NRA Should Have Remained Silent

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has been promoting a gun culture for years now. They have gone far beyond just protecting the rights of law-abiding Americans to own guns -- to promoting a culture that worships guns of all kinds (including assault weapons) and opposes ALL laws that would affect who can own guns, what kind of guns and ammunition (and clips) they can own, and where they can carry those weapons. And they have spent huge sums of money to spread their "guns for everyone" propaganda, and to intimidate any politician that would support reasonable restrictions. The result is a society where anyone, even those who shouldn't have guns, are allowed to have an easy access to any kind of gun they want.

We see the effect of this in the Connecticut school tragedy -- and in scores of other mass shootings across the nation. When that tragedy occurred, the NRA had nothing to say. What could they say? It is obvious to any reasonable person that their opposition to reasonable gun restrictions, including effective background checks with all gun sales, is a major reason that sick individuals are able to get guns so easily and kill innocent children and adults in one mass shooting after another. The NRA even went so far after the Connecticut tragedy to discontinue their twitter account and take down their Facebook page.

Well, the NRA is back -- and they are as out of touch with common sense as ever. On Thursday they put up a new Facebook page, and on Friday their clueless leader (Wayne LaPierre) held a news conference -- and it quickly became apparent they are still spouting the same old nonsense. LaPierre blamed a whole host of things for the Connecticut shooting (gun laws, movies, video games, TV, media journalists, liberals, hurricanes, etc.) -- everything except the easy access to guns. And his cur for the mass shootings is just more guns, everywhere, even in our schools.

He even proposed putting an armed policeman in every school, completely ignoring the fact that having one or more armed officers didn't deter the mass shootings in Columbine, Virginia Tech, or Fort Hood. He also ignored the fact that this proposal would cost over $5 billion just in salaries (which doesn't include the cost of training, insurance and other benefits, pensions, etc.) -- at a time when the government says it is so broke it must cut funds for teachers and other school employees, not to mention school lunches for poor children, Food Stamps, unemployment insurance, environmental programs, and a whole host of other things.

The NRA leadership would have been better off to just continue their silence. All they did was show once again that they are willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands of innocent American children and adults on the altar of their personal god -- the gun. They should be ashamed.