The NRA responds to Sandy Hook

Wayne Lapierre just blamed, in order "Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, and Splatterhouse" for the shooting, and a shitty indie shockwave/free download game called "Kindergarten Killers."

"We have bloodsoaked films out there like American Psycho and Natural Born Killers, running all day like propaganda loops..."

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

So he's blaming it all on video games and movies, apparently, and calling for MORE GUNS FOR EVERYONE.

Thoughts?

Additionally, he's been interrupted at least twice now, and just demanded armed police in every school in the country.

So...there you have it. The NRA doubles down.

Probably this should have gone in the Sanctum, is what I think.

In all seriousness: it's probably their only play; it's just a variant of the usual "It's the culture that's the problem" argument that you see firearms advocates trot out in order to keep anyone from paying attention to the role the availability of firearms plays in enabling violence.

What about all that violent hippity-hop music the kids listen to these days?

Wayne, you're slipping, man.

Did anyone have money on "the NRA will lead the charge on responsible gun ownership"?

Anybody? No?

Does anyone have a realistic assessment of the degree to which the NRA is an advocate on behalf of firearm-owners and enthusiasts vs. the degree to which they're an advocate for firearms manufacturers?

I heard some guy on NRR yesterday on the subject; and his implication was that the trending popularity of "tactical" firearms is due to manufacturers marketing them aggressively in order to make up for shortfalls in hunting rifle sales, which was their previous bread and butter.

Been wondering that as well, the stuff they advocate for makes little sense from the domain of responsible civic gun ownership, but tons of sense if you're actively working on behalf of that particular industry.

eg: Stand Your Ground is inane from a civic perspective, but from a gun selling perspective you want your customers to feel that they have maximum opportunity and freedom to advertise and use your product.

Pretty much my line of reasoning. I mean if you're trying to minimize the restrictions on firearms, the smart play for today's press conference would have been to be conciliatory and of course we're willing to talk about sensible safety regulations and then quietly lobby behind the scenes to make sure no such thing happens. But that's not likely to get the gun nuts fired up and buying lots of ammo, so instead we get whatever wackiness we just had.

LaPierre also proclaimed "The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

Well, there you have it. We just watched the NRA off itself, IMO.

lol the last two shooters were barely/not even alive when American Psycho and NBK came out.

The thing NRA members should be aware of is that by completely abandoning the (obviously) upcoming gun legislation conversation, the NRA is helping to assure that whatever regulations will be just as stupid as the assault weapons ban instead of something sane that would allow for responsible gun ownership.

Anyone got a link?

Oh, for FFS.

You know Wayne, if you can tell me how to tell the bad guys with guns from the good guys with guns, I'll consider not thinking you're a stone cold moron.

Also, I checked my cable guide and I can't find the Bloodsoaked Channel anywhere. A little help?

It may not be a non-factor, but I think there's a real risk here in finding a fictive rational explanation for a phenomenon that's basically about irrational, culturally/historically derived head-up-ass ideological frenzy. The facebook zealots frothing about Obama taking their guns away aren't thinking about Colt's stock price when they post their manifestoes. Wayne LaPierre may have more inside baseball considerations to think about but at bottom he subscribes to the same stupid insane paranoiac ideology, and has the facebook crazies as a political constituency.

Another thing I was shocked to learn yesterday: the NRA is largely responsible for the difficulty in finding aggregate statistics about firearms crimes. Apparently BATF has that stuff and used to release it, but the NRA got Congress to pass some amendment to some bill that keeps that stuff from becoming publicly available. Likewise, they're responsible for the fact that CDC can't research firearm deaths.

Also... splatterhouse? Because of the remake I guess? I'd feel awkward having to award Wayne LaPierre gamer cred for reaching for a cult classic.

It's just like global warming denial and the Tea Party (and. . .and . . .): millions of believers running around, having been wound up by cynical, self-interested financial interests.

But you're right -- we need to concern ourselves both with the banksters AND the minions.

The Tea Party was the most plasticy of astroturfs, however, a fairly extreme example of activism-as-front. The NRA's vision of guns, gun control and liberty - and the patriot movement/black helicopters ideology it's now joined at the hip with - weren't whistled up in a comparable manner.

No, but it does seem like there's potential for the same sort of relationship to exist: a grassroots group of paranoid people who have their energies directed at a cause that just happens to help maximize quarterly revenue for a particular industry.

Jesus, NRA.

Transcript. It's a really odd mismash. It reads like a committee put every possible alternative wingnut explanation into a single document, slapped on "armed guards at all schools", and called it a day.

That URL.

I'm sure he means the remake, because the best he could do to show anything significant was to dig up a Shockwave game none of us ever heard of, which is as relevant to the discussion as that kid who chipped the paint on your door with a slingshot.

Sounds like the tobacco industry in a lot of ways.

Man. I agree with him. It's disgusting that our nation hasn't created a database of the mentally ill. I mean, it's a terrible, abusable idea and trying to find a line to draw on who would be included (depression? Tourette's? OCD?) would be pretty much impossible, not to mention that lumping all of these people together as if they're a criminal class would be kind of terrible and also it might be a breach of confidentiality, but OTHER THAN ALL OF THOSE THINGS it is a great idea and it's horrible that PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMACARE has yet to get a move on and PROTECT OUR KIDS.

Did he really say this? For real? Holy crap.

Did no one ask him whether a database of gun owners would be more effective? Oh, "no questions."

NPR blogger Peter Overby argues that the gun industry is in trouble as a result of a shift away from hunting as a pastime. In other words, the traditional market for gun ownership has decreased, which has led the gun industry--and the NRA--to remake the image of gun ownership. The focus now is upon self-defense, capitalizing on the fear of violent crime, though such crimes are in decline, and upon the potential regulation of guns, which in turn drives more gun sales. The consumer market for guns has moved from hunting rifles to more military-style weapons, as people become more convinced that they need to be able to defend themselves and their loved ones against violent criminals.

As horrifying as they are, school shootings are responsible for a vanishingly small number of child deaths. But you know what does kill a lot of kids, and is in fact the second biggest killer of U.S. children? Cancer. How's that health care system coming, NRA supporters?

Oh. Right. Fuck 'em.

Looks like Call of Duty just killed 4 more people in Pennsylvania

During the speech, at that.

http://gawker.com/5970497/while-the...d-down-a-road-in-pennsylvania-shooting-people

Okay, for some reason copying and pasting this is leading to a formatting disaster which I can't fix with simple backspacing. So deal with it.

I'd like to see some statistics on how there's a declining willingness to prosecute dangerous criminals.

The firearms industry?

Edit: The more I read, the more I want some citations. 16000 murders by the time a kid is 18? There have been 20000 attempts at gun legislation? My favorite part is where he plays victim and whines that the media lies about guns!

http://brokenforum.com/index.php?threads/the-alligator-family-is-moving.4320/page-2

Marged has/had family in Altoona.

http://rt.com/usa/news/four-dead-pennsylvania-injured-598/

Just read the actual transcripts of his remarks. Some truly nutty stuff. Bahimiron highlighted some of it, but here's the full quote:

I thought the NRA would be proud of a game called Bulletstorm.

Jesus. With those credentials. I feel our kids are safer already....

Someone on Twitter -- @gabedelahaye -- posted: "I think the NRA just shot the shark."

These shootings are horrible, but that line made me laugh.

This is the best response I've seen from Twitter:

What I love about that quote is the opening.

Killers. Robbers. Rapists. GANG MEMBERS!

None of those guys use guns, right?

So what you're saying is that they've indoctrinated from birth to be murderers by the constant looping of NBK on all media.

Did this already get posted in the gun thread, anyway, I think it does a good job of debunking the, "it was the videogames fault" BS:

Ironic that the people who advocate for guns need the most security to protect themselves from people protesting for peace.

You can change that bottom metric to anything and the US will be an outlier. The only metric where the US will fall in on the trend line is "Guns owned per capita".

Not in our county, phew.