To call this a press conference is to mislabel what transpired. The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre decided to give a speech, and the group refused at the outset to consider questions from the reporters that had been invited to the event. It went downhill from there. It was hard to tell at times whether LaPierre was serious or had become a spectacular performance artist, making a dramatic statement about the absurdity of the NRA’s increasingly twisted worldview…. The NRA leader this morning blamed gun-free school zones, the media, the entertainment industry, video games, music he doesn’t like, existing gun-control laws, and President Obama as all sharing collective responsibility for tragic violence. Guns, however, are fine. LaPierre was willing to call for a new national database. Of firearms? No. Of gun owners? No. What the NRA wants instead is a new national database of Americans with mental illness. This was a public-relations fiasco that only John Boehner can properly relate to.
Last week, I put forward the not-exactly-revolutionary idea that Wayne LaPierre, President of the National Rifle Association, is Satan Incarnate. I realize that will sound somewhat bombastic and hyperbolic to some, but after yesterday’s press conferene, I’m more convinced than ever that LaPierre is the Prince of Darkness.
After having promised for days that the press conference would represent the NRA’s “significant contribution” to the dialogue revolving around guns in our society, LaPierre “Rick-rolled” America. Instead of an honest proposal to address the ridiculous oversupply of guns in America, LaPierre engaged in a piece of cynical performance art that was wholly unconvincing, unserious, and insulting.
The reality is that Wayne LaPierre cares little for anything or anyone save the gun industry and gun owners. When you respond to two horrific massacres in one week, including one that primarily killed first-graders, by proposing EVEN MORE GUNS be injected into society, you’re a very sick person.
As the NRA leader sees it, the only proper solution to “a bad guy with a gun” is … wait for it … “a good guy with a gun.” With that in mind, LaPierre’s big new idea is armed guards at every school in the United States.
No, seriously, that’s what he wants….
Honestly, it seemed like LaPierre was going out of his way to alienate even people who might be skeptical about new gun laws and sympathetic to his arguments. Gun-control advocates shouldn’t have been annoyed by the NRA’s public-relations disaster, they should have been thrilled.
So, the only proper response to the epidemic of gun violence in this country is to introduce EVEN MORE firepower into the equation? Surely, LaPierre can’t be serious?
Actually, he’s dead serious, and he’d probably appreciate not being called “Shirley.” Ah, but I digress….
I suppose the good thing about LaPierre’s performance is that he was honest. No longer should any lucid observer entertain any thought that he’s capable of displaying even the barest shred of humanity. He’s made his allegiance crystal clear; he’s completely beholden to the interests of gun manufacturers and gun owners. Anything that doesn’t fall within those bounds doesn’t matter; that includes human life.
Is it any wonder I’m convinced that Wayne LaPierre is Satan Incarnate?
P.S.- Some folks actually agreed with LaPierre. I never cease to marvel at the ability of those wedded to their guns to unquestioningly swallow the prevailing propaganda. You’re certainly free to your beliefs, y’all…but you’re not free to cherry-pick your facts.
