After as of yet uncounted millions of people of all ages, ethnicities, races, and religions marched in unity to bring political pressure on law makers to get off their asses and do something, the NRA has come through with
something so tasteless and tone deaf, it's hard to believe:
"Stand and Fight for our Kids' Safety by Joining NRA," it said. "Today's protests aren't spontaneous. Gun-hating billionaires and Hollywood elites are manipulating and exploiting children as part of their plan to DESTROY the Second Amendment and strip us of our right to defend ourselves and our loved ones."
...
On Thursday evening, NRA TV posted a clip on its YouTube channel entitled "A march for their lies" where the host addressed the Parkland students and said that if their friends hadn't died, "no one would know your names."
So there you have it. You see, kids, if it wasn't for guns, you'd be nameless and no one would care. We actually helped you here, and yet you want to change the gun laws. You're young. You'll make new friends. Get over it.
Oh, and this: “...exploiting children as part of their plan to DESTROY the Second Amendment and strip us of our right to defend ourselves and our loved ones...”. Adding common sense laws doesn’t mean coming to your house and taking the possessions that are apparently more important than children.
It means that no one needs an AR-15 or any other semi-automatic weapon for self defense or “sporting”. It means that gun manufacturers will make less money, meaning they will have less to give the NRA to act as their advertising arm. It’s blatant lying and fear-mongering. Not even a Huckabee-Sanders style lie fest could wrap a bow around this crap.
Meanwhile, back in reality, multiple pictures from hundreds of sources show the complete diversity of people fed up with the NRA, and their stupid fear-mongering. "You see, if they make common sense gun laws, well, that's a slippery slope!"
Bullshit. These people are afraid of change and are willing to bring democracy to the ground in order to save their precious semi-automatic, bump-stocked firearms. No to background checks, no to preventing the mentally unstable having equal access to firearms. No to preventing Joe Citizen from purchasing military grade weapons.
As always, follow the money. The NRA claims roughly five million members in a nation of roughly 350 million, so around 1.5%. So how do they have all this money? Gun manufacturers and those with political agendas. And, of course, the NRA is a 501(c)(4), so they do not pay taxes.
We have the power of the majority of Americans on our side, as was clearly demonstrated today. We cannot let this momentum slip. The NRA is getting more idiotic with their messaging by the minute, and it's because they are scared. They know that if this momentum keeps up, they will be a footnote instead of a force.
Let's make that happen.
UPDATE: 3/25/2018 — Sarkazein
Instead of trying to help prevent future school shootings, Rick Santorum thinks it is a better idea to prepare for “future” shootings (my emphasis added).
Santorum dismissed the usefulness of "phony gun laws" and appeared to call on students and others to improve their communities and to prepare to respond to further shootings instead of calling for new laws.
…
"I'm proud of them," he said. "But I think everyone should be responsible and deal with the problems that we have to confront in our lives. And ignoring those problems and saying they're not going to come to me and saying some phony gun law is gonna solve it. Phony gun laws don't solve these problems."
Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you when instead of trying to deal with an issue that can be dealt with, you try to normalize it and instead become reactionary? Has he never heard that prevention is better than cure?
On “deal with the problems that we have to confront in our lives”, what does Santorum think new gun laws are trying to accomplish? That is, in fact, trying to “deal with the problems that we have to confront in our lives”. Flat out refusing that at least trying a solution to “deal” with this “problem” is incompetence personified. “Don’t even try. It won’t work.” We wouldn’t have phones, TVs, cars, running water, electricity, etc. with that mindset.
Following this pathetic logic, let’s pretend that he owns a bucket with a hole in it. Instead of patching up the hole, his solution is to teach the bucket carriers to walk faster and use the contents of the bucket faster as there is nothing to be done concerning that hole.
There is one line where he is correct: “Phony gun laws don’t solve these problems.” Correct. Watered down gun laws that intentionally do next to nothing are not the solution. Strong, common sense gun laws (no semi-automatic weapons and enforced background checks, for starters) will start the process.
The best way to help solve an issue is to not be part of the problem. For whatever reason ($), that simple point can’t seem to penetrate some people’s thought process.