I’m a bit behind today … seems I can’t get caught up on anything these days … I think there’s just too much taking up space in my little head and I need to de-clutter it! Anyway, long story short, as usual I’ve been collecting some of the best political cartoons that crossed my path in the past few days, so it’s time to clean out the stash and share ’em with you guys!
Trump claim, negotiating US Civil War, political cartoon
I hadn’t planned a fourth post today … I generally try to stick to two posts plus a music post, but then I read Nan’s post and … I was so sickened that I couldn’t let this one pass. The head of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, is in my book, the lowest scum of the earth … and now this proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Thanks, Nan! The world needs to see this jackass for what he is!
I subscribe to an email newsletter from NPR. In today’s issue was the following blurb:
National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre’s carefully cultivated image as a hunter and outdoorsman is taking a hit this week after a leaked video showed his clumsy marksmanship.
Since I have fairly strong negative feelings about LaPierre, I was interested to see what the video showed so I clicked on the link.
–MY MISTAKE–
The headline on the linked page was: “Video Leaks of NRA’s Wayne LaPierre Missing His Mark on Elephant Hunt.” Sadly … disgustingly … the headline was correct. He definitely missed the mark. The video shows him taking FOUR shots at the elephant … and it still wasn’t dead. The final –and deadly– shot was made by another member of the hunting party. NOT LaPierre.
What was even more sickening was the “praise” by the individuals accompanying LaPierre on the hunt –
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Tonight I am on a rant. I do know that what Trump actually does is more important than what he says, but … sometimes the two go hand-in-hand. Now that a formal impeachment inquiry has been started, we fully expect him to go off the rails for the duration, and I’ve said before that he is even more dangerous when he feels threatened or cornered, as he surely must feel now.
Round and round it goes, where it stops no one knows
Ever since the news of the whistleblower was first hinted at, life for those of us who care about such things, has been rather like being in a high-speed blender … far too many goings-on to keep up with, far too many jaw-dropping moments. And it just keeps getting crazier and crazier … I well remember the Watergate era, the resignation of President Richard Nixon … yes, I was a political nerd even then … I remember what would become known as the “Saturday Night Massacre”. I remember the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the aftermath. And through it all, I do not remember the level of chaos, of utter contempt for the rule of law, as we are seeing today. And this is only the beginning!
The latest is that apparently Trump is trading a promise to the National Rifle Association (NRA) that he will not support any additional gun legislation in exchange for monetary assistance with his legal fees during the impeachment process and next year’s election. Put that in your pipe and smoke it for a minute.
On Friday, Trump hosted Chief Executive of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, at the White House for a meeting. The information was provided to the New York Times by two people who attended the meeting, but later an NRA spokesperson denied that there was an offer of support in exchange for Trump’s opposition to gun laws. Sorry, but given the history of both Trump and LaPierre … I have no trouble whatsoever believing that they agreed to such a deal. And what the heck else would they have talked about … the price of coffee beans?
The NRA, in case you’ve forgotten, provided some $30 million toward Trump’s election campaign in 2016 … if you wondered why he falls in line whenever the NRA calls and asks “How high?” when Wayne LaPierre tells him to “JUMP!”, wonder no more.
So, to summarize that … the lives of the people in this nation are as nothing to Trump, and he is willing to trade away our lives in exchange for financial help from the most dishonest group in the U.S. Got that, folks?
In other Trumpian-news …
Donald Trump is about to face impeachment charges, in all likelihood. He tried to blackmail the president of the Ukraine to rig next year’s election. He has obstructed justice. He is holding kids in cages at the southern border, despite an order by a federal judge to reunite those children with their parents. He has diverted funds that were budgeted to help with recovery efforts for Puerto Rico still suffering from the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017, in order to build a wall that nobody wants and that will serve no purpose other than to feed Trump’s ego. But … what was the breaking news yesterday afternoon?
That’s right, folks. The United States Department of State is more worried about Hillary Clinton’s emails from several years ago … emails that were already investigated and it was determined that there was no crime, no breach of national security … than they are worried about the person in the Oval Office who is committing a crime-a-day, it would seem! And on our tax dollars, folks … our hard-earned money is paying for the State Department to waste their time investigating a non-issue, while the most corrupt individual in this nation is playing footsies with the Russians and the Saudis, rigging next year’s election, and doing his best to shred the U.S. Constitution.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch … Ivanka Trump did not preserve all of her official emails as required by federal law, and her husband, Jared Kushner, used a messaging application to conduct U.S. business outside government channels, according to Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Is there some double-standard in play here?
Oh … and in case you didn’t hear a couple of weeks ago, Trump is urging the House Judiciary Committee to launch an investigation into President Obama!
Barack Obama signed a book deal in 2017, just as other former presidents have, and a production deal with Netflix a year later. All on the up-and-up. But Trump, under the gun himself, has to deflect … to anybody he can think of …
“We want to find out what happened with the last Democrat president. Let’s look into Obama, the way they’ve looked at me … They could look into the book deal that President Obama made. Look at the Obama Book Deal, or the ridiculous Netflix deal.”
Ridiculous? Smoke and mirrors? Sure, but … folks, this isn’t just some kid throwing a temper tantrum … it’s the person who was elected to lead a nation of some 330 million people, and this is what we get for our money? I don’t know about you folks, but I feel cheated … terribly cheated. We deserve better … much better.
We haven’t heard much about gun issues lately … Oh wait! School’s out for the summer break, so there haven’t been any school shootings, and no other mass shootings of late, so the gun issue just rather dropped out of sight in lieu of so many abominations taking place in Washington. Last night, though, I stumbled across a post that I found to be an excellent response to the NRA’s “good guy with a gun” rhetoric, and I wanted to share it with you. We will likely never completely abolish the 2nd Amendment, but we must not lose sight of the battle for much stricter gun laws and for putting the lives of people before the greed of the NRA. Please take a few minutes to read this excellent post by On The Fence Voters. Thank you, Greg, for permission to share!
Link to The Washington Post article, ‘There Were Three Shooters”
The Washington Post recently published an outstanding article about the National Rifle Association’s assertion that ‘The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.’ It details an actual situation in Oklahoma which ended in the death of an active shooter at the hands of two ‘good guys with guns’, but goes on to explore the many factors which may have led to a very different and tragic ending. I’ve linked the article at the top of this page and I hope you read it because it’s very eye-opening.
I’ve always had my own thoughts on this subject.
Ever since the Sandy Hook mass school shooting in December of 2012, the ‘mantra’ of the National Rifle Association has been ‘The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a…
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According to Wayne LaPierre, all members of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and most gun-toting civilians in the United States, there is a mantra, almost a religious chant, that goes something like: The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
Well okay, I don’t buy it for a number of fact-based reasons, but then there are a lot of things I don’t believe that many others do. But here’s the thing … if those who chant this mantra almost religiously truly believe it, then why has the NRA said they will ban guns from their annual convention during Mike Pence’s and Donald Trump’s speeches on Friday? What are you guys afraid of??? I mean, this is the NRA, so surely there will be at least one hero, one ‘good guy’ with a gun to stop the baddies, right? And … aren’t guns supposed to make us ‘safer’? And didn’t you say that ‘guns don’t kill people — people kill people’? So … wouldn’t it make more sense to ban people?
The notice on the NRA website reads …
“Due to the attendance of the Vice President of the United States, the U.S. Secret Service will be responsible for event security at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum. As a result, firearms and firearm accessories, knives or weapons of any kind will be prohibited in the forum prior to and during his attendance.”
‘Prohibited items’ include selfie sticks, backpacks, signs, drones, laser pointers, toy guns and weapons of any kind. Since when is a sign, a selfie-stick or a laser pointer considered a ‘weapon’? My, but it seems that ol’ Pence and Trump are afraid of a lot of things, doesn’t it? I wonder why? I mean, they will be at the NRA’s annual convention. Surrounded by all their NRA friends (read: donors). What could possibly go wrong?
They can talk the talk, but they cannot seem to walk the walk. The NRA claims, probably correctly, that the rules were imposed by the U.S. Secret Service, the agency charged with protecting the president, vice-president and their families. However, if any other event were being held, and the event organizers tried to ban guns, the NRA would be screaming “FOUL” so loudly that they would be heard in Central Africa!
The administration, starting with Trump himself, has quite vocally supported near-unregulated gun ownership for all in the U.S. And Pence is a life-long member of the NRA. And yet … they now seem to be saying they want all of us exposed to the risk of being shot and killed, but that it is a risk they themselves are not willing to take. What’s wrong with this picture?
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter, Jaime, was among the 17 people killed in the Parkland, Florida mass school shooting on February 14th, said …
“On so many levels, this is enlightening. According to the NRA, we should want everyone to have weapons when we are in public. But when they put on a convention, the weapons are a concern? I thought giving everyone a gun was to enhance safety. Am I missing something?”
One member of a Texas gun rights advocacy group said …
“If I was a [Democrat], I’d have a field day with this. Obviously even republicans and so called leaders don’t trust the ‘good guys.’ I realize it’s the VP, but still makes our whole argument look foolish. You may disagree … but in my opinion the very people that claim to protect the 2A should never host an event that requires disarming the good guys. Sad. No excuses for this … it makes us look stupid.”
Now, before you think I’ve lost my bloomin’ marbles, NO, I do NOT think that guns should be allowed into the convention during Pence and Trump’s appearances. I have no desire to see the vice president shot. BUT … I do not think guns should be allowed into any public venue, and am merely trying to point out the hypocrisy of both the NRA and Vice-President Pence. Obviously, this shoots down the tired old ‘good guy with a gun’ theory, doesn’t it? Next time somebody spouts that one, remind them of this.
And one last thing, that has nothing to do with the banning of guns during the speeches … Why are Donald Trump and Mike Pence using the time that we are paying them to govern the nation, to attend the annual convention of the NRA, a lobbyist group that should have nothing to do with governing this nation? Think about that one for a while.
In the annals of lawsuits, this one has to rank right up there with the old woman who sued McDonalds (and won) for making the coffee too hot and she was burned when she foolishly spilled it between her legs. Who’s suing who, you ask? The plaintiff in the case, the sue-er, is none other than the infamous National Rifle Association, the NRA. The defendant, the sue-ee, is the State of Florida. And why, you ask, is the NRA suing Florida? Because the State of Florida had the cojones to stand up and do something about the foolish free-for-all with guns that led to the tragedy in Parkland, Florida, on February 14th. The State of Florida took the bull by the horns, listened to the grief stricken voices of the Parkland survivors last month, and said, “ENOUGH!!!!!” My hat is off, and my thumbs are up to the Florida State Legislature and Governor Rick Scott.
First, let us look at the bill that was passed by the Florida State legislature, and then signed into law by Florida Governor Rick Scott on Friday. The new law raises the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21 and extends the waiting period to three days for the purchase of all firearms. It also gives law enforcement more power to seize weapons, prohibits the sale of “bump stocks” — devices that can be put on semi-automatic weapons to increase their rate of fire. The measure also allows some school personnel to be armed. The bill is too little; it is, perhaps, merely an effort to pay lip service to the young people who have made a valiant and determined effort to stop the madness, but still, it is a start. A small step. Small steps are better than no steps. A journey of a thousand miles, as the saying goes, begins with a single step.
The NRA had been on a long leash, obviously, waiting and knowing the moment was coming, for they filed their suit only one hour after Governor Scott signed the bill into law. Since when does a lobbyist group have the right to write the laws in this nation? Since when does the NRA decide constitutionality??? Since when is the NRA the Supreme Law of the Land?
The NRA claims “We filed a lawsuit against the state for violating the constitutional rights of 18- to 21-year-olds.” Seriously??? 18-21-year-olds have a constitutional right to murder? To buy and carry, concealed, a weapon that can cause mass destruction and take as many as 400 lives in a single 60-second minute? That’s right, people … the gun the shooter in Parkland, Florida, used on 14 February was an AR-15, which can fire up to 400 rounds per minute. And we believe that the founding fathers intended children age 18 to be in control of one of these weapons???
No, the NRA filed that suit because they were told by the people controlling their purse-strings to get rid of that law at all costs, for it might cost a few thousand sales to the gun industry. Might also save a few thousand lives, but hey … no big deal, right?
Personally, I would have liked to see the law go even further, to include universal background checks and a ban on assault rifles. And I would, again, have preferred not to call for armed personnel within the school. However, I still must applaud especially Governor Scott, for it took courage for him to stand against the NRA. Scott has previously had an A+ rating with the NRA, yet he ignored their threats and signed the bill. For once, perhaps, he put the safety and the wishes of his constituency above the corrupt gun lobby. And I also applaud the Florida Legislature, where 67 republicans with A ratings from the NRA also voted for the bill.
If Florida could do it, so can the rest of the states. Come on Texas, South Carolina, Utah, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota … get off your collective patooties, grow some cojones, and follow suit. Don’t let the NRA lawsuit worry you. The public, the citizens, the voters stand behind stricter gun laws, and the lawmakers damn well better put a higher value on We The People than they do the NRA. Most gun owners do not belong to the NRA. The NRA actually represents a very small group of ordinary people. Their bigger concern is the manufacturers and sellers of guns. Just think, if every state in the nation passed even the watered-down law that Florida passed, the NRA would bankrupt itself filing lawsuits against every single state!
I wonder if I can file a lawsuit against the NRA, for here I sit at 5:00 a.m., seething as I write this story, drinking my umpteenth cup of coffee and eating pretzels with peanut-butter, as my fingers literally beat the printed letters off my laptop keyboard. A rather unhealthy lifestyle caused by the angst of reading of the hypocrisy of the NRA. I should think that at the very least I could sue for a new laptop, as I no longer have an “N” printed on the key between ‘B’ and ‘M’.
This nation has lost its way if we place more value on giving guns to 18-year-olds than we place on human life. We have lost our way when lawmakers are actually unwilling to do their job for fear of reprisals from an unsavory organization like the NRA. Wayne LaPierre is not one of our lawmakers. We The People did not vote him into office, nor has he been, to the best of my knowledge, appointed to a judicial position. There was a time I would have predicted that the suit by the NRA would have no teeth, no chance of winning. Today, I am less sure. I think the answer is for every state to pass similar, or even tougher gun laws. Make the NRA spread themselves thin trying to keep up with all their lawsuits. I know of no other answer, for the members of Congress have already shown us that our wishes, our very lives, have less value to them than their NRA funding. This nation needs to stand up to the bullies in the gun industry … NOW!
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), 2018 began on Wednesday, February 21 and ended on Saturday, February 24. The speakers at this event were a strange conglomeration:
There were many, many other, lesser-known, but I found these the most interesting. Of particular interest were Marion Maréchal-Le Pen and Nigel Farage. And while I could do some serio-humorous speculation on the likes of Hannity, Igraham and Pirro, I have another topic in mind for this post, and that is Wayne LaPierre and Dana Loesch, particularly LaPierre, for his speech was … convoluted, at best, and begs for attention. Gorka’s appearance and behaviour was especially interesting, also … I may have to re-visit CPAC again tomorrow!
Wayne LaPierre is the Executive Vice President of the NRA. The President of the NRA is actually Pete Brownell, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Brownells, Inc., supposedly the largest supplier of firearm re-loading equipment. Interesting, yes? But it is Mr. LaPierre who does most of the talking for the NRA, and he is the main focus of this post.
LaPierre’s speech lasted for 35 minutes, so I cannot provide the full transcript (you can breathe a sigh of relief now), but how about a few snippets …
“Chris Murphy, Nancy Pelosi, and more, cheered on by the national media, eager to blame the NRA and call for even more government control. They hate the NRA. They hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom … Their goal is to eliminate the Second Amendment and our firearms freedoms, so they can eradicate all individual freedoms.”
“Any American school that needs immediate professional consultation and help with organizing and defining these solutions should call the National Rifle Association school shield program. And we will provide immediate assistance and we will also provide it absolutely free to any school in America. I’ll tell you this, that’s more than anybody at the Democratic National Committee or NBC News or the “Washington Post” is offering.”
And now begin the shades of lunacy …
“But during the last decade, the Obama decade, many of those leaders have been forced out as a tidal wave of new European style socialists seize control of the Democratic Party. Obama promised a fundamental transformation of our country. And you know what, it began with his own national party. A party that is now infested with saboteurs who don’t believe in capitalism, don’t believe in the Constitution, don’t believe in our freedom, and don’t believe in America as we know it. Obama may be gone, but their utopian dream, it marches on.”
Say what???
“But how about Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Bill de Blasio, Andrew Cuomo, Cory Booker, Christopher Murphy and Keith Ellison? They are not Democrats in the mold of John F. Kennedy or Tip O’Neill. They hide behind labels like Democrat, left wing and progressive to make their socialist agenda more palatable. And that is terrifying. That should terrify every citizen who values the American ideal in this country of individual liberty. They politicize the Department of Justice. They weaponize the internal revenue service. The EPA. Perhaps cripple the FBI. And the Intelligence Community. And seized an embedded leadership in all of them to advance their agenda. Absolute control in every corner of our government is their ultimate dream. These intellectual leads, they think they’re smarter than we are. They think they’re smarter than the rest of us. And they think they’re better than we are. They truly believe it, and you know it.”
You know what terrifies me, Mr. LaPierre? People like you who believe that ‘freedom’ means the right to take whatever you want in life, even if that is another person’s life. People like you who believe that your rights supersede the rights of everyone else. Those of us who are liberal thinkers may, perhaps, not be any smarter than you, but we are a hell of a lot more compassionate toward our fellow human beings!
“We do live in the socialistic age of the art of the smear. Doesn’t have to be true. It just has to stick somewhere. Anywhere. It is designed to degrade, destroy, and it is all over the national media to serve their agenda. And socialism is a movement that loves a smear. Racist, misogynist, sexist, xenophobe and more. These are the weapons and vitriol these character assassinations scream to permanently hang on their targets and create a growing segment of victims. Because socialism feeds off manipulated victims. You name the group, and they will find a way to turn them into victims.”
No, Mr. LaPierre … we did not turn them into victims … you and your ilk have done that with your bigotry and prejudice.
“This growing socialist state dreams of manipulating schoolchildren, to squeeze and squeeze information about their parents. They’ll be asking your kids if mommy and daddy spank them, or what mommy and daddy feeds them for dinner, they’ll want to know what tv shows you watch, what magazines, newspapers you read, and, oh, yes, do mommy and daddy own a gun? And all that private information will be entered into that ultimate list that cloud of data storage that couldn’t care less about due process and constitutional freedom and your privacy as an American citizen.”
Interesting to note that what he describes is precisely what Hitler did in Germany at the beginning of his reign of terror. If there is a danger of those things happening, perhaps Mr. LaPierre might consider the wanna-be king sitting in the Oval Office and point his gnarly finger in that direction.
There is more, but these were the statements that stood out in my mind as those of either a man who has completely lost sight of reality, or one who is seeing the end of his era, and knowing that he is powerless to stop it. Just for the record, Mr. LaPierre takes a salary of over $5 million per year, and his net worth is currently estimated at $10 million.
Trump came out in support of LaPierre’s speech the following day …
“What many people don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, is that Wayne, Chris and the folks who work so hard at the @NRA are Great People and Great American Patriots. They love our Country and will do the right thing.”
The right thing for who? It is painfully obvious to me, a liberal-thinking ‘snowflake’, that there is nobody looking out for We The People.
And lastly, Ms. Dana Loesch, a media personality (note that I do not say what sort of personality) and spokesperson for the NRA had some things to say also, but one stands out as remarkably reprehensible …
“I’m going to say something that some people are going to say is ‘controversial,’” she said. “Many in legacy media love mass shootings. You guys love it. I’m not saying you love the tragedy. But I am saying that you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold… And notice I said crying white mothers because there are thousands of grieving black mothers in Chicago every weekend and you don’t see town halls for them do you?”
And with that, I will leave you to ponder the fine and upstanding leadership of the NRA, the organization calling the shots at the highest levels of our federal government.
It’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue, at the center of most discussions, in the headlines of every news outlet: The National Rifle Association, aka NRA. The debate about gun regulations is raging, much the same as it always does after a mass shooting, particularly one involving children, but this one may be different, for those children were on the cusp of adulthood, and their friends, those who survived the shooting in Parkland, Florida almost two weeks ago, are old enough to be outraged that a young man, one of their former classmates, was able to buy a military-grade assault weapon, ammunition, and mow down their friends without a thought. They are outraged to hear politicians skirting around the issue of gun regulation, rather than answering their tough questions. They are old enough to become activists, and they have a vested interest in doing so.
At a Town Hall just days after the shooting, 17-year-old Cameron Kasky asked Senator Marco Rubio this question:
“Can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA?”
And Rubio’s response?
“I will always accept the help of anyone who agrees with my agenda.”
Yes, the NRA is a powerful lobby, with many of our elected representatives firmly in their pockets. Rubio’s agenda? It’s whatever the NRA tells him it is, if he wishes to maintain his A- rating with the NRA and keep the campaign donations and other perks rolling in. But it wasn’t always this way. The NRA did not start out to rule the nation from behind the scenes, but rather began with the goal of teaching rifle competency and safety. It wasn’t until 1934 that the NRA created its Legislative Affairs Division, prompted by what they saw as attacks on 2nd Amendment ‘rights’. Until 1975, the group contented itself with merely informing its members of pending gun legislation.
In 1975, however, the group created its Institute for Legislative Action, in response it says, to “the critical need for political defense of the 2nd Amendment”. Then in 1990, they created the NRA Foundation, a tax-exempt organization that allows the NRA “to raise millions of dollars to fund gun safety and educational projects of benefit to the general public.”
The reality, however, is that the NRA actively supports, both through direct campaign contributions and through advertising, those political candidates who vote against any and all gun regulation. And they advertise against those candidates who support such things as a ban on assault weapons, enhanced background checks, waiting periods or any other restrictions on gun ownership. They also provide legal services to those convicted in gun-related cases. If you shoot me and I sue you, the NRA would likely pay your legal fees. (Don’t get any ideas, okay?)
The NRA’s power once again increased in 1994, after President Clinton signed the ban on assault weapons, as well as the Brady Bill, which called for background checks and a waiting period for purchasing a gun. The NRA went into overdrive, and since it was a mid-term election year, were quite successful in helping candidates opposed to those two measures get elected.
On April 20, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado, two Columbine High School students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, armed with four guns killed 12 classmates, a teacher, and themselves. Less than two weeks later, the NRA held its annual meeting in Denver, just 34 miles from Littleton, where Planet of the Apes actor Charlton Heston gave a speech, saying that the NRA is often “cast as the villain,” but that they “must not let tragedy lay waste to the most rare, hard-won right in history.”
And then came December 14, 2012, and the tragedy that lives on in our memories, the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-year-old Adam Lanza killed 20 young children and six adults. The following month, President Obama unveiled proposed legislation aimed at reducing gun violence. The NRA response? An ad, attacking not only Obama, but also involving his children:
“Are the president’s kids more important than yours? Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school? Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he’s just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security.”
And now, here we are today, on the heels of yet another tragic and preventable school shooting, and the NRA is up in arms once again. But this time feels different. This time, the victims weren’t little kids, and this time we are all sick and tired of seeing our children die senseless deaths. This time, the NRA is the one ‘under the gun’. Last week, ThinkProgress identified some of the companies who partner with the NRA, providing service discounts to members – car rental companies, hotels, banks, airlines***. In response to the public outcry, many of those companies, the notable exception being FedEx, have severed ties with the NRA. FedEx has declined to sever ties with the NRA, saying it would be ‘discriminatory’. Many shippers say they will switch their business to UPS, DHL, or the USPS. I ship little, but will not use FedEx in the future.
Today, ThinkProgress published a list of all the banks who are financing the assault weapons industry. The list contains some of the largest banks in the nation, including JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America. The banks may not quite as easily sever their ties, but citizens with a conscience may well take their business elsewhere. I was pleased to see that neither of my own banks was on the list. On a positive note, Bank of America issued the following statement:
“We are joining other companies in our industry to examine what we can do to help end the tragedy of mass shootings, and an immediate step we’re taking is to engage the limited number of clients we have that manufacture assault weapons for non-military use to understand what they can contribute to this shared responsibility.”
It’s a start, folks. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, yes?
Yes, the NRA is a powerful lobby, one that exists solely to help gun manufacturers, sporting goods companies, and others involved in the manufacture and sales of firearms and ammunition. Make no mistake … the NRA is not about the safety of this nation and its people … it is all about money. Two weeks ago, this nation suffered a massive tragedy, one that could have … would have … been avoided had it not been for the firearms industry and the NRA, and the elected officials who are in their pockets. It wasn’t the first time, nor will it be the last. But this time feels different. This time, the young people are raising their voices and saying #NeverAgain. And the NRA is feeling the heat, as evidenced by Wayne LaPierre’s off-the-wall speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which will be the topic of my next post.
*** Note: Just as I scheduled this post last night, I saw the following headline:
“I will kill any tax legislation that benefits Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with the NRA,” tweeted Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, referring to a bill that could save Delta taxes on jet fuel. “Corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back.”
See what I mean, friends? It is not about the safety or well-being of this nation. It is about profits, plain and simple.
I have heard some stupid ideas in my lifetime. I have actually perpetrated some stupid ideas in my lifetime. But never, in all my 66 years, have I heard an idea as stupid as the one being put forth by the current administration, along with a number of others, in response to the calls for better regulations on gun ownership and access.
Donald Trump has decided that the way to end school shootings is to make every teacher and coach carry a loaded gun. Close your eyes for just a minute, dear friends, and imagine all the possibilities, not a one of them good.
Since there is little likelihood that any teacher would consent to carrying a loaded pistola on their person at all times while in the classroom or on break, that loaded gun will sometimes be in the teacher’s desk drawer, open to any student who, either out of anger or just a lark, decides to get the gun and start shooting. And then, there are the teachers themselves. Did you read about Karen Smith, the teacher in Boulder, Colorado, who grabbed a boy by his collar and physically dragged him out of the classroom and down the hallway? His crime? He remained seated during the pledge of allegiance. What if Ms. Smith had a gun in her pocket or waistband … was she angry enough that she might have used the gun instead of her hands as a weapon?
The president of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, called arming teachers “one of the worst ideas I have heard in a series of really, really, really bad ideas.”
Republican Representative from Alabama, Will Ainsworth, proposed a bill to arm teachers, saying, “Our students do not need to be sitting ducks. Our teachers do not need to be defending themselves with a No. 2 pencil.” No, Mr. Ainsworth, they need to be assured that our government is properly seeing to their safety by regulating peoples’ access to guns!
A poll released this week by ABC News/Washington post says 42 percent of Americans believe teachers with guns could have prevented the Florida shooting. If you ever wondered what percentage of the U.S. population is utterly mindless, now you know … 42%. Strange, isn’t it, that that number is very close to the number of the aggregate polls of Trump’s approval rating. Something to think about.
The NRA, of course, is salivating over this idea or arming teachers, for it would mean many more guns sold, more revenue for the gun manufacturers, and more money and perks for the NRA.
Trump met with survivors and others affected by last week’s shooting in Parkland Florida, and it was there that he proposed arming teachers. The students were not impressed and remained angry, rightfully so, that Trump and the republicans in Congress absolutely refuse to consider the calls for stronger gun regulations …
“I turned 18 the day after. Woke up to the news that my best friend was gone. I don’t understand why I can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war, an AR. I was reading today that a person 20 years old walked into a store and bought an AR-15 in five minutes with an expired ID. How is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? How are we not stopping this after Columbine, after Sandy Hook, sitting with a mother that lost her son? It’s still happening.” – 18-year-old Sam Zeif, a Parkland student.
“We’re here because my daughter has no voice – she was murdered last week, shot nine times. How many schools, how many children have to get shot? It stops here, with this administration and me. It should have been one school shooting, and we should have fixed it, and I’m pissed because my daughter, I’m not going to see again.” – Andrew Pollack, father of 18-year-old Meadow, who was killed last week.
“It’s not personally something that I support. Rather than arming them with a firearm, I would rather arm them with the knowledge of how to prevent these acts from happening in the first place.” – Nicole Hockley, whose six-year-old son Dylan died at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
Our elected leadership reminds me of a husband who is intently watching football on a Sunday afternoon when his wife is trying to tell him something of importance, such as that she is pregnant, or that the house is on fire, or their youngest child just ran away from home. He is not listening, could care less what she is saying. It is only once she finally pulls the plug on the television and smacks him upside the head that he may listen. It is time for us to pull the plug on our elected leader’s distractions, and smack them upside the head with our votes in November. Arming teachers is not the solution to the problem, but will only exacerbate the problem. Taking guns out of the hands of fools and idiots is the answer to the problem.
In the wake of the shooting in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, earlier this month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton remarked that the solution for preventing more shootings in churches from occurring in the future was “at least arming some of the parishioners so they can respond to something like this.” I noted at the time that this was an inane remark, but apparently some took it to heart.
It happened at a church in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. A group of parishioners were meeting in a church to discuss the idea of bringing guns into church, as suggested by Mr. Paxton, when an 82 year old man pulled out his gun to show, saying “I carry my handgun everywhere.” He unloaded the gun, it was passed around, no doubt with plenty of “ooohs” and “aaahs”, and then he reloaded the gun and replaced it in his pocket. A few minutes later somebody asked to see it again. The man pulled the gun out of his pocket again, saying, “With this loaded indicator, I can tell that it’s not loaded.” Sigh. Care to guess what came next?
The man pulled the trigger to prove his point, the gun fired, going through the man’s palm and then through his wife’s stomach. Fortunately, neither suffered life-threatening wounds and should be on the road to recovery by now.
LaPierre
Okay, gun advocates … would you like to tell me again how, in the words of NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, “The Only Thing That Stops A Bad Guy With A Gun, Is A Good Guy With A Gun”? Or how about you, Attorney Geneeral Ken Paxton … you have a good comeback here? Aren’t you proud of yourself for suggesting this brilliant idea?
This incident makes the point, I think, that the ordinary person has no reason to carry a gun anywhere, ever. I have no need to expound on this, for the incident carries such irony that it speaks for itself. I rest my case.
Filosofa's Word 