Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

This fight is for everything.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

You are here: Home / Gun Issues / Gun nuts / NRA Hacks Holding Press Conference

NRA Hacks Holding Press Conference

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Shorter Wayne LaPierre so far: MOAR GUNS!

Protester scores points with “NRA Kills Children” sign.

Update: Calls for national database of the mentally ill. Christ.

Update II: Blames gun-free zones, media, videos, Hollywood, music, hurricanes, natural disasters, etc. Oh, and another protester!

Update III: Calls for armed guards in schools. Well, that would increase gun sales.

And Maddow sums it up (H/T — Comrade Jake):

maddow_tweet

Update IV: The craven son of a bitch is proposing to let the NRA implement an armed security guard program in schools. There isn’t a circle of hell hot enough, fellow citizens…

Presser over. Wow, what a bizarre, rambling rant. LaPierre was clearly moved — by self-pity. The “Leave Britney Alone” guy was more credible and articulate in stating his case. This was just weird.

Reader Interactions

255Comments

  9. 9.

    GregB

    LaPierre should have had Ted Nugent open the show by waving around an AR15 and shouting for Obama to suck on this and then call Hillary Clinton a bitch.

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    Vicious violent video games. Like

    Bulletstorm!

    So video can kill, but a gun is just a gun.

    Any psychiatrists out there? Mr. LaPierre belongs on his own proposed database.

  11. 11.

    Anya

    Grand Wizard of the NRA speaks. If there’s any justice in the world he would be arrested as an accessory to murder.

  12. 12.

    Corner Stone

    I think it would be awesome if the press corps there just started getting up and filtering out so he was left talking to Fox News and no one else.

  13. 13.

    Villago Delenda Est

    How about a national database on semi-automatic military grade weapons?

    I guess we can’t talk about THAT.

  14. 14.

    Elizabelle

    Shorter NRA conference.

    We haven’t learned a damned thing from the latest mass murder.

    But we excel at poutrage.

  19. 19.

    Corner Stone

    Just a tip, but I wouldn’t start admonishing the press about relative bullet force and energy.

  20. 20.

    GregB

    Well, at least LaPierre is declaring war on America.

    The media, the government, the idiot monsters that fill America.

    He’s asking for a shitload of blow-back.

  22. 22.

    David in NY

    Yeah. Lanza killed those kids with a video game, didn’t he.

    Also. Somebody with skillz should record and publicize (YouTube?) the message that Lapierre (capital P?) spouts at you when you call the NRA and are put on hold. It is a lengthy and vile attack on Obama. My guess is its public exposure would not help their image (but I’m so often wrong).

  24. 24.

    Corner Stone

    “More guns, you’ll claim, is the NRA’s answer to everything.”

    That’s the only true thing he’s said all day.

  26. 26.

    Comrade Jake

    “The NRA has rickrolled the whole country into watching just another standard Wayne LaPierre stump speech saying we need more guns.” – Rachel Maddow, on Twitter

  28. 28.

    andy

    LaPierre is citing a 10 year old internet flash game as the cause of the problem. His act will be a hit with the olds.

    Just dragged a lady with sign out- LaPierre goes on with his presentation.

    Now he’s nutpicking semantics. Automatic vs semi-automatic, the relative power of the .223, the usual thread killers.

    Now he’s saying we need more armed HEEEE-ROWS.

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Update III: Calls for armed guards in schools. Well, that would increase gun sales.

    Well, this is pretty much in accord with the NRA’s primary mission, as a PR and lobbying organ for the merchants of death: sell more guns and ammo.

  32. 32.

    PsiFighter37

    This guy is a complete asshole. I’ve never heard him speak before, but his logic is idiotic beyond belief. How can so many congresscritters be beholden to this clown?!

  34. 34.

    Culture of Truth

    I think they’re getting desperate.

    New Texas State Representative Kyle Kacal:
    “Ping-pongs are more dangerous than guns.”

  35. 35.

    bemused

    It is so disturbing to listen to this guy. I feel like throwing up. If we did have a database for the mentally ill, he should be at the top of the list.

  36. 36.

    Narcissus

    I have actual diagnosed OCD. Would I be on that database?

    Also I’m going to get into my time machine and go back to 1993 and play splatterhouse

  38. 38.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Whidby:

    Press conference is a dumb move… They should have just released a video.

    The video would have went nuts and opened fire on a crowd.

  39. 39.

    Kristin

    You know how the gun nuts are all, “evil people are going to do bad things no matter what regulations are enacted”? I’m not sure anyone is more evil than LaPierre.

  44. 44.

    Comrade Jake

    Shorter NRA: we waited a week to tell you we need more guns, because that’s how long it took us to wash the blood off our hands.

  45. 45.

    Corner Stone

    @David in NY: A lady stood up, walked forward and unfurled a big poster with anti NRA slogans on it. As she was escorted out she was screaming, “Ban assault rifles!” and other good stuff.
    It was awesome.

  46. 46.

    Culture of Truth

    If there is one thing we can all agree on, it’s that Newtown was a tragedy and that America does not have enough guns.

  48. 48.

    Brachiator

    Meagan McCardle is thanking LaPierre for relieving her of the title of Stupidest Person in the Universe.

  51. 51.

    Soonergrunt

    I wonder how many of these mass shooters or the people who provided them with guns have been NRA members.

  53. 53.

    Elizabelle

    Do you think this might be Wayne Lapierre’s swan song?

    That he’s so out there that even the NRA will realize he has to go, while they regroup under someone with the same beliefs, but who didn’t preside over this shambolic press conference.

    And NO — we don’t need an armed police officer in every school.

  54. 54.

    batgirl

    JFC, we are going to put our kids in a jail. He wants every single person armed and carrying. He is a sick fuck. And his sadness and anger is a joke.

  55. 55.

    GregB

    This fucking monster is declaring war on America. He is a fucking monster among us.

    He and Nugent and the rest of these war mongering sociopaths are fucking insane.

    I want to vomit.

  57. 57.

    donnah

    Why hold a vile press conference like this? We all knew he was going to get on TV and blame the vicitms, blame video games, blame a lack of morals, call for more guns, less legislation, and to top it all off, use a snotty, sanctimonious, sneering tone. If there was a god, Wayne would explode into a million disgusting little pieces and evaporate like a dust cloud.

  59. 59.

    SatanicPanic

    @Villago Delenda Est: I’m actually fine with having an armed guard sitting in a box somewhere in the school, who could be called on only in the event of a violent crime. I mean, he’ll probably be the first person taken out by a shooter, but in theory I’m not opposed to this.

  62. 62.

    shortstop

    It’s like they’re aliens who walk among us. They have no point of confluence with normal humans. At all.

  63. 63.

    Soonergrunt

    @Elizabelle: There is no reason to believe that NRA is getting rid of Lapierre. It’s a personality cult centered on him, so I don’t see it.

    “And NO — we don’t need an armed police officer in every school.”
    Better that than the “arm the teachers” idiots. And I’d rather get rid of semi-automatic weapons fed from detachable magazines, myself.

  64. 64.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Corner Stone:

    Just a tip, but I wouldn’t start admonishing the press about relative bullet force and energy.

    Really, a dead kid in Connecticut isn’t going to be very much concerned with those technical details; he or she is still dead, regardless of the relative bullet force and energy of the rounds that entered his or her body and snuffed out a life not yet lived.

  67. 67.

    Dave

    This is just another byproduct of the Republican Echo Chamber. For 30+ years, they have isolated themselves more and more, listening only to people that feel the same way that they do. And then when reality pierces that veil (national elections, national tragedies) they are utterly incapable of forming rational decisions and responses.

    This press conference is insane. Proposing a DB for the mentally ill instead of handguns? Blaming a video game? 27% of America is going to love this and the rest will see it as a national embarrassment.

  68. 68.

    Paula

    Every single one of LaPierre’s anecdotes and recommendations are bullshit in actual active shooter situations.

    He wants to change the entire culture of education and public space for guns.

    The NRA is a terrorist organization hell-bent on destroying our way of life.

  70. 70.

    Elizabelle

    This presser is fodder for a zillion 2013 and 2014 campaign ads.

    Do you want the NRA funding your congresscritter/governor?

    Do you want to pay to have an armed police officer in your child’s school (even as we lay teachers off, those public dole scamps!), so that every paranoid gun owner in America can keep their assault weapons.

    Because —

    Video games.

    And foreign aid money.

  71. 71.

    bemused

    @Elizabelle:

    The people on the NRA board like Ted Nugent are probably yelling, hell, yeah. CEO gun manufacturers on the board might be yelling STFU, you stupid moron.

  74. 74.

    Whidby

    @Soonergrunt: every small to mid sized gun shop owner I know is an NRA member.

    I wonder if large arms retailers like Dicks or Walmart contribute to NRA?

    I know Cabelas, Midway and Cheaper than Dirt do… To at least they have offer “round up your purchase to donate to the NRA” at checkout.

  78. 78.

    Dave

    @SatanicPanic: Agreed. I would be more than willing to pay more taxes to hire and train more police officers that could be stationed at or near a school. But arming anyone else is just insane.

  80. 80.

    WarMunchkin

    “There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people,” LaPierre said. “Through vicious, violent video games with names like “Bulletstorm,” “Grand Theft Auto,” “Mortal Kombat,” and “Splatterhouse.”

    He then highlighted an online game called “Kindergarten Killers” that he said has been accessible on the Internet for a decade.

    The last successful Mortal Kombat release was years ago, and it doesn’t have guns. The last GTA release was in 2008. Splatterhouse is a Japanese game from 1998. Don’t know about Bulletstorm. Kindergarten Killers is a… flash game.

    Not that I agree with this guy, but notably exempt from this tirade are Halo, Call of Duty and Battlefield. Ironic, considering what he says after:

    “How come my research staff can find it and all of yours couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?”

    Yeah.

  81. 81.

    batgirl

    @donnah: If there was a god one of the protesters would have pulled out a gun [instead of a banner] and shot the fucker. No, I don’t really mean that but it feels good to say it.

  82. 82.

    Culture of Truth

    Tax cuts! ——> Depression

    ——–> MOAR TAX CUTS!

    Guns ——> Gun massacres

    ——> MOAR GUNS!!

  83. 83.

    Citizen Alan

    Is there even any reason to believe that Lands even PLAYED violent video games?!? Or does the mere existence of Call of a Duty naturally inflame people through a disturbance in the Force?

  84. 84.

    Citizen Alan

    Is there even any reason to believe that Lands even PLAYED violent video games?!? Or does the mere existence of Call of a Duty naturally inflame people through a disturbance in the Force?

  86. 86.

    elmo

    Update III: Calls for armed guards in schools. Well, that would increase gun sales.

    Not to mention the other right-wing bugaboo: it would increase TAXES.

    I pointed this out in another thread, but I think it’s worth mentioning again. The Federal Protective Service spends about $800M/year on the contract security force that protects Federal buildings and offices. These are well-trained armed guards, not mall cops, but I think they’d be the bare minimum level of guard you would need to stop a shooter. Most of them make around $35K – $60K a year if they work full time (wages vary wildly by region). Call it an average of $42K a year.

    There are more than 100,000 public schools in this country. Put even one guard in each school, and you’re talking about $4B a year just to pay the guards, much less the overhead, taxes, and other ancillary costs. At a minimum – a bare minimum – you’re talking about $5B-$6B a year for a program to put even one armed guard in each public school.

    These people wouldn’t even agree to pay more taxes to go to war. Who thinks they’re going to pay more taxes to protect some lousy public schools?

  89. 89.

    kc

    Actually, a local school here has an armed “resource officer.” He shot and killed a kid (in fairness, the kid attacked him first and stabbed him).

  91. 91.

    Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937

    Was linking ‘gangs and thugs’ with lack of federal prosecution of gun laws a dog whistle?

  93. 93.

    JasonF

    I’m disgusted that someone who heads a putative civil rights organization that is concerned about the government seizing inanimate objects is proposing that the government maintain a database of “dangerous” citizens whose only “crime” is that they have a health problem.

  94. 94.

    Suzanne

    Thing is, I’m not sure how you keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill without creating some sort of database and requiring gun dealers to check it prior to sale, and forbidding private-party and gun show sales. I really don’t know how to effectively do this.

  95. 95.

    Culture of Truth

    There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people

    Let me guess…. hunting… shooting ranges..?

  99. 99.

    Scratch

    I think Mr. LaPierre is gravely wrong. The answer isn’t just simply more guns. It’s more, better, deadlier guns with ever more firepower. We need to expand clip sizes and make hair-triggers mandatory so the security forces and teachers who volunteer to carry will have maximum firepower at their disposal. The only answer to more guns is more and better guns.

    Also, we need to start firearms training for the kindergartners. Hopefully by the age of 12 they will be skilled with using submachine guns and you can sure bet that the Adam Lanzas won’t be targeting schools anymore with just their pathetic outdated Bushmasters.

  100. 100.

    shortstop

    @elmo: No, no, we’ll pay for it out of our bloated FOREIGN AID budget. I have not been able to listen to the whole thing, but I assume he also took a crack at T bone-buying young bucks on food stamps.

  101. 101.

    Elizabelle

    @bemused:

    CEO gun manufacturers on the board might be yelling STFU, you stupid moron.

    That’s what I’m thinking.

    Also NRA members that don’t want to be associated with Wayne Lapierre’s ranting.

    I think a lot of Congresscritters are watching this too and thinking “Oh shit.”

  102. 102.

    Anya

    @Soonergrunt: I bet Adam Lanza was a member. If the reports are correct that his mom took him to a shooting range and taught him how to use a firearm then it’s fair to conclude that they were both NRA members.

  106. 106.

    Culture of Truth

    Lanza actually went to shooting ranges, for real.

    LaPierre wants to increase government, raise taxes, and ban ranges and hunting. What a sicko.

  107. 107.

    kc

    Do I think some video games are way too violent? Yeah, but for the life of me, I can’t recall the last time when someone armed with only a video game killed 26 people in a school.

  108. 108.

    Corner Stone

    Somebody upthread used the word “vile”. I’m not sure it’s powerful enough but it is accurate. This was one of the most vile displays I’ve seen in a while. And it was planned for days!
    Who could see this vile POS cock his head and shake it admonishingly as he practices his transference dance and think this was a good idea?
    His tone, everything just set my teeth to grinding.

  110. 110.

    shortstop

    @Suzanne: Pretty sure Wayne’s plan is to simply use the database to look up mass shooters after they murder, and say, “See! He was crazy! It wasn’t about the guns at all!”

  112. 112.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937:

    What do you do with a national database of mentally ill?

    Well, it’s a great mailing list for your latest catalog of semiautomatic military grade weapons and accessories, to include high-capacity magazines (“clips”, for you civilians out there), blueing agent, and other gun fetish must haves.

  114. 114.

    batgirl

    @Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937:

    What do you do with a national database of mentally ill?

    And how do you create it? Does everyone who visits a psychiatrist or psychologist or social worker have to be reported to the database? If not all you are getting are those you have been institutionalized against their wills or those who have been arrested and are in the system. This would not have included Lanza.

  117. 117.

    shortstop

    @Elizabelle: I don’t really know, so this is a serious question: Are there still NRA members who don’t agree with LaPierre? Every gun owner I know has either left or never belonged to this organization.

    Has it become like the GOP, with a membership boiled down to a pure concentration of crazy? And if not, how many members walked out after last Friday?

  121. 121.

    Culture of Truth

    I would not call for violence against LaPierre. But it would be funny if someone dressed as PacMan rushed the stage and tried to gobble him.

  122. 122.

    Scratch

    Of course, the gun manufacturers are hoping that their shill, Mr. LaPierre, doesn’t forget to urge all Americans to buy some last-minute guns for Christmas.

  124. 124.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Suzanne:

    Preventative action that impedes gun sales is NOT a solution.

    The database will be for pointing fingers as a hand waving exercise to distract us all from the latest body count.

  125. 125.

    General Stuck

    Big BIG money involved. The NRA spokespersons for the gun manufacturer lobby, is just the current version of something like the big tobacco companies. It won’t be till the bodies stack up so high, that they will have no more safe harbor. So it’s full speed ahead with the gun dogma, to keep Billy Bob armed and dangerous for the commie hords a coming over the hill for his tiny pecker and precious bodily fluids.

  127. 127.

    GregB

    Perhaps we can start the mentally ill database by asking LaPierre to forward the membership list of the NRA to the database compiler.

  128. 128.

    Amir Khalid

    TPM reports that the media at this event are not to ask questions of the NRA. Inviting the media to a “press conference” and not letting them ask you questions about what you’ve just told them is cowardice.

  129. 129.

    The Dangerman

    Regarding the NRA’s “meaningful contribution”, what in the fuckingest of fucks was that shit? They must be fucking out of their minds (and, if that is their meaningful contribution, they are about to get royally fucked up the ass, because that won’t play in Peoria).

  131. 131.

    El Caganer

    Wayne LaPierre advocating for more guns? Next you’ll be trying to tell me that John McCain might appear on a talk show this Sunday or something equally ridiculous.

  134. 134.

    Alex

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

    That can’t be true, because Megan McArdle told me that twenty first graders is all it takes.

  136. 136.

    Alex

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

    That can’t be true, because Megan McArdle told me that twenty first graders is all it takes.

  137. 137.

    Chyron HR

    @Rosalita:

    #isittooearlytostartdrinking

    Sorry, but in this country we have a little something called the EIGHTEENTH AMENDEMENT that prohibits the sale of alcohol. And everybody knows you can never get rid of a Constitutional amendment.

  138. 138.

    Culture of Truth

    They should have just called for stricter enforcement of existing laws, and closing the gun show loophole. Then they could look at reasonable and shit.

    But, no, they had to double-down on the crazy. Well I’m glad. Let everyone see the NRA leaders for who they really are.

  141. 141.

    Scratch

    If Facebook had a dislike button, I’d be tempted to log into it again and dislike any sort of NRA-related Facebook content.

  144. 144.

    Culture of Truth

    It occurs to me that if this crime had happened in October the GOP would blame Newtown for Obama’s reelection.

  149. 149.

    GregB

    After watching that press conference I vote for adding making Wayne LaPierre the first name on the federal database of mentally ill people who should not be allowed near a fire-arm.

  151. 151.

    Soonergrunt

    @Amir Khalid: The kind of cowardice that comes with thinking you need an assault rifle, a tactical shotgun, and two pistols to protect yourself from everything and every one outside your door?

  152. 152.

    virginia

    Unbelievable. A remarkable 24 hours — bookends of insanity. Craven is right. I can smell a March on Washington in the air. I guess the meaningful contribution will be to the anti-assault weapon movement bec. this crap just isn’t going to fly. Video games, Hollywood, monsters in our midst, mental illness databases — and all of this sporting a pretty good-looking Bryan Ferry hairdo. Jesus weeps.

  153. 153.

    SatanicPanic

    @Dave: We need more cops in general. The training is different, and I don’t remember them carrying guns, but in Japan cops are everywhere, and police kiosks are on pretty much every block. It’s not just the vaunted Japanese culture keeping people from committing crimes.

  154. 154.

    R-Jud

    @Chyron HR:

    Sorry, but in this country we have a little something called the EIGHTEENTH AMENDEMENT that prohibits the sale of alcohol. And everybody knows you can never get rid of a Constitutional amendment.

    Win.

  155. 155.

    Culture of Truth

    We are learning there is no amount of Big Government conservatives will not accept in order to protect themselves from Big Government

  156. 156.

    Corner Stone

    @batgirl:

    If there was a god one of the protesters would have pulled out a gun [instead of a banner] and shot the fucker. No, I don’t really mean that but it feels good to say it.

    Wouldn’t the ultimate had been if one pulled a paint ball gun and splattered LaP’s ass red then threw himself/herself on the floor? All while screaming at him, “Where’s your assault rifle now bitch!?”

  157. 157.

    David Hunt

    @donnah:

    If there was a god, Wayne would explode into a million disgusting little pieces and evaporate like a dust cloud.

    I always fantasize lightning striking them, simultaneously striking them dead and branding the word “liar” on their forehead. I’m not proud of it. I try not wish harm on anyone. Even people like LaPierre and Dick Cheney I try to simply keep in my “wouldn’t piss of him if he were on fire” list, but I don’t always succeed.

  159. 159.

    Morbo

    The NRA makes much more sense if you think of it as a marketing arm of gun manufacturers rather than an advocacy group.

  161. 161.

    Betty Cracker

    @David Hunt: I imagine those hokey-ass shadow-demons from “Ghost” dragging them to hell. Even though I don’t believe in shadow-demons, ghosts or hell.

  162. 162.

    Narcissus

    I think the upshot is that a totalitarian police-state is a-ok with the NRA so long as everyone has a gun.

  163. 163.

    Corner Stone

    @Rosalita:

    #isittooearlytostartdrinking

    It’s never too early for John Boehner, and he Speaks for me.
    Of course, I’m about the only person he’s Speaker of at this point, but I’m easy when it comes to alcohol.

  164. 164.

    Suzanne

    @shortstop: Oh, I’m sure that,s his actual intent. But I do think that society has a valid interest in keeping guns out of the violently mentally ill, and there really is no way to do that without having a database, or having to have a license to buy a gun and then a psychiatrist has the power to have the license taken away. (I’m epileptic, and this is how my neurologist could take my driver’s license away if I didn’t,t have my seizures under control.)

  166. 166.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Morbo:

    Which is what it was founded as, right after the end of the Civil War, when all those weapons manufacturers were looking at a serious drop in sales seeing as the war was, erm, over.

  167. 167.

    amk

    @donnah: If there was a god, then some nutjob armed with a coupla assault rifles would have gatecrashed the pc and shot this fucker and the assembled press minions in their faces.

  168. 168.

    shortstop

    @Suzanne: I totally agree with you, of course. I’m sure the media will be all over this, but of course not at this “press conference” where they weren’t allowed to question the Wizard of LaPierre.

  170. 170.

    stratplayer

    National databases of the mentally ill? Implicity calling for regulation of media content? It seems all other civil liberties must yield to the Second Amendment in the minds of the gun fanatics. They’re really jumped the shark.

  171. 171.

    1badbaba3

    Remember when guys like Cheney, Norquist, and LaPierre were content to lurk in the shadows? Yet in recent years, each of them has felt compelled to come out of the closet and go public with their particular fetish. Given that the effects are always deleterious to their stated causes, one has to wonder why they would take such a risk.

    I wonder what or who might have prompted such obviously foolhardy responses?

  172. 172.

    JCT

    And we ask why these gun nuts spew crazy bullshit about false flag operations, etc?? Here’s their psychotic leader.

    Really — someone talented should string together some video snippets of this crackpot, the nutcase Piers Morgan interviewed and the scary dude fondling his AR-15 and calling it his “baby” and distribute it. Yes folks, this is why we have so much gun violence. Paranoid assholes who are armed to the teeth and want to arm everyone else.

    And those “NRA round up” requests on the internet piss me off to no end.

  177. 177.

    roc

    So a federal registry of dangerous property is the first well-intentioned pave-stone on an inevitable path to tyranny. But a federal registry of people with poorly defined genetic/mental conditions is a great idea?

    I know the only “Right” the political right cares about, is the right to private profit (and political power for those who pledge fealty to it). And everything else is bullshit spewed to try to make “more private profit” seem like the morally correct path. But you’d think they could at least *try* to make the bullshit hold together.

    It’s really hard to not lose all respect for half the damn country, when these clowns can repeatedly spew self-contradictory, trivially-falsifiable nonsense and never pay any sort of price; not even in the media.

  180. 180.

    r€nato

    The US is a country with 315 million people and 300 million firearms. Nearly 1 for every American. First in per-capita firearm ownership in the world.

    How many guns are enough? 500 million? 1 billion? 5 billion? 10 billion? How many would be enough for the NRA? How many would be too many? Is there even such a thing?

  181. 181.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I do believe that the NRA used the week of “common decency” to carefully purge its membership rolls of anyone named “Lanza”.

  182. 182.

    handsmile

    If you were outraged by what LaPierre just said, please note that he’ll get a chance to repeat it all this Sunday morning on Meet the Press with Dancin’ Dave. A pas de deux interview, with LaPierre leading. And you can be damned sure that will be a protestor-free zone.

    As a professional courtier, Dave will make sure that viewers understand that the “meaningful contributions” offered by LaPierre and the NRA are serious, reasonable, and best of all, bipartisan.

    LaPierre’s swan song? Poor public relations? Hardly. The question to ask is why the American corporate media continues to give the microphone to these ghouls?

  183. 183.

    David Hunt

    @elmo:

    These people wouldn’t even agree to pay more taxes to go to war. Who thinks they’re going to pay more taxes to protect some lousy public schools?

    Ah, but everyone who knows anything realizes that the federal budget is bloated with stuff that needs to be cut, like food stamps, Medicaid, and national parks that should have been strip-mined decades ago. We don’t have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem!

    And yes I am fully aware that either state a local government are the ones that be stuck paying for this BS or the Feds doing it would be a government takeover of education.

  184. 184.

    Voice of dissent

    This article and the responses thereto make me want to vomit, but I managed to hold the bile back ’til some of you said you wanted to fuck those ghoulish-looking protestors.

    That sent me over the edge. Bleh, bleh, BAAAAAAAAAAAARF!

  186. 186.

    Anya

    Thing abt Boehner is that he never gets too high or too low, showed that today getting pummeled at presser, cheerfully resilient as ever

    This is a proof that lil Luke Russert has no original thought in his tiny head, he only repeats stuff he hears. The idiot thinks Boehner never gets too high or too low? He’s practically a no drama Boehner.

  189. 189.

    Keenan

    The armed “officer” at each school will be addressed by the kids and teachers as “Officer First-to-Die.”
    The discussion in my office of vileness is how stupid and unfair liberals, pussies, and non-guncrazy people are. As someone recently remarked, today I am ashamed to be a human.

  191. 191.

    Amir Khalid

    @Soonergrunt:
    Not quite. Looking to weaponry for false courage is one kind of cowardice; I think this is another kind that comes form being aware, however dimly, that what you have to say won’t withstand even the mildest scrutiny.

    The NRA has called a “press conference” and forbidden all questions because it fears that its inability to answer will be exposed. It doesn’t realise that forbidding questions is itself a tacit admission that it can’t answer them. Or that there is nothing to stop people in a forum like this one from picking apart statements made in public.

  192. 192.

    jp7505a

    Several points.
    The assumption is the cop will get the first shot and kill the bad guy. Cops get killed every day when the bad guy gets the first shot.

    Second where will all of these extra cops come from. These are the same people that are for cutting the state and local taxes that pay for the police.

    Third, while the police are guarding the schools, the nuts will shot up a school bus or a Taco Bell full of teenagers.

    As to the constitutional issue and the second amendment. Lets get real. The 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th have in one way or another been weakened or simply repealed by stealth with such laws as the patriot act and the warrentless wiretapping. Spineless or conservative judges have given the executive a free hand under the banner of war on terror. In many parts of the country Christianity is the defacto state religion. Jews are tolerated as cannon fodder for the second coming stories and Muslims should self deport. The press is owned by the corporate interests and freedom of assembly is only tolerated if it is no threat to the interests of the 1%.
    So it seems like the second amendment is the only one left (well it’s still true that you can’t billet redcoats in private homes thhanks to the 3rd).

    I have a cousin living in australia. Maybe it’s time to self-deport

  193. 193.

    pseudonymous in nc

    I can’t think of a more blatant declaration that the NRA simply does not believe in the concept of society. More than that: they seek to destroy belief in the concept of society.

  194. 194.

    SatanicPanic

    @David Hunt: We’ll cut foreign aid to pay for it. There’s a limitless pile of cash that we LITERALLY shovel onto boats bound for countries that HATE OUR GUTS.

  195. 195.

    Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac

    Saw a tweet this morning, but lost it:

    “The only way this NRA press conference makes sense is if it is going to end with ‘Live from New York its Saturday Night!'”

  196. 196.

    Corner Stone

    The proposal to place an armed guard in each school will be a balanced approach. They balance the cost of an armed guard with the cut of an equal amount of teachers.

  198. 198.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Amir Khalid:

    It doesn’t help that LaPierre’s performance today was such that even the most airheaded Villager would be scratching his or her head trying to parse what the hell he just said. Unless you have Inner Party doublethink discipline on your side, you’re going to have a cognitive problem with that “press lecture” that LaPierre just conducted.

  199. 199.

    The Dangerman

    @Keenan:

    The armed “officer” at each school will be addressed by the kids and teachers as “Officer First-to-Die.”

    Easy solution! Have multiple officers (more than 2, since #2 would be “Officer Second To Die”).

    I’m just curious how many deaths will occur because a previously unarmed teenager (that played too many video games, natch) somehow stole Officer FTD’s gun and shot him/her and a bunch of other people.

  200. 200.

    gogol's wife

    @Amir Khalid:

    When I called the NRA last Friday, as I was sitting on hold for 15 minutes, my heart was pounding as I thought of all the arguments I was going to offer for why they should change their ways. But as soon as the guy realized I wasn’t on his side, he hung up on me. I guess I should have expected it, but I didn’t. I realized he just couldn’t have another consciousness penetrating his bubble for even a second, even though he was paid to sit there and answer the phone.

  202. 202.

    JCT

    Paging Sen Manchin — hey buddy, are still “proud” of the NRA? Do you agree with what the Dear Leader said?

    Every single member of Congress that takes a dime from that ghoul should be asked for their comments on that sickening display.

    Divest! Hit them in the only thing they care about — their wallets.

  203. 203.

    ? Martin

    @Narcissus:

    I think the upshot is that a totalitarian police-state is a-ok with the NRA so long as everyone has a gun.

    You have something against freedom?

  205. 205.

    ? Martin

    And you must admit, it’s a bit funny that the NRA and LaPierre specifically is actively calling for more jack-booted government thugs.

    Anyone else doubting that they’re in a full-on panic?

  206. 206.

    Punchy

    I’m OK with the armed guards (after all, guards without arms have a hard time going to the bathroom or performing sign language), but where are they going to place the sandbags and turret and where will the M-60 ammo be stored? Will this guard wrap it around his neck Rambo-style?

  207. 207.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @? Martin:

    “Freedom from fear” is not an actual freedom, you know. It’s one of those FDR soshulist/muslim/atheist/commie/nazi/gay freedoms, and doesn’t count.

  208. 208.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Punchy:

    Will this guard wrap it around his neck Rambo-style?

    Yes.

    He’ll John Wayne the M60 (or SAW), real men don’t need a crew to serve that weapon. They badass it, bare chested, fully erect (in every sense of the word) as they take down the bad guys.

  209. 209.

    hedgehog the occasional commenter

    @r€nato:
    Until there’s one person left with all the guns.

    I’m convinced that, really, the gun nuts are afraid of the rest of us and won’t feel safe until we’re all dead.

  210. 210.

    ? Martin

    @Punchy:

    after all, guards without arms have a hard time going to the bathroom or performing sign language

    That’s stupid. Such easy problems to solve:

    1) Hire women.
    2) Yell louder.

    Oh, and you’re sexist and stuff.

  211. 211.

    David Hunt

    @Suzanne:

    Don’t worry. He doesn’t even want this done as a logical consequence of it would reduce gun sales. He’s just bringing it up because he has to come up with something that sounds like movement toward a solution that doesn’t mention gun control. He doesn’t want or expect anything like his proposal to happen.

  213. 213.

    Triassic Sands

    I apologize if someone has already said this:

    Update: Calls for national database of the mentally ill. Christ.

    We already have that, it’s called registered Republicans. (Give or take 5%)

  214. 214.

    Anya

    @Corner Stone: “Mr. LaPierre, what do you make of Mr. Obama’s inaction on voilent crimes?”

    “Some say the NRA is America’s last defense against government tyranny, Mr. LaPierre, what’s your take on that?”

  215. 215.

    JohnK

    The public can’t fund enough armed guards everywhere, schools, buses, trains, stadiums, churchs, malls, yada, yada. So everyone needs to pack a semi automatic concealable high capacity pistol because there could be multiple bad guys and you might miss and need multiple shots to kill them all. The innocent bystanders that get killed will be bygones, we’ll also need tort reform. Innocents killed in someone else’s self defense or someone else’s preceived common defense are just a cost of living in a dangerous world. Except that forcing everyone to carry a weapon, and a second for backup, as well as body armor and bullet proof backpacks, will make the world a much more dangerous place. A cost well worth paying for NRA and gun manufacturers profit. Jesus, are these NRA assholes really that stoopid?

  217. 217.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    Ask a heroin addict: the solution to any problem is, by some strange coincidence, more heroin.

  219. 219.

    handsmile

    @? Martin:

    “Anyone else doubting that they’re in a full-on panic?”

    Well, the crooning of Fat Tony and the Five Supremes should soothe any anxiety.

    And with their friends in the halls of Congress and the studios of the Village, Alfred E. Newman’s trademark quote could as well be the NRA’s slogan.

  220. 220.

    David Hunt

    @Elizabelle:

    That’s 36 known (because didn’t Adam Lanza kill himself with a handgun)?

    He did and we don’t know what weapon he used to murder his mother. People keep omitting her from their mental list of his victims.

  221. 221.

    Ash Can

    @JPL: On the contrary — not only should Gregory not cancel the interview, he should extend it, advertise the hell out of it, get as many people as possible to watch it. The entire nation needs to see just who and what the NRA is, and how imperative it is that it either be radically changed (back into what it used to be) or done away with.

  222. 222.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    If the reports are correct that his mom took him to a shooting range and taught him how to use a firearm then it’s fair to conclude that they were both NRA members.

    @Anya: Been shooting at ranges all my life and have never been a member of the NRA. Never would consider it. For my entire shooting life they’ve been GOP backers, and the FTD doesn’t give shitheads like that money.

    They did send me a bumpersticker once. I put it on the inside of my toilet, nice point of aim.

    Pretty sure the range owners were members, though.

  223. 223.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @David Hunt:

    The bottom line is that Freedom Group’s body count is racing away from Rockstar Games’ body count, and there is no chance of Rockstar ever catching up with them.

  225. 225.

    Corner Stone

    @handsmile:

    And with their friends in the halls of Congress and the studios of the Village, Alfred E. Newman’s trademark quote could as well be the NRA’s slogan.

    We all knew this whole “fiscal cliff” shenanny would end up going to the last second, if not beyond.
    But since we just watched LaPierre do his vile thing, I’m feeling kind of conspiracy minded.
    What if the R’s in Congress are now deliberately goatfucking the fiscal cliff madness as a way to delay any legislation being introduced or discussed? That way they can drag the timeline out and hope the public attention span + gun maker money can soothe the need for us doing anything?

  226. 226.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Alex:

    Not to mention all those armed, well-trained solders at Fort Hood who totally prevented a dozen deaths and 30-some wounded ….

    Oh. Hold on.

  229. 229.

    handsmile

    @Ash Can:

    With apologies, I’m reposting this comment I wrote yesterday on DougJ’s “Watch out where the huskies go” thread” to address why I disagree with the laudable sentiment of your comment:

    “I believe emphatically that those who are given the microphone by the corporate media determine the national discourse on any political, cultural or social issue. The US corporate media’s complicity in how issues of gun control/gun safety have been presented and understood must be recognized and condemned.

    Wayne LaPierre has been spewing his sociopathy in print and broadcast media for more than 20 years. If he were such an extremist, such a “nut case” he would not be permitted this luxury. NBC/”Meet the Press” legitimizes him, his organization, and its positions in a way that his appearance on Fox Noise or the Christian Broadcast Network would not. That he will appear alone with Dancin’ Dave only underscores and reconfirms his status

    New ideas, new thinking, new directions require new spokespersons. Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, Dan Gross (Brady Campaign president), or legal scholar/advocate Walter Dellinger, for example, are the ones who should be given that “Meet the Press” microphone and that prominence now.”

  230. 230.

    Comrade Mary

    I’m on deadlines, but I heard a bit on the CBC, and all I could think was When Evil Met Stupid.

  231. 231.

    Corner Stone

    @Anya: “Some say the problems we face are violent video games, mentally ill criminals, and a complete lack of accountability at the WH. Mr. LaPierre, how can you and your organization take the lead on keeping our children safe?”

  232. 232.

    Jay C

    @Narcissus:

    I think the upshot is that a totalitarian police-state is a-ok with the NRA so long as everyone every white Republican has a gun.

    Fixt for accuracy…

  233. 233.

    Ash Can

    @handsmile: I disagree in that I believe such a media appearance allows a broader ssegment of the nation see how evil, unhinged, and dangerous this guy is. If he were just some nutpicked blogger with a readership of eight people, I’d agree with you. Since he’s the head of the fucking NRA, however, we’re way past the point of worrying about granting him legitimacy. What needs to happen is for him to be exposed as being the hazard to this nation that he is.

  234. 234.

    FormerSwingVoter

    Okay. The NRA has declared that they will not be part of the solution. What gun-control advocacy groups donate to and lobby for politicians and policies? If we donate enough to a group so that it has the same amount of clout as the NRA, won’t that help make a difference?

  235. 235.

    handsmile

    @Corner Stone:

    It’s not at all “conspiracy minded.” Rather it’s a clear-eyed observation of how Congressional GOP extremists approach any federal legislation or appointment procedure: delay, distortion, obstruction, with the objective of defeat through frustration or exhaustion. (At the statehouse level, Republicans prefer stealth and speed.)

    They cynically recognize how easily the corporate media and the American public’s attention can be distracted by a new shiny object.

  236. 236.

    Soonergrunt

    @SiubhanDuinne: Well, it’s not like you walk around with your assigned weapon all day. They’re kept in Arms Rooms unless you’re actually using them. But that brings up an interesting argument. You’re not allowed to transport weapons and ammo together to the range, either. And you can’t leave the range until you’ve been inspected and proven that you don’t have any ammo on you.
    Let’s think about why the military doesn’t allow everybody and his brother uncontrolled access to assault weapons and ammo. Perhaps there’s a lesson there for the rest of society.

  238. 238.

    pat

    Maybe someone has already mentioned this (I’m late to the thread) but what good is a national registry of the mentally ill IF THEY WON’T ALLOW BACKGROUND CHECKS??

    They get more delusional every day.

  240. 240.

    handsmile

    @Ash Can:

    Appreciate your reply. I believe the very legitimacy of the NRA and its representatives needs to be challenged.

    Wayne LaPierre is a well-known and respected member of the Village media culture. As the NRA’s executive vice president and public face, he has long articulated its “evil, unhinged, and dangerous” policies and positions. If the objective or even the unintended consequence were to “expose” him, NBC would not have agreed to grant him a one-on-one interview, especially with the notoriously pliant David Gregory.

    Moreover, if LaPierre felt he had anything to fear from Gregory’s “interview” or if NBC had placed conditions he deemed unfavorable, he would have refused to appear.

    LaPierre is a coward. I suppose my underlying point is so is the American corporate media. Agreeing to widespread coverage of a NRA “press conference” at which no questions were permitted is but today’s example. Sunday’s “Meet the Press” appearance will be just one more.

  241. 241.

    Keenan

    @Soonergrunt: Exactly. Just what we need, a bunch of testosterone overdosed kids with sidearms in the soldiers’ quarters. I can write the headline now, “Soldier kills two because they were having sexytime.”

  242. 242.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Corner Stone: hadn’t thought of that at all, but it makes a hell of a lot of sense. Slow-walk everything, then leave town and wash their hands of the whole deal.

  244. 244.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Soonergrunt:

    Let’s think about why the military doesn’t allow everybody and his brother uncontrolled access to assault weapons and ammo. Perhaps there’s a lesson there for the rest of society.

    No, let’s not.

    /Wayne LaPierre

  245. 245.

    glocksman

    As an NRA member, let me speak my $.02.
    The last ban did little other than forcing manufacturers to elinimiinate flash hiders, bayonet lugss, etc., on existing weapons to make them legal, without making then any less useful for carrying out a massacre

    That said, I have no problem with making rilfe and pistol magazines 15 rounds capacity for civilian use.

    10 rounds to me is just political theater.

  246. 246.

    MCA1

    I love the protestors. The time is here and the window is open right now to start protesting and picketing the shit out of gun manufacturers, who launder their bloodlust advertising through the mouthpiece of the NRA. And also to start showing up in large numbers anywhere LaPierre speaks. I feel like it’s an emperor’s no clothes moment for a lot of the public right now, where everyone’s waking up to the basic fact of the incredibly outsized influence of this industry lobby on American politics and policy, and people need to strike while the iron’s hot to hurt the NRA’s reputation permanently. I’d also like to see more people start mocking gun nuts and change the basic playing field. We need the general perception of anyone who owns any gun other than a bird hunting shotgun or a deer rifle to be that of a loser and possible cult member, outside of polite and sane society. Put them on the defensive individually, and the entire discourse surrounding gun safety and registration laws changes eventually as they’re more reluctant to speak up. Every one of us this Christmas should be all up in our crazy uncle with the Guns ‘N Ammo subscription’s face about why we need 300 million firearms in this country; what good he thinks some clown in Idaho with a stockpile of 25 assault rifles and 5,000 rounds of ammunition in his garage does for our society, exactly; what government tyranny he’s worried about; how long he and his range buddies could hold out against the U.S. Army; and, if arming more people is the way to a safer society, why we inconveniently have far more guns per capita than anywhere in the civilized world, and far more gun-related deaths than anywhere in the civilized world.

    Now’s the time to change the coversation.

  247. 247.

    Edo

    Never before have I heard the NRA so explicitly call for restricting gun ownership before.

    Or, for that matter, so explicitly call for restricting it to The Right Kind of People.

  248. 248.

    glocksman

    As far as buyback progranms, go I’d be willinhg to sell back my Colt AR for at least what I paid for it.

    Less than that. good luck finding it.

  249. 249.

    les

    @glocksman:

    That said, I have no problem with making rilfe and pistol magazines 15 rounds capacity for civilian use.

    10 rounds to me is just political theater.

    Yeah, ’cause remember all those times Mr. Heroic Gunnut could’ve stopped a horrible crime, but ran out after ten rounds! Fer fucks sake, the stupid burns.

  251. 251.

    glocksman

    @glocksman:

    I am not a ‘gun nut’ anymore, but I am not willing to take a loss on a weapon that I can sell privately for at least what I paid for it.

    Though given the ban talk, I will support private sales going through a FFL holder for a background check.

    As for ‘private dealers’ selling guns at gun shows, that’s already illegal, and the ATF should be cracking down on those assholes.

  252. 252.

    glocksman

    @les:

    10 or 15 rounds, does it matter?

    My only problem is that a gun desgined for 15 rounds, yet forced to take a 10 round magagzine is larger than it needs to be.

    My first handgun was a Smith 3913 that held 8 rounds, and I wish I’d never sold it.

  253. 253.

    les

    @glocksman:

    My only problem is that a gun desgined for 15 rounds, yet forced to take a 10 round magagzine is larger than it needs to be.

    Well, that’s kinda the point. I don’t mind guns, or many people who have them. I’ve hunted and enjoyed it. The only time you need more than 5 rounds is to kill more than 5 people without reloading; the only time you need semi-auto is for bunches of people. 10, 15, 30 round magazines add nothing to hunting or range shooting; your 15 rounder probably could take a 30–but sorry, the problem is bigger than the max your gun could hold.

  254. 254.

    Betty Cracker

    @glocksman: Question for you: Do you feel that Wayne LaPierre’s performance today did credit to the organization of which you are a member?

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