NRA vs reality

[scruff]

Here's a letter in today's Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/...eality-687073/

I have to hand it to National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre. He sure knows how to play a crowd.
He recently played a throng of his rabid followers to the hilt, enthralling them with the fiery aplomb of the Rev. Jim Jones. Before the night was over, and before all the Kool-Aid had been guzzled, he had them convinced that all the people of Boston would have benefited from packing a firearm or two during their nightmarish trauma of the marathon bombing.
Most people in Boston disagree with that assessment, but that matters little to those with little functioning gray matter. The fact is that if everyone at the finish line -- even the 8-year-old boy who tragically lost his life -- had a gun, the bombs still would have exploded.
Another fact is that a brave, young police officer, one of the good guys who did have a gun, was killed by one of the bad guys with a gun.
But Wayne LaPierre is not one to play the facts game. No, he much pre fers the game of demagoguery and deception and of playing crowds who, so hindered by delusions of paranoia and hatred, care little about any concept of reality.

The comment section is even worse. Definitely needs a dose of poofa 2A sanity. I could use some backup!

[scruff]

bump... the asshats in the comment section have me 10 to 1; they all think that the gubment did a great job protecting the people of Newtown. I'd love to have a few of you join in.

[Booner]

I can't enter a comment without a facebook account. Don't have one, don't want one.

[SAB215]

Your energy is better spent elsewhere.

People in those comment sections LIVE to spew their shit ideas to other people with shit ideas.

You aren't going to get anywhere with them circle-jerking each other.

It's not worth the aneurysm to try and change their minds since they're already made up. Spend time with those who are on the fence on the topic, those are the people who can at least see some sort of reason.

Trust me. I have friends that despite living in Philadelphia, and the constant news stories about shootings/muggings/stabbings, are still baffled at why I carry a gun and think that's what the police are for.

Some people just don't get it, and never will until it's too late.

[dannyb]

I am a supporter of the NRA as well as a couple of other groups. If no organization speaks for gun owners, then we will be plowed under as individuals. That having been said, I think that Wayne LaPierre is doing a great job of preaching to the choir. In my opinion, he is not doing nearly as well with the opposition. I wonder if it's time for a newer generation of spokespeople to take over. We're facing a primarily hostile mass media, maybe we need less of a scholar and somebody with more external charisma.

[Pilot321]

I am a supporter of the NRA as well as a couple of other groups. If no organization speaks for gun owners, then we will be plowed under as individuals. That having been said, I think that Wayne LaPierre is doing a great job of preaching to the choir. In my opinion, he is not doing nearly as well with the opposition. I wonder if it's time for a newer generation of spokespeople to take over. We're facing a primarily hostile mass media, maybe we need less of a scholar and somebody with more external charisma.

Totally agree. We are losing the personality war on all fronts, not just WRT illegal gun control. I think we need a marketing/advertising overhaul. Obama and the like win on being hip. We are seen solely as a bunch of old white guys, which is not true. There are many younger men and women joining our ranks, and they need to be recognized.

[DClan]

All things considered, and not to disparage the new president, but I still can't help but wonder why Wayne LaPierre didn't step up to the big chair, instead of remaining VP. I felt he would have been the logical choice as he's already the face most people recognize and the voice we respect and expect to hear.

[39flathead]

I agree, the NRA needs to get with the times and learn some social networking techniques that are not focused on the "choir".

Having NRA ads on the Sportsman Channel is fine, but they need to bump it up.

Maybe some magazines wouldn't accept their money, but I have to wonder if they cannot come up with an ad that could be put in womens magazines as well as ads for mens magazines that are not shooting or hunting related?

With those fancy scan blocks that you can hit with a smart phone, a simple ad with the numbers of guns in circulation and the drop in gun crimes might go a long way in educating the public.

That recent poll that shows that the majority of Americans think gun crime is on the rise instead of dropping should be something the NRA is all over.
Explaining to people that guns are not the problem with simple math is a fairly easy thing to do.

A simple ad with numbers of firearm crimes in 1994 vs. number of guns in America and another line with number of gun crimes vs. number of guns in America in 2010 I think would be enough to get some uninterested people wondering why they are being told that guns are bad for us.


But, instead, we will just get more solicitations for money and ads telling the choir how we need to support the NRA...

[Kabloosh]

To be fair. The "if everyone had a gun, people wouldn't be attacked" is kind of a bad argument.

While I don't think it will hurt anything if more people carried responsibly it should be the last result option to help ward off petty crime. Terrorist attacks like the one that happened in Boston couldn't of been prevented by armed citizenry without some knowledge of what the 2 brothers were up to first. Our first line of defense against rogue mass attacks like the bombing and even school shootings should be the red flags these incidents have prior to actually being carried out. We already have the laws and resources in place for people to catch a lot of these potential disasters before they even happen.
We cannot however just go dark and arm every person to the teeth and expect criminals will just shake in their boots and just get into gun battles with the ones that don't give a damn.

[Grey Bearded One]

All things considered, and not to disparage the new president, but I still can't help but wonder why Wayne LaPierre didn't step up to the big chair, instead of remaining VP.

Wayne is not VP, he is the Executive Vice President of NRA, a position equivalent to CEO and commands a healthy salary. There is a President and Vice President, positions which do not command a healthy salary and those are positions deal with the direction of the organization more than the operation of said organization. With the recent exception of Charlton Heston, the President of NRA is not a public figure.

Wayne is where he wants to be although I do wish that they would find a better public speaker to be the public face of NRA.