December 30, 2012

NRA Boss Labled 'Craziest Man on Earth'

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The New York Daily News labeled him the “Craziest Man on Earth” in recent front-page headline. The New York Post piled on with “Gun Nut! NRA loon in bizarre rant over Newtown.”

But Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association, is unabashed about calling for the government to place armed guards in every American school in response to the massacre of 20 first-graders in Newtown, Conn.

As President Obama stepped up his call to the public to pressure lawmakers to tighten gun regulations, Mr. LaPierre was pushing back against his critics and supporters of gun control.

“If it’s crazy to call for putting police and armed security in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy,” he said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The NRA waited a week before issuing a statement on the Dec. 14 slaughter of the 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School by a gunman who opened fire with a semiautomatic assault rifle. Mr. LaPierre’s Dec. 21 speech in Washington drew protesters and stoked the fierce debate over U.S. gun laws in a nation with a culture of gun ownership and a history of school shootings and other gun violence.

The proposal to place armed guards in every school, an idea the NRA has long supported, drew the most criticism. Rep. Chris Murphy, the congressman from Newtown’s district, tweeted:  “Walking out of another funeral and was handed the NRA transcript, the most revolting, tone deaf statement I’ve ever seen.”

The NRA proposal also drew fire from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the nation’s largest teachers union and Mark Kelly, the husband of former U.S. Representative Gabrielle

Giffords, who was hurt last year in a mall shooting by a gunman in Tucson, Ariz.

But LaPierre is pressing ahead, calling his idea “the one thing that we can do immediately that will immediately make our children safe,” he said. He scoffed at President Obama and others who instead want to reinstate a federal ban on high-powered assault rifles to prevent more massacres. The ban expired in 2004.

LaPierre cited shootings that took place when the ban was in effect, including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado. Meanwhile, President Obama sought to rally those appalled by the massacre to join him in the fight for stiffer gun laws. Already more than 250,000 people have sign a petition for tougher gun laws posted on the White House website.

“I need your help,” the president said in a video to the public he issued last Friday. He issued it after assigning Vice President Joe Biden to lead a cabinet group to come up with “concrete proposals” to change gun laws. That includes clamping down on the sale and ownership of the rapid-firing, military-style assault weapons that enabled the Connecticut gunman to easily mow down his victims, the president indicated.

“If we’re going to succeed” in changing the nation’s gun laws, President Obama said citizens must make their voices heard to get lawmakers to stand up to the gun lobby’s opposition.

“It’s going to take a sustained effort from mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, law enforcement and responsible gun owners organizing and speaking up,” he said.

He said it also would take people calling their “members of Congress as many times as it takes and saying, ‘Enough’ on behalf of all of our kids.”

Along with reinstating the defunct ban on sale of assault weapons, the president also wants Congress to ensure that everyone gets a background check before buying a weapon. His goal: To get Congress to close the loophole that now allows anyone to sell at gun shows without requiring buyers to undergo that kind of check.

But the President knows he faces a hard slog going up against groups like the NRA and their congressional allies. Republican U.S. Sen Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for example, opposes reinstating the ban on assault weapons.

“The assault weapons ban didn’t work then, and it won’t work now,” Sen. Graham said in a statement he issued through Twitter. He disclosed that he owns the same type of assault rifle used by 20-year-old Adam Lanza to kill the 20 schoolchildren and six educators at the Newtown school.

“I own an AR-15. I’ve got it at my house,” Sen. Graham said. “The question is if you deny me the right to buy another one, have you made America safer? I do believe better security in schools is a better place to start.”

Other gun rights advocates in Congress, such as Virginia Sen. Mark R. Warner, have indicated a willingness to consider new gun restrictions immediately after the Newtown shooting. U.S. lawmakers have not approved a major new federal gun law since 1994.

“It’s gonna be a battle,” Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut told CNN’s “State of the Union.” He and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized the NRA for blaming gun violence on everything but guns.

Sen. Schumer declared on a Sunday talk show that an attempt to prevent shootings in schools without talking about guns “is like trying to prevent lung cancer without talking about cigarettes.”