRA should not be allowed to determine safety standards because their only response is to turn the entire country into 'stand your ground' psychos and roving bands of paramilitary teams.
Schools are not the place for western style shoot outs in the halls. That was left behind in the days of Wild Bill Hickok and the Earp brothers. Teams of Wild Bills walking beats in public schools are not the answer for school or any other future safety.
Comment removed by moderator. Off Topic
The conservatives are complaining about the cost of public education.
There isn't enough money to:
1. maintain the facilites
2. hire teachers
3. pay for school lunches
4. keep student tuition expenses down
5. etc. etc. etc.
Now the NRA proposes that armed security teams are hired for patrols that can result in shoot outs in the halls and bullets flying over the tops of students heads.
The NRA believes this is a 'positive contribution' to the gun violence. The NRA should never be allowed to decide safety measures for any place on Earth.
With the NRAs bizarre plan to hire 100,000 new police to guard every single school in America and last night's tea party takedown of John Boehner we are witnessing the last spasms of a sick, dying GOP.
Wall to wall gridlock is not governing, but it's all that republicans can agree on. So, as Rick "Oops" Perry used to say, "Adios, mofos."
"Stop burying your head in the sand and wake up to the obvious. The violence in movies, the internet and video games is the genesis for these warped individuals and the breeding ground for their actions."
First, our culture isn't unique, nor are we cut off from the rest of the world. Billions of people around the plant watch the same movies, play the same video games and yes... view the same internet that Americans do. We export our entertainment, and the rest of the world are rabid consumers of that entertainment.
Yet Americans are dramatically more likely to die by firearm-related homicide.
Second, would the bitter, angry, violent rhetoric of talk radio fit into your theory, Heretic? Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Glenn Beck? Or is it magically just liberal Hollywood?
Can't have it both ways. If people are influenced by the media, as you claim, then doesn't that apply to Limbaugh, Beck and Jones?
The NRA has it all wrong, the police state is not the answer. We need citizens with rifles to volunteer time to sit adjacent the schools. The deterrent value would be priceless, also since we have so many extra NHP cars, I think parking one in the school parking lots might help as well.
(a) where is the hacker group anonymous when you really need them? (b) not just saying we don't have an answer to madness means neanderthal blood still runs through a lot of &^%$!!! veins (c) most important is that those clueless are not either gay or female!!!
More guns will solve our gun violence problem about as effectively as more Taco Bells will solve our obesity problem.
So we meet violence with more violence; "bad" guns with "good" guns; lunacy with more lunacy?!?
In the alleged "Home of the free and land of the brave", 4.3 million get to terrorize 200 million?
Well, that's what Harry Reid's best friend is proposing as his sympathies to the familes of these 20 children and God only knows how many more to come.
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Yes! YES! Yes! Wayne LaPierre and the NRA is RIGHT when they blame video games, liberals and gun-free school zones for the 27 deaths in Newton last week! And the NRA is the only one that has proposed a true sound solution: The NRA "School Shield" program to put armed volunteers in every school! Awesome! It could be something like the volunteer fire departments but they would carry weapons instead of hoses! There are some many millions of American Patriots with assault rifles that we probably could have as many as 15 to 20 armed people during school hours and night activities at EVERY school in America EVERY school day of the year"..elementary, middle school and high schools! Where do we sign up? I will furnish the weapon"but I think the government should provide the ammunition! We TeaPublicans WILL make America safe for everyone!
@TeaPublicanPatriot: that is great satire! Kudos sir.
Wayne and his conservatives friends cringe when they hear the word taxes. Now he wants to put a cop at every school? Where does Wayne think the funding for that is coming from?
These guys are quite unbelievable. Let em hold all the press conferences that they want as it will only further cement their fall into oblivion.
A guard at every school??!! Are you going to also call for higher taxes to pay for it Wayne? Laughable.
I just heard at coffee from my TeaPublican friends that there is also a plan in the making that will deal with all the high unemployment rate of veterans and soldiers that are coming back for war! Hire all of them to secure the schools! They all have experience of fierce fighting, hand to hand combat, putting outposts around schools, setting tripwires".fortifying bunkers".plus a whole lot of other combat skills! They all know about wearing bullet proof vest, helmets, carrying explosives on them, several weapons, gas masks, and knives".plus a lot I probably don't even know about! We have our warriors to protect our schools".they are coming home every day from the war". And they know how to get the job done! And as far as covering the cost, well, if we trim a little bit from social security benefits, Medicare, Medicaid and heating assistance, we should be able to pay these warriors to save our children! NO more unemployed veterans and NO more violence in the schools".the best of both worlds!
@mschaffer: perhaps Harry Whittington could testify on behalf of them.
TeaPublican, you have many common sense suggestions for making public schools more like penitentiaries. Keep up the good work.
Wow. The NRA, funded by the gun manufacturers, oppose limiting semi-automatic weapons, oppose limiting high capacity clips, allows body armor, ballistic helmets, etc. Then, these same conservatives demand that the filthy 47% of takers, which includes the mentally ill, be defunded. Then, when the mentally ill get a freely available semi-automatic weapon and kill, what's the solution? More guns of course! But it should be coupled with a new government program. Huh!?! Conservative thought and leadership has been swirling down the toilet; people are noticing and voting them out.
As guns proliferate, so does gun violence. As the guns become more powerful and rapid fire, the number of dead per killing goes up. Since the NRA started flexing it lobbying muscle and political strength, things have gotten worse for average folks, but the profits have been pretty for the gun manufacturers. Metal detectors at concerts and sporting events are relatively new. Guards in more and more places. Kids backpacks now are made bullet-proof. Sad and only getting sadder. They make policy that put guns everywhere, then cry that we need more guns to protect against the guns. Just unbelievable.
How come back in the 60's the schools never gave a thought to having armed police officers or security guards? Go back to when everything worked, figure out when it started going wrong and most importantly WHY and then work to fix THAT ..... That's how we begin to 'fix' this broken society we live in. I, for one, still believe it all starts at HOME and government needs to keep their noses out of how people raise/discipline their children (short of parents actually ABUSING them)... and NO, spankings and hardnose discpline is NOT the same as actual child abuse.
Money, money....MONEY. MONEY! Cha...ching$$$$
When you build fortresses and call them schools, it's just as hard to get in as it is hard to escape from another situation like what happened. The American Public will forget this yet another tragedy before the last person is buried. Schools use to be a centers of communities, now they are just dumping grounds for parents that want to get away from their kids for hours a day while just being a public babysitting service. Give Public Schools back to the public by letting anyone learn at every school at times convenient for one and all. BTW, it wasn't the fault of gun control that failed those people at Sandy Hook. It was Mama Lanza's fault for training a mentally depressed and unstable son to use her firearms; which she kept unguarded and easily available to Adam Lanza (her 20 year old child that she didn't even trust by himself without supervision). Keep guns, rifles, and other firearms in a gun safe or with a trigger lock until needed to be used!
Wayne LaPierre...the draft dodger that quickly found a way to make up for his cowardice by becoming a big advocate for guns, just like the other coward, Ted Nugent.
In Wayne's case, he's turned it into a a job that pays him one million dollars a year.
All, for being a slave to gun manufacturers.
I'm actually surprised that he didn't advocate for all students to be armed also, after all, there were two armed security guards at Columbine.
There is no law against being crazy or stupid. Maybe that is where we need to start.
Aside from that, the NRA doesn't rule this country, the People of the United States of America do. So the conversations need to include all who have a LEGAL right to be here to voice their opinion on the matter.
When it comes to policy that affects a neighborhood school, that should be discussed and decided by those who are served in that neighborhood, as they will have to live with that decision. Arming schools, or having armed security guards should be decided by those affected schools.
Personally, I am not opposed to selecting volunteer staff members of a school to be that extra layer of security (confidential, so any potential terrorist has no idea who is armed and ready to confront them; the element of surprise would be a bit more equalized). Securing weapons at a school is problematic, to say the least, as you want to insure 100% safety, and that just doesn't exist in our world.
At the same time, our country needs to address the challenges of the mentally ill in our society. Laws need to address those who refuse treatment or refuse taking prescribed management medication or therapies. The affected population is in the millions, and Mainstream America simply cannot afford to ignore this concern any longer, or underfund the mental health system safety net.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
Weapons that fire rounds per second are not what the second amendment states.
These weapons of mass destruction are not for protection.! gun control not arms control
With all the atrocities being committed in this country,almost daily by people using guns and more horrors to come, WHY are we listening to ANYTHING the NRA has to say? Question is who is in charge of this country; THE PEOPLE OR Grover Norquist and the NRA?