[L]et’s talk about it. Let’s look at how many times crimes have been prevented by honest citizens bearing arms. Let’s also consider the statistics that show deaths caused by guns, including suicides, are more common in regions of the country where gun laws are the most lax. Let’s have a reasoned discussion that acknowledges the right to bear arms and also recognizes that every one of our liberties has a limit. Let’s try to craft sensible gun regulations that promote public safety in circumstances we can predict, even if they cannot stop the unpredictable, random horror of a gunman who has slipped past the boundaries of civilized life. Why do conservatives not want to have that discussion now? I’ll tell you why: Because they have let the most extreme elements of the gun-rights community dictate gun policy for the entire country and now they are afraid to cross them. For conservatives, this is not the time for a discussion about guns because, no matter how much blood is spilled, even in preventable circumstances, it is a discussion they never plan to have.
How many times have we heard it already? “Now is not the time to have this discussion. We should not be politicizing tragedy.” Yet the mere act of uttering those words politicizes the tragic massacre in Aurora, CO. Enforcing silence on gun control is a political statement, and the gun lobby can’t have that kind of uncertainty. Conservative and gun advocates know that if Americans begin talking about guns and gun control, they risk losing big. Yes, the Second Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights for a reason, but does a well-regulated militia and a citizen’s right to bear arms include assault weapons, whose sole purpose is to kill human beings? Shouldn’t assault weapons be in the hands of soldiers and not criminals?
If not now, then when? When will it “the right time” to discuss the role of guns in our society? When will it be time to talk about how and why Americans need weapons designed with the sole purpose of killing humans? When do we get to consider the results of Congress allowing the assault weapons ban to lapse in 2004? The undeniable fact is that the time will NEVER be right. We will NEVER get to discuss guns and gun control. Conservatives in Congress, the media, and the National Rifle Association work tirelessly to ensure that the time is never right. They will always be able to cite a reason why we shouldn’t discuss guns and gun control. No matter how many people die senselessly, there will never be an “appropriate” time for this discussion. Yeah, we certainly don’t want to be “politicizing” tragedy, do we??
The person most responsible for quashing any potential conversation is National Rifle Association President Wayne LaPierre. To say that LaPierre has blood on his hands from the Aurora massacre and other mass killings in America would be an understatement. LaPierre may not have pulled the triggers, but he’s certainly the biggest reasons why criminals are allowed access to assault weapons.
La Pierre has used his position to twist any potential conversation about guns into an attack by Big Government on the inalienable Second Amendment rights of Americans. In painting the Obama Administration as an intractable enemy of the Second Amendment, LaPierre has used propaganda and disinformation to instill fear among gun advocates…and he’s raised a boatload of money for the NRA along the way.
Except that there’s no pleasing LaPierre. Normally, he can be heard ranting at length about how Barack Obama wants to take our guns away. When it serves his purpose, though, he’s actually taken the opposite tack. It’s enough to set any sane person’s brain to spinning….
In the eyes of National Rifle Association (NRA) executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, President Barack Obama’s decision not to pursue gun control legislation is a “massive conspiracy,” and just another reason not to give him a second term.
“[The Obama campaign] will say gun owners — they’ll say they left them alone,” LaPierre told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday. “In public, he’ll remind us that he’s put off calls from his party to renew the Clinton [assault weapons] ban, he hasn’t pushed for new gun control laws… The president will offer the Second Amendment lip service and hit the campaign trail saying he’s actually been good for the Second Amendment.”
“But it’s a big fat stinking lie!” the NRA leader exclaimed. “It’s all part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and destroy the Second Amendment in our country.”
“Obama himself is no fool. So when he got elected, they concocted a scheme to stay away from the gun issue, lull gun owners to sleep and play us for fools in 2012. Well, gun owners are not fools and we are not fooled,” La Pierre declared.
“Sotomayor, Kagan, Fast & Furious, the United Nations, executive orders. Those are the facts we face today… President Obama and his cohorts, yeah, they’re going to deny their conspiracy to fool gun owners. Some in the liberal media, they are already probably blogging about it. But we don’t care because the lying, conniving Obama crowd can kiss our Constitution!”
Man; you just can’t please some people, knowhutimean? Especially when the person in question is more concerned about sowing propaganda and disinformation than in having an honest, informed conversation. LaPierre knows that he couldn’t control a reasoned and rational discussion. The result of that conversation might well break in a way that would please LaPierre, but he refuses to accept the uncertainty that accompanies it…and so he continues to attack the President, often irrationally and with little, if any, basis in fact.
America will never have this discussion, because Congress cowers in fear that Wayne LaPierre and the NRA might disapprove. And so massacres like Columbine, Red Lake, Aurora, etc., will continue unabated. The only question is where and when. Thankfully, these massacres are rare events, but each one is followed the same weeping and gnashing of teeth, followed by…crickets. Americans decry our gun-saturated society, all while knowing the likelihood of change is about the same as the likelihood Rush Limbaugh will announce that he’s moving to Massachusetts to marry Lance Bass.
The more things change…no, actually they don’t change, nor will they- not as long as Wayne LaPierre controls the conversation. And innocent Americans will continue to die…not that LaPierre cares. It’s the price that has to be paid to protect our Inalienable, God-given Second Amendment rights, no?
I’d like to see LaPierre be forced to explain to the survivors of those murdered in Aurora why the right to own an assault weapon is of greater value than the innocent lives lost.
