NRA out of touch

Yeah, this is also going to be tangentially related to gun-control because yesterday the NRA finally showed its face and held a press conference.  It probably would be better for them if they hadn't, but hey, why keep silent when you can say something stupid.

The NRA, as I'm sure you've heard by now, called for armed guards in every school in America because this is going to somehow prevent horrific tragedies from occurring.  Yes folks, the answer to solving violence committed by legal guns is to give more people legal guns.  Amazing isn't it?

Let's begin by looking at the latest shooting.  A young man, fully committed to murder, planned an assault on a school.  His mother worked at the school, so he knew it fairly well.  We're to believe that an armed guard was going to be anything but the first victim?  Ok, so lets assume the armed guard isn't the first victim, the gunman goes in a different door and possibly only kills maybe 6 or 8 people before....what?

A gunfight with the officer ensues with him having a pistol and something to live for versus someone who cares nothing for their own life or the lives of others armed with a semi-automatic rifle with a 30 round magazine?  Ideally the guard takes out the shooter and the tragedy is "only" 6 or 8 dead instead of 28.  Better?  I suppose, but it still did nothing to PREVENT the tragedy from happening.  It merely mitigated the damage and while in my hypothetical scenario 8 dead is better than 28 its a far cry from NO dead.  Which is what we want!

So, outside of the problem that merely having armed guards does nothing to prevent disturbed individuals from getting their hands on powerful weapons, let's go to the second issue.  Who's going to pay for this?  Now, if the NRA wants to step up and do so, that's fine by me.  But, otherwise, many schools can't afford enough staff as is.  Where are they going to get the money to pay for armed guards?  Even if the local police department provides the guard, the money still has to come from somewhere to pay their salary.

And, schools aren't just in use from 7:30 to 3:30 M-F.  Is there going to be an armed guard on premises any time the school is in use?  It seems like such a simple thing, but simply from a logistical standpoint its not.

The NRA is out of touch with the average American gun owner.  They portray themselves as staunch defenders of gun owners rights, when in reality its basically a lobby for gun manufacturers.  The NRA wants its members to buy as many guns as possible, hence the constant scare tactics and fear-mongering, because this brings in hefty amounts of cash from the companies benefiting from the gun purchases.

The government isn't going to come into your house to take all your guns away.  But maybe, just maybe, its time to put some logical safeguards in place that might help prevent the next Sandy Hook or Aurora.  In a country that has almost 1 gun for every person you can't realistically do away with guns.  But if you can start to minimize the opportunity for disturbed people to get their hands on guns in legal methods, its a start.

So please, gun owners.  If you are NRA members, it might be time to rethink that.  The NRA don't care about you or about the best interests of gun owners.  They care about your money and the best interests of the gun sellers.  There are organizations out there that can support your right to own firearms that do it in a sensible and humane manner.

We also need some radical reform of our mental health services in this country, though while it appears the Sandy Hook killer possibly had some mental illness, his actions were completely pre-meditated.  He just didn't care what he did in his final act, he just wanted to cause as much pain and suffering to as many as possible on his way out because mommy wasn't giving him what he wanted anymore and was scared of him.

Apparently not scared enough to get the freaking guns out of the house, but hey, we can't speak ill of the dead right?