Category: NRA

Chris Wallace to LaPierre: You’re “ridiculous” (updated with video)

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Fox News, Gun Laws, Guns, NRA

Chris Wallace to LaPierre: You’re “ridiculous” (updated with video)

Posted by coolelegans

Just to show how much LaPierre has been boxed into the fringe, Fox News host Chris Wallace destroys him on his show, watch the whole thing, it’s great!

Wallace pointed out that the president’s children face a larger threat than most.”Tell that to the people at Newtown,” LaPierre replied, referring to the town where an armed shooter killed 20 young children at an elementary school in December.

“Do you really think that the president’s children are the same kind of target as every schoolchild in America?” Wallace asked. “It’s ridiculous, and you know it, sir.”

For LaPierre to justify his abhorrent political ad by bringing up the children of Newtown is just despicable, and Chris Wallace rightly put him in his place.LaPierre also lies about gun registry and Chris Wallace smacks him down:

He predicted a universal gun registry is next — a measure that, as Wallace reminded him, has not been proposed.”Forgive me, sir, but you take something that is here and you say it’s going to go all the way over there,” Wallace said. “There’s no indication — I mean, I can understand your saying that’s the threat, but there’s nothing that anyone in the administration has said that indicates they’re going to have a universal registry.”

“And Obamacare wasn’t a tax until they needed it to be a tax,” he said.

The argument that Obamacare is a tax was made, primarily, by the conservative Justice John Roberts, so LaPierre is using a conservative argument to show that Obama is a liar. My mind is officially blown at this man’s insane logic. Many Kossacks have also pointed out that Obamacare has nothing to do with guns, so now he is just reduced to parroting Tea Party talking points. And look at how fast Wallace points out

“well it was the supreme court that said that [Obamacare is a tax]”.

Chris Wallace is not having this nonsense on his show! And all LaPierre can do, is ignore that statement, since he doesn’t have a retort, and say  “I don’t think you can trust these people.” He then tries to pivot to his talking points, but Wallace says “forgive me sir, I’m going to conduct this interview”. Wow. Brilliant stuff!When, Chris Wallace says that Obama “is not taking away shotguns”, LaPierre, lies and says that the Feinstein bill does include such a clause. NO ONE is taking away shot guns or hand guns. This man is LYING.

And finally, offered without comment, since it’s been beaten into the ground:

“If you limit the American public’s access to semi-automatic technology, you limit their ability to survive,” LaPierre said.

But I would also like to point out that with main stream conservatives like Chris Wallace distancing themselves from this nonsense, we may be winning the debate.

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The NRA Myth of Arming the Good Guys

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Gun Control, Gun Deaths, Gun Homicides, Gun Suicides, Guns, NRA

The NRA Myth of Arming the Good Guys
Mass shootings in the US are on the rise—and ordinary citizens with guns don’t stop them.

By Mark Follman

The gut-wrenching shock of the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14 wasn’t just due to the 20 unthinkably young victims. It was also due to the realization that this specific, painfully familiar nightmare was unfolding yet again.

As the scope of the massacre in Newtown became clear, some news accounts [1] suggested that mass shootings in the United States have not increased, based on a broad definition of them. But in fact 2012 has been unprecedented for a particular kind of horror that’s been on the rise in recent years, from Virginia Tech to Tucson to Aurora to Oak Creek to Newtown. There have been at least 62 such mass shootings in the last three decades, attacks in which the killer took the lives of four or more people (the FBI’s baseline for mass murder) in a public place—a school, a workplace, a mall, a religious building. Seven of them have occurred this year alone [2].

Along with three other similar though less lethal rampages—at a Portland shopping mall, a Milwaukee spa, and a Cleveland high school—2012 has been the worst year for these events in modern US history, with 151 victims injured and killed [3]. More than a quarter of them were young children and teenagers.

 

 

The National Rifle Association and its allies would have us believe that the solution to this epidemic, itself but a sliver of America’s overall gun violence, is to put firearms in the hands of as many citizens as possible. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” declared the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre in a press conference a week after Newtown, the same day bells tolled at the National Cathedral and the devastated town mourned its 28 dead. (That day a gunman in Pennsylvania also murdered three people and wounded a state trooper shortly before LaPierre gave his remarks.) LaPierre explained that it was a travesty for a school principal to face evil unarmed, and he called for gun-wielding security officers to be deployed in every school in America.

As many commentators noted, it was particularly callous of the NRA to double down on its long-standing proposal to fight gun violence with more guns while parents in Newtown were burying their first graders. But more importantly, the NRA’s argument is bereft of supporting evidence. A closer look reveals that their case for arming Americans against mass shooters is nothing more than a cynical ideological talking point—one dressed up in appeals to heroism and the defense of constitutional freedom, and wholly reliant on misdirection and half truths. If only Sandy Hook’s principal had been packing heat, the argument goes, she could’ve stopped the mass killer. There’s just one little problem with this: Not a single one of the 62 mass shootings we studied in our investigation has been stopped this way—even as the nation has been flooded with millions of additional firearms [5] and a barrage of recent laws has made it easier than ever for ordinary citizens to carry them in public places [10], including bars, parks, and schools.

Gun rights die-hards claim the Portland mall shooter saw an armed good guy—who ran for cover instead of firing—and promptly shot himself dead. Obviously.

Attempts by armed citizens to stop shooters are rare. At least two such attempts in recent years ended badly, with the would-be good guys gravely wounded or killed [5]. Meanwhile, the five cases most commonly cited as instances of regular folks stopping massacres fall apart under scrutiny [6]: Either they didn’t involve ordinary citizens taking action—those who intervened were actually cops, trained security officers, or military personnel—or the citizens took action after the shooting rampages appeared to have already ended. (Or in some cases, both.)

But those facts don’t matter to the gun rights die-hards, who never seem to run out of intellectually dishonest ammo. Most recently [11], they’ve pointed to [12] the Portland shopping mall rampage earlier in December, in which an armed civilian reportedly drew his gun but thought twice about potentially hurting an innocent bystander and ducked for cover instead of firing. The assailant suddenly got scared of this retreating good guy with the gun, they claim, and promptly shot himself dead. Obviously.

Another favorite tactic is to blame so called “gun-free zones” for the carnage—as if a disturbed kid shoots up a school, or a disgruntled employee executes his coworkers, or a neo-Nazi guns down Sikhs at worship simply because he has identified the safest place to go open fire. All we need to do is make sure lots of citizens have guns in these locations, and voilà, problem solved!

For their part, law enforcement officials overwhelmingly hate the idea of armed civilians getting involved. As a senior FBI agent told me [7], it would make their jobs more difficult if they had to figure out which of the shooters at an active crime scene was the bad guy. And while they train rigorously for responding in confined and chaotic situations, the danger to innocent bystanders from ordinary civilians whipping out firearms is obvious. Exhibit A: the gun-wielding citizen who admitted to coming within a split second of shooting an innocent person [13]as the Tucson massacre unfolded, after initially mistaking that person for the killer, Jared Loughner.

The NRA’s LaPierre was also eager to blame violent video games and movies for what happened in Newtown, and to demonize the “unknown number of genuine monsters” walking among us. Never mind that the failure to recognize and treat mental health problems is a crucial factor in this dark equation: Of the 62 mass shootings we examined, 36 of them were murder-suicides, while assailants in seven other cases died in police shootouts, widely considered to have been “suicide by cop.”

Those who are serious about contending with the problem of mass shootings understand that collecting and studying data is crucial. Since we began our investigation after the attack in Aurora in July, we’ve heard from numerous academic researchers, legislative aides, and others wanting access to our full data set.We’ve now published it here [9].

The question now isn’t whether most Americans will take seriously the idea of turning every grammar school in the nation into a citadel. (Here, too, the NRA’s argument falls apart; an armed sheriff’s deputy at Columbine and a robust security force at Virginia Tech didn’t stop those slaughters from occurring.) Now that we’ve just witnessed the worst year for mass shootings in memory, including 20 of the most innocent of lives snuffed out, what remains to be seen is whether real reform is finally on the way on Capitol Hill. Despite years of this kind of carnage, next to nothing has been changed in our legal system with respect to how easy it is for a disturbed young man to get his hands on a military-style assault rifle and a stockpile of highly lethal ammunition.

Sen. Diane Feinstein has vowed to introduce a new ban on assault weapons when Congress reconvenes in January. President Obama has signaled that the gun issue will be a real priority going forward. But once the raw emotion of Newtown dissipates there will be the danger of slipping back into the same inertia and political stalemate so successfully cultivated by the pro-gun ideologues. Soon lawmakers will start eyeing their 2014 reelection campaigns and thinking about how much money the NRA has in its coffers to take aim at them with should they dare to dissent. This time, have we finally had enough?

Links:
[1] http://news.yahoo.com/no-rise-mass-killings-impact-huge-185700637.html
[2] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map
[3] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-victims-2012
[4] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/nra-mass-shootings-myth
[5] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/mass-shootings-investigation
[6] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/armed-civilians-do-not-stop-mass-shootings
[7] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/jared-loughner-mass-shootings-mental-illness
[8] http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/12/watch-after-shooting-newtown-calls-tighter-gun-laws
[9] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data
[10] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/map-gun-laws-2009-2012
[11] http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/19/we-know-how-to-stop-school-shootings/
[12] http://www.mrctv.org/videos/media-blackout-oregon-mall-shooting-stopped-licensed-gun-carrier
[13] http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2011/01/friendly_firearms.html

 

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NRA (Nazis Rule America) Gets Excited | Wants More Guns In Schools

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Gun Control, Gun Deaths, Gun Homicides, Gun Lobby, Guns, Mass Killings, NRA

NRA (Nazis Rule America) Gets Excited | Wants More Guns In Schools

The U.S.  National Rifle Association (NRA) defends America’s gun  law that allows citizens to bear firearms amid high public anger over increasing  gun violence in the country.

Speaking at a  news conference in Washington on Friday, NRA executive vice president insisted  that guns protect American children at schools.  

Wayne LaPierre  also accused the media of trying to demonize gun owners. The head of the pro-gun  lobby blamed rampant gun violence across America on violent films and video  games.

LaPierre’s  comments come as the U.S. is still struggling with the aftermath of a deadly  shooting that killed 20 children and eight adults at an elementary school in  Newtown, Connecticut.

LaPierre, whose  remarks were interrupted twice by pro-gun control protesters, disdained the  notion that stricter gun laws could have prevented “monsters” like Adam Lanza  from committing mass shootings, and wondered why schools, unlike banks, don’t  have the protection of armed forces.

Alternately  criticizing politicians, the media, and the entertainment industry, LaPierre  argued that “the press and political class here in Washington [are] so consumed  by fear and hatred of the NRA and America’s gun owners” that they overlook what  he claims is the real solution to the nation’s recent surge in mass shootings —  and what, he said, could have saved lives last week.

“What if, when  Adam Lanza started shooting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School last  Friday, he had been confronted by qualified, armed security?” he asked. “Will  you at least admit it’s possible that 26 innocent lives might have been spared?  Is that so abhorrent to you that you would rather continue to risk the  alternative?”

LaPierre called  on Congress to put a police officer in every school in America, which according  to a Slate analysis would cost the nation at least $5.4 billion. LaPierre  recognized that local budgets are “strained,” but urged lawmakers “to act  immediately, to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers  in every school.”

He offered up  the NRA’s unique “knowledge, dedication, and resources” to assist in efforts to  train those forces, but made no mention of a fiscal contribution. 

FACTS & FIGURES

Efforts to limit  the sale and possession of assault rifles and multi-round ammunition clips, or  to require background checks and waiting periods for the purchase of guns, have  been halted for years by fears that the powerful National Rifle Association  would defeat any politician who proposed such measures. NY Times 

Since 1998, the  National Rifle Association has spent $28.2 million on lobbying in Washington and  employed between 16 and 35 lobbyists in any given year. The group has doled out  more than $3.3 million in campaign contributions and $44 million on independent  efforts to support its favored candidates in the last three federal elections.  The Huffington Post

Unlike in the  cases of previous mass murders, new evidence suggests Americans increasingly  support tougher gun control in the wake of the Newtown massacres.  CBS

According to a  recent CBS News poll, support for stricter gun laws is the highest it’s been in  a decade, surging 18 points since the spring of this year. CBS  News

The U.S.  averages 87 gun deaths each day as a function of gun violence, with an average  of 183 injured, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab and the Centers  for Disease Control. The crime lab’s research estimates the annual cost of gun  violence to society at $100 billion. The Daily Beast

AHT/DT

https://theageofblasphemy.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/serious-think-piece-on-guns-and-pro-gun-nutjobs/

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