The NRA's Response

I don’t normally post on the weekend, but the NRA’s response to the Newtown tragedy yesterday requires reaction from all of us.

Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the NRA said “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” and he is calling for armed guards to be stationed at all schools across the nation.

What would that cost? Some estimates put it in the billions of dollars. It is unrealistic and cost prohibitive.

We are already a fear-based society given the freedoms relinquished and infringed upon by laws following 9/11 and the money spent protecting against terrorism domestically and fighting it overseas.

The NRA’s myopic response feeds into that fear. Mr. LaPierre’s words were dispassionate, self-serving, and cruel to the memory of all those killed with assault-style weapons over the last few years.

We need a national dialogue, not more gun solutions and a didactic diatribe from an organization that has manipulated, managed and lobbied Congress with pro-gun laws for decades.

The 2^nd amendment is sacred to our constitution and is an important component to our democracy. No one wants to eliminate the second amendment, but we do need a meaningful multi-logue on the kind of weapons the amendment guarantees.

Let us come together and reason, not out of sorrow and not out of self-interest, but out of wisdom for the greater good of all of us.