NRA proposes armed guards in every school, protesters disrupt no-questions presser

12/21/2012 11:38am by 53

NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre gave a press conference this morning at the posh Willard Hotel in Washington, DC about the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting. At the press conference, LaPierre suggested that we should put armed guards in every school in America. Then he refused to take any questions. Yes, a press conference with no questions. That’s called an infomercial.

QUESTION: … will stop gun…

KEENE: As I indicated at the outset, this is the beginning of a serious conversation. We won’t be taking questions today, but Andrew Arulanandam, our public affairs officer, is here.

(CROSSTALK)

KEENE: We will be willing to talk to anybody beginning on Monday.

It’s the beginning of a serious conversation in which one side won’t converse.

Here’s the transcript.  And take a look at LaPierre’s speech – sure sounds like many of the same talking points that himbo Governor Rick Scott of Florida spouted to CNN’s Soledad O’Brien yesterday. At the time, I said, half in jest, that it appeared the NRA had given Scott talking points. Now I’m thinking they did just that.  Note the references to “conversation,” for starters.

I love this quote from the NRA’s LaPierre:

Isn’t fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?

To that I say:

Isn’t fantasizing about killing animals as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?

Here’s another LaPierre zinger:

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

What about just taking his gun away from him?

The reaction to the press conference on Twitter was vicious:

Screen Shot 2012-12-21 at 10.44.52 AMScreen shot 2012-12-21 at 10.26.53 AM

 

Screen Shot 2012-12-21 at 10.47.41 AM Screen Shot 2012-12-21 at 10.47.48 AM Screen Shot 2012-12-21 at 10.48.10 AM Screen Shot 2012-12-21 at 10.48.38 AM Screen Shot 2012-12-21 at 10.48.44 AM Screen Shot 2012-12-21 at 10.49.46 AM Screen Shot 2012-12-21 at 10.49.53 AM

Then some protesters from Code Pink interrupted it.

Fabulous.

La Pierre attempted to keep talking, while a big sign in front of his face read, “NRA KILLING OUR KIDS.”

Here are some still shots, and the video is below.

NRA post Sandy Hook press conference interrupted by protesters

 

NRA post Sandy Hook press conference interrupted by protesters

NRA post Sandy Hook press conference interrupted by protesters

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@aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and .

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  • Butch1

    Define “a good guy with a gun.” Would that be a cop? Just ask the Occupy Movement that question or some of the people who have lived on the South side of Chicago in the Projects about the “good guys with the guns” who shoot and then yell, ” Stop!”

    “Good Guy” is a relative term, in my opinion.

  • Packmule

    Though I personally do not and will not own a gun I do uphold the rights of others to have them. However there are steps that could reduce the possibility of large scale violence as in Conneticut and Colorado:
    1. Stricter enforcement of exisitng gun laws and a national standard for registration, waiting periods, etc.
    2. Elimination of large weapon magazines.
    3. A national database of registered guns in the US.
    4. Tighter monitoring of assault rifles
    5. A national database monitoring the purchase of all ammunition and licensing and registration of all those who manufacter their own ammo.
    If we had proper monitoring nationally of these things actions such as the purchase of excessive ammunition or ownership of excessive armamant would red flag those individuals and hopefully prompt law enforcement ot investigate before the shooting starts.

  • stldem

    I love Code Pink!

  • rmthunter

    Isn’t it interesting how those in the “party of personal responsibility” invariably point the finger at everyone else when their asses are on the griddle?

    Jason Linkins had an interesting insight at HuffPo: the NRA is a lobbying group for gun manufacturers. In that light, LaPierre’s speech had one goal: deflect attention away from the people he actually works for.

  • bressennuit

    I thought the Republicans want to CUT funding for silly things like police, firefighters, teachers, libraries, mental health, Medicaid, food stamps, and other items that would protect society.

    And the Republicans want “smaller” government with less oversight, less rules & regulations, less citizen tracking.

    And the Republicans are certainly about less taxes, and less taxes for all including millionnaires & billionnaires & corporations, and keep telling Obama & America to “live within its means”

    So how does this week’s call for hiring tens of thousands of armed guards for every single school, plus paying for arms & uniforms, going to accomplish ANY of these Republican goals?

    Vilified police by claiming they are overpaid? that their pensions were too generous & thus cut them? and now saying that we need tens of thousands MORE of them? which will just add to payroll and pension needs.

    Same for vilified teachers. Plus a few of them are probably angry, demoralised, or otherwise not the first people *I* would require to carry guns.

    An officer at every school? So much for citizens’ privacy rights, even though the people proposing these new ideas are the ones that think the government will come and track them and take them away.

    And, who the hell is going to pay for any of it, if we keep cutting taxes and don’t get more revenue in?

    • colleen2

      “So how does this week’s call for hiring tens of thousands of armed
      guards for every single school, plus paying for arms & uniforms,
      going to accomplish ANY of these Republican goals”

      But George Zimmerman would have a job!

  • Asterix

    Has it been determined if Nancy Lanza was or was not a member of the NRA? Shouldn’t this question be asked of Mr. LaPierre?

  • http://fighttherightwingnuts.blogspot.com/ mike31c

    I wonder how these gun nuts and fanatics propose to PAY for all these armed guards? Teachers are barely getting paid with anti-union and anti-education assholes of the right and now you want to add yet another unpaid for expense?

    • bressennuit

      ah, what i loved even better was the idea of requiring teachers to be armed in their classrooms. yeeeaaaahhhh, riiiiiigggghhhttt.

      A group of people (ie teachers) that the teapartiers and republicans publicly vilified as recently as LAST MONTH as overpaid lazy tax-sucking workers who get 3 months vacation and outrageous pensions;
      whose unions are vilified and being banned or attempted to be banned;
      who are already actually paid less than they could earn in private sector employment while they are teaching the smallest of our children some intelligent things;
      and who already have some troubled children with behaviour or learning issues to deal with…

      and now within a month the gun advocates and some Congresspeople actually think that the very people that they just made angry last month by reducing their pay, reducing their union, reducing their pension, and calling them names publicly, should now be the ones receiving guns????

      I might say “go for it” just so far as to justify that there’s going to be a few cranky teachers out there too, and at least one will probably go to a legislator or governors house and shoot it up.

      hmm, yeah, giving guns to more angry or disgruntled employees who you just vilified in public, that’s the right idea! :S arcasm

  • FunMe

    Just went into the Facebook page of NRA.

    https://www.facebook.com/NationalRifleAssociation

    There is NO way in hell that all the comments can be positive. I am sure that they are scrubbing their page for any negative comments. Pathetic!

    It doesn’t matter. America as a whole is upset with them and the fact that they are part of the problem of people being killed by their guns. I mean, hello! The killer in the latest tragedy was a happy gun owner, and probably part of the NRA, who had guns in her house which were available to her son who ended up killing people.

    GUNS and people are the problem!

  • Asterix

    Clearly, the solution is to equip every schoolchild with an AR-15 and 50 round magazine as a condition of attending school.

    Given the freeway shooting in Pennsylvania just being reported on, we should also make carrying a loaded AR-15 a condition of holding a driver’s license.

  • benb

    Does LaPierre get that people are gonna want armed security guards at schools paid from a tax on guns and ammo?

  • KingCranky

    A couple of kickers from today’s “Titanic/Hindenburg” style NRA infomercial

    From Politico

    “Held at the historic Willard Hotel, the NRA kept a tight lid on security with at least a dozen guards, security sweep and multiple security guard checkpoints before journalists could enter the room where the news conference was held.”

    Interesting how the NRA insisted on security guards for this event, not any armed local yokels wandering in off the streets.

    From the Washington Post

    “The initiative will be headed by former Arkansas congressman Asa Hutchinson (R), who served as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration under President George W. Bush. Hutchinson said the program will “make use of local volunteers.”

    Two points…..

    First, Asa Hutchinson did a top-notch job as head of the DEA, no doubt illegal drugs became harder to get, more expensive to procure, purity/potency decreased and illegal drug usage plummeted thanks to his sterling leadership.

    Right?

    Second, those “local volunteers”, how do you attract them if there’s no pay involved?

    Well, perhaps by making sure they’re legally immunized from ALL criminal & civil liability if their actions result in death or injury of students caught in the crossfire, students shot by their would-be rescuer, not the rampaging gunman.

    That’s something the NRA will want to stay silent about, that legal immunity for “local volunteers”.

    And will the NRA push to give law enforcement the same legal immunity if, arriving at the scene of a firefight, the cops shoot and kill/injure the wrong target, the “local volunteer” instead of the rampaging gunman?

    Since the NRA leadership believes more guns makes for a safer society, let them pay for every single firearm purchase from this point on, if those leaders aren’t willing to put the group’s money where the group’s mouth is, they’re nothing but easily-debunked hypocrites.

  • Hue-Man

    I thought the whole point of the Tea Party was to protest the Big Government police state. But now, it’s rent-a-soldier at schools, then post offices, then shopping centers, McDonalds, playgrounds, beaches, every street corner. Of course, sitting around 10 hours a day, doing nothing won’t have any effect on the mental stability of these millions of armed surveillance officers. Better hire rent-a-soldiers to supervise the rent-a-soldiers. This all seems so more reasonable than gun control laws….

  • ComradeRutherford

    Wayne LaPierre says, “20 dead 5 year olds is NOT enough!”

  • ComradeRutherford

    Wayne LaPierre, I don’t want armed guards in my kid’s school! I want LESS GUNS in the hands of right-wing sociopaths like yourself.

  • nicho

    I prefer Mark Morford’s solution:

    Death To All Guns

    “Guns are, socially and ethically, devastating. Worthless. They add nothing of positive, intrinsic value to a culture, a people, a country. They only diminish, destroy, display an awesome sense of malformed ego and disastrously warped humanity.”

    http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2012/12/18/death-to-all-guns/

    • Drew2u

      Where I live we have deer season to cull the population by a certain amount as determined by the DNR. The culling of the deer herds helps to prevent the spread of diseases among deer, keeps more deer away from traffic, feeds our family, and prevent overpopulation that would lead to depletion of resources shared by fewer deer and subsequently starvation of the overall herd population.
      What would be your solution to our wildlife population were the state to get rid of all guns?
      (and please don’t read any snark into my comment. My question is genuine)

      • nicho

        We hire professionals to do it. That saves us from some yahoo “thinning out” other hunters and nearby residents after a night of partying.

        • Drew2u

          And how much would governments contracting hired professionals cost versus a yahoo with a gun license and deer permit [Not to mention given a ban on assault weapons, 10+ round clip holders, background criminal and mental health screenings, and limitations on handgun ownership]?
          Were we to allow armed guards in all schools, who pays for that? And were we to hire specific teams to cull deer, who would pay for that?

          • nicho

            Well, that gets us back to making billionaires pay taxes. Who pays for 20 little kids slaughtered in the name of the fatally flawed second amendment?

            Better still, get the National Guard to do it. They’re already being paid — and it would be good training.

            • Drew2u

              At the same time, what we’d be looking at is a pretty big chunk of change that disappears from the state’s funds so where it used to make money, it would now have to allocate money in order to take care of it.

              And our National Guard is busy taking care of international relations overseas, so that’s another hurdle.

              I understand what you’re doing, I get it. And I have to voice my disagreement. There’s a difference between a 30-round semi-automatic assault weapon that fires 600-700 rpm (or a .45 handgun with an extended clip) and a 5-cartridge, single-shot hunting rifle. And if we want to move on legitimate regulations that would do the best good, we have to recognize and separate the pleasure from the utility (not to mention the military from the civilian).

      • agavedude

        Fine. What does that have to do with banning assault weapons and high capacity clips?

        • Drew2u

          …the part where I’m responding to nicho’s call to ban all guns, not just assault weapons.

        • bressennuit

          One of my old roommates always used bow & arrow. He and his Dad would go out hunting with bows & arrows, get a couple deer, make it into meat and sausage, and so on.

          Now, I’m not about banning all guns, as I think Registered hunting guns would be ok as long as there was a licensing and insurance procedure of some sort.

          But as to your general question, there are other methods of killing an animal (as the gun lobby is so quickly to point out that people will still be murdered by knives, ropes, cars, and anything else).

          I’m just saying that if the gun lobby says murder can occur with other weapons, well, then so can animal hunting….

  • SkippyFlipjack

    I love the photographers all trying to frame the photo w/ the sign and LaPierre’s face together.

  • cole3244

    the nra really means, no rational allowed, and they stick to that religiously, the nra motto, can’t get wood get a gun.

  • FuzzyRabbit

    “KEENE: As I indicated at the outset, this is the beginning of a serious conversation. . .”

    The arrogance! According to this guy from the NRA, no one is talking seriously about the problem of gun violence until the NRA weighs in. What does this fool think everyone has been discussing for the past week.

  • VJBinCT

    ‘Yes, a press conference with no questions. That’s called an infomercial.’

    Actually, it is a misinformercial.

  • FatRat

    Someone needs to produce a t-shirt with 20 pair of red hands http://tinyurl.com/cmh76s7 Leave some room for “I’ll give you my gun when you take it from my cold, dead hands!”

    • ComradeRutherford

      “I’ll give up my guns only after I kill 20 five year olds first.”

  • HolyMoly

    So the guy holding the sign wasn’t disrupting the speech…LaPew was able to spew his nonsense uninterrupted. Why cart the guy off?

    But then again, carting him off DID disrupt the speech, and DID draw more attention to Code Pink guy and its message. More of this, please!

  • Patrick Randall

    You can have my gun when you pry it from the fingers of my cold, dead child.

    http://i.imgur.com/ySRxS.gif

    sign painted on wood, chained to fence.

  • http://www.intoxination.net intoxination

    Yup I blame movies too! From now on every time someone shoots an Ape, I will blame Charlton Heston!!!!

    • MyrddinWilt

      I don’t think XBox causes a net increase in violence. But it might well be behind the recent rise in types of violence that the NRA find it difficult to persuade people to ignore.

      Lets say for the sake of argument that XBox is the cause, which is easier to control, the XBox that exists without any problems whatsoever in the rest of the developed world or the guns which every other country has banned.

      The second amendment was really about making sure that settlers would have guns on hand to drive native Americans off their land. When people already in power talk about ‘freedom’ you can be pretty sure that they have some obnoxious cause in mind that needs to be covered up.

      • bressennuit

        “xboxs don’t kill people, people kill people”. same argument we already hear from the gun lobby.
        then hollywood and the MPAA will come along and say “movies don’t kill people, people kill people”. Then the mental health people will say, Aspergers doesn’t cause people to be violent, so “aspergers doesn’t kill people, people kill people”. and they don’t have the money to treat anyway because America refuses to adopt any national health care single-payer system and insurance companies are allowed to limit mental health treatment payments to about 1,500$ per year.

        every group that the NRA points out as possible cause for gun violence, will just lead the next group to use the same argument and pass it on, and so on, eventually it gets back to blaming the NRA, and we start the entire circle over again. And this goes on continually.

        This is a carousel, but not a pleasant one.

  • Dano2

    One wonders who will be writing off the guards’ guns and vests as advertising revenue.

    Best,

    D

  • http://www.facebook.es/people/Jim-Morrissey/583382528 Jim Morrissey

    Who’s gonna pay for it? Our big overextending government? Which is it GOP/NRA? How about a police state, huh?

    • colleen2

      I believe the NRA is arguing that the feds should pick up the tab for their proposed project

  • lynchie

    Here is a link to a site which shows how much they give to congressmen. Every republican and to a lesser degree some Dems. It does not detail how much money is given through PAC’s however just the total.

    http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/recips.php?cycle=2012&id=D000000082

    • Asterix

      What’s surprising is how little money it takes to bribe a politician.

  • lynchie

    I listened to the whole Press Conference. He offered nothing new except the same old blame everybody else. Media, Mental Health, no guns in class rooms, armed security guards, he even got around to blaming President Obama etc., etc. At no time did he mention assault rifles, gun deaths in general. We can’t let the 4 million odd NRA members decide what we as Americans will tolerate. It is not just assault rifles it is guns in general. He did not mention background checks, gun shows, no training, license to have and own all guns. If we can regulate cars and force all owners to register the car, carry insurance and make the own have a permit we can do it for guns. Limit the amount of guns and the amount of ammunition one can own. Suggest stronger punishment and mandatory jail time. The 2nd ammendment clearly states a “well regulated militia” well let’s regulate the hell out of guns.

    • Dano2

      These people are small, white men living a fantasy in their creepy little gun cult. We should take our country back from these little Napoleons. Sanity, please. No one wants to live in their weird, creepy little world.

      Best,

      D

      • FunMe

        “These people are small, white men living a fantasy in their creepy little gun cult.”

        Very well said!

    • Mike Meyer

      Absolutely, because NOBODY drives without insurance or a driver’s license or cars NOT registered to them these days.

      • goulo

        By that “reasoning”, there should be no laws or regulations at all about anything.

        Or do you actually believe that the laws against driving without insurance or a driver’s license make no difference in the frequency of people driving without insurance or a driver’s license?

        • http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

          ppfft

          • bressennuit

            such an intelligent reasoned response. thanks for your contribution.

            • colleen2

              it’s what that argument deserves, sparky.

      • lynchie

        Yeah. you can’t register because, because, because. You can’t regulate because, because, because. Your time is over. Now is the time to limit # of guns, amount of ammo, semi autos, and on and on. If it isn’t the deer hunters its the home protection or some other false canard. Simple register your guns, get a permit, carry insurance and have all guns locked up.

        • Drew2u

          My family hunts deer and we have no problem with the idea of registering our shotguns.

          • ComradeRutherford

            Shotguns? To hunt deer?

            • Drew2u

              Sorry, rifles. I was thinking turkeys for a second. We’ve had an increase in turkeys and pheasants the past couple of years, it’s weird.
              But yeah, no problems with the idea of registering our guns.

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