THE NRA’s long-awaited “contribution” to the discussion of protecting children came in the form of a 25-minute infomercial for a diabolical grand scheme to turn school security over to the NRA and school principals into gun purchasing agents.
THE NRA’s long-awaited “contribution” to the discussion of protecting children came in the form of a 25-minute long infomercial for an NRA scheme to insert itself into the security planning of every school in America and to sell more guns. NRA Executive vice president Wayne La Pierre has hatched a plan to literally take over the security office of every school in the country and turn it into a propaganda outlet for the NRA and a gun purchasing agent to beef up the profits of Bushmaster and Glock and the gun companies that pay his salary. And he is using the bodies of 20 dead children to kick off his ad campaign.
On the one hand this is a typical conservative response– attack the immediate problem in front of you in a simplistic way that makes money for someone and ignore the larger picture and long term needs. This is how conservatives think – pure, unsophisticated action-reaction with a eye towards profit opportunities. It offers the illusory promise of immediate satisfaction and monetary reward. Sometimes it works; mostly it does not. The NRA’s idea has not worked in the past and won’t work now. It will just kick off an arms war between mentally ill gun nuts and school security. More kids will die.
But La Pierre’s statement this morning was more than typical conservative simplistic thinking. It is a diabolical grand scheme to take over security in every American school using the Newton killings as an excuse. It is the most brazen attempt yet by the NRA to turn the nation into a armed camp, and an even greater profit center for the Glocks and the Bushmasters and the Smith and Wesson’s. Today’s press conference was the opening ad for a campaign to turn America’s schools over to the gun lobby and the gun makers, to siphon off school budgets into gun purchases, to cut parents out of deciding how their children will be safe and put the NRA and its corporate backers in their place.
Now we know what the devil looks like. He wears a blue suit, a red tie and a concealed gun .