In response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the NRA promised "meaningful contributions" to prevent more gun violence. After several days of silence, the NRA finally spoke on Friday. Represented by NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre, the NRA advocated that Congress should "appropriate whatever is necessary" in order to place armed police offices in every school in the United States.
what eye thynk: This is their idea of “meaningful contributions”?!
The Second Amendment was added to our Constitution to compensate for our lack of a standing army. It had nothing to do with gun ownership “rights”--it was simply an expedient way for our nascent nation to defend itself.
In the era of muzzle loading long guns, our forefathers could not have envisioned the damage that a rabid, corporate funded NRA would inflict on this country with their inability to exercise any restraint or common sense on the issue of gun ownership. When a young man tried to blow up an airplane by putting explosives in his shoes, we all started going through airport security in our socks. Another young man murders 20 babies with an assault rifle and the NRA’s answer is more guns. Where is the logic in this? The NRA, and their gun manufacturing corporate sponsors, continue to push the envelope--hidden carry permits, open carry permits, guns on campus, guns in churches, guns in bars, guns in parks, bigger guns with larger magazines… All, of course, under the guise of self-protection and/or sport.
Really, if you’re protecting yourself, do you need an assault rifle? It is not a machine designed for protection, nor--as the NRA and assault rifle owners would have us believe--is it a machine designed for hunting. The name says it all--ASSAULT rifle, designed for military use as an ASSAULT weapon…period.
As for the growing vogue of larger magazines, if you’re a hunter and you need a 100 shot magazine to bag a deer, maybe you should look for a sport more suited to your abilities because you obviously are no marksman.
And now, the NRA’s answer to the proliferation of gun related violence, is not to step back and re-evaluate our society’s love affair with guns and their role in it; but, instead to turn every school into an armed fortress with armed guards and gun-toting principals and teachers. Do we really want our children to be greeted each school day by a flak-jacketed guard toting a Bushmaster .223 assault rifle? Because surely a police issue 15 shot semi-automatic pistol is not going to be defense enough against an assailant armed with the latest in NRA backed military style firepower. Do we really want a visit to the principal’s office to include a view of a rifle rack? Or how about that shoulder holster peeking out from the teacher’s jacket? What kind of message does this give to our children?
Despite what the NRA would have us believe, the answer is not more guns, but fewer. The answer is not looser gun laws, but more gun control. There are too many guns in this country for us to ever become completely gun free, but common sense should dictate that the type of guns that can legally be owned by any private citizen must be tightly regulated. Military type assault weapons or large magazines are not “rights” that are covered by our Second Amendment.
We don't need more gun owners but better vetted gun owners. We should start by closing the gaping loophole in our background check law. It makes no sense that a person who wants to purchase a small caliber hand gun for target shooting must wait three days for a background check at a gun shop, while a person bent on mass destruction can drop into a gun show, hand over the purchase price of an AK47 and walk out with his weapon of choice minutes later.
In the end, gun regulations and closer gun buyer screenings, while providing an excellent place to start, are not the whole answer. As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, until December 14, Adam Lanza was a law abiding citizen, legally able to purchase any gun on the market.
Until we face the fact that the Second Amendment has been turned into nothing more than a legal vehicle for gun manufacturers to make a profit, any "answer" is meaningless. It’s time to put our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness before the right of someone--or some corporation--bent on destroying all three.
Eye also recommend: THE NRA CRAWLS FROM ITS HIDEY HOLE, New York Times editorial --
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/opinion/the-nra-crawls-from-its-hidey-hole.html?_r=0
"No one seriously believed the N.R.A. when it said it would contribute something “meaningful” to the discussion about gun violence. The organization’s very existence is predicated on the nation being torn in half over guns. Still, we were stunned by Mr. LaPierre’s mendacious, delusional, almost deranged rant. "
"Very disappointing... and I am not sure how LaPierre sleeps at night. What a vacuous response and a dishonor to the family of those victims.."
ReplyDeleteMy friends and I were discussing this very topic and the above quote is from one of them. I think she said so much in such short order.
and another thing ...
ReplyDeleteTimothy McVeigh could legally purchase firearms (and did) AND he was a member of a 'militia' of some sort. He was a Veteran, too.
Oh yeah, one more thing, he blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Bldg in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people,and maiming hundreds of others. Many of them babies.
His response to that: "it was an act of war" [on the Federal Government] .
Timothy McVeigh was, by all accounts, an upstanding example of good old American manhood.
He supported and upheld the Constitution and The Bill of Rights right up to the point where he declared war on the United States for denying him his Rights. Good thinkin' Tim boy.
Timothy McVeigh was a member in good standing of the NRA and a long time supporter of gun rights.
As a long time [former] law enforcement officer, I can tell you for a fact that by carrying a firearm I deceived myself. I wasn't aware of it at the time, but the presence of that firearm on my hip made me feel a little bit braver, a little bit more of a 'man', and a whole lot more aggressive. I wasn't aware of all these things UNTIL I STOPPED CARRYING A GUN.
Let me repeat that last sentence: "I wasn't aware of all these things UNTIL I STOPPED CARRYING A GUN".
Firearms have their place in America and are, in fact, an important part of who we are. But it's "who we are" that gets a little confusing, ala T. McVeigh. Until the day he committed Treason and Murder, he had every right to enjoy that gun totin' part of our heritage.
In the final analysis, Sigmund Freud had this theory about guns & phallic symbolism. No, really.