After a week of silence following the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre, the National Rifle Association issued a statement expressing grief over the shooting and condolences for those affected. It also stated its intention to have a conference to discuss how best to avert such mass shootings in the future. Today the NRA’s vice president, Wayne LaPierre, gave a speech stating that in response to the shooting the NRA was going to work to promote expansion of the use of armed guards in schools across the country. The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said LaPierre. He urged Congress “to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation.” He also described his organization’s intention to fund and develop a program called the National Model School Shield Program, which works with schools to arm and train school guards.
LaPierre’s statement was not met with great enthusiasm. “Anyone who thought the N.R.A. was going to come out today and make a common-sense statement about meaningful reform and safety was kidding themselves,” said Democratic Representative Mike Quigley of Illinois. Congressman Rick Murphy of Connecticut called it “The most revolting, tone-deaf statement I’ve ever seen.”
“If there is a need for security at our elementary schools today, it is largely because the NRA’s Washington leadership has gutted the gun laws that used to keep schools and day-cares and churches safe,” said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Perhaps in anticipation of the negative reaction, LaPierre’s speech struck a defiant tone.
“Now I can imagine the headlines, the shocking headlines you’ll print tomorrow,” he told more than 150 journalists. “More guns, you’ll claim, are the N.R.A.’s answer to everything,” he said. “Your implication will be that guns are evil and have no place in society, much less in our schools. But since when did the gun automatically become a bad word?”
He placed the majority of the blame on Hollywood and the video game industry for producing violent films and games and called them “a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and sows violence against its own people,” and criticizing such films as ‘Natural Born Killers.’ That film’s director, Oliver Stone, made a rebuttal statement. “If movies caused gun violence, all countries would have the same levels seen in the U.S. They do not,” he said.
The White House has yet to make any statement or comment on LaPierre’s speech. Vice President Joe Biden has already had a conference call with mayors across the country to discuss perspectives and opinions on how best to curb gun violence in America.
