The entire U.S. media is currently painting the NRA’s Robert LaPierre as some kind of dangerous loon. If you listen to the media and are foolish enough to swallow its line, LaPierre is some sort of monstrous violence hustler, a callous, unfeeling, murderous fool. Lord, even the NY Post is on him!!!
You know how wrong that paper is, right? They can’t even get the weather right. Yesterday’s weather.
Well…have you seen his entire speech or only the cherry-picked portions? Have you read a transcript of what he said?
I doubt it.
For those of you with a brain left in their heads, I present you with an un-cherry picked version of what he said.
You be the judge.
Read it
The media lies.
Everywhere and always.
If almost the entire major media system agrees on something…whether it be who shot JFK, the nobility of Barack Obama or the runup to the Iraq War…then it is time to look deeper into the subject.
Much deeper.
Read on for some interesting information.
Before you read this…and you really should, in order to be able to make up your own minds…I just want to say a couple of things.
#1-I neither carry nor own a gun. Why? Because i fear the police and the stupidity of the judicial system more than I do “bad guys.” “Bad guys” can consistently be avoided if you have sufficient street smarts, but cops with nothing better to do than bother peaceful citizens who have never been arrested for anything in their lives if said citizens jaywalk, look out of place in a neighborhood or break some minor traffic law? They are unavoidable. In the subways of NYC I can be stopped and my belongings searched at any time. The U.S. security state is in full swing, and I don’t like it. Not one bit.
#2-In the speech below Mr. LaPierre makes the point the we protect that which is most valuable to us by the use of weaponry. Presidents, money, etc. TD just opened a local bank in my neighborhood…a fairly peaceful, mixed-race working class neighborhood in the Bronx. There is a NYC cop stationed there during all business hours. Why? I am not going to ask him, because I have never ever gotten a straight answer from a NYC cop. Not once. I notice that TD banks elsewhere have cops stationed in them as well. They also don’t have bulletproof glass separating the tellers from the customers. Maybe that’s it, I don’t know. On Google Maps there looks to be well over 40 TD Banks in the 5 NYC boroughs. I haven’t noticed if there are other customer service-oriented banks…that is, banks that do not use bulletproof glass to separate their tellers from the customers because they want to appear “friendly”…who are using NYC policemen as armed guards, but I’ll bet that there are. Our money is safe, I guess. Wow!!! That’s a load off my mind!!! I wouldn’t want the Fed to have to start printing more.
The National Rifle Association’s 4 million mothers, fathers, sons and daughters join the nation in horror, outrage, grief and earnest prayer for the families of Newtown, Connecticut … who suffered such incomprehensible loss as a result of this unspeakable crime.
Out of respect for those grieving families, and until the facts are known, the NRA has refrained from comment. While some have tried to exploit tragedy for political gain, we have remained respectfully silent.
Now, we must speak … for the safety of our nation’s children. Because for all the noise and anger directed at us over the past week, no one — nobody — has addressed the most important, pressing and immediate question we face: How do we protect our children right now, starting today, in a way that we know works?
The only way to answer that question is to face up to the truth. Politicians pass laws for Gun-Free School Zones. They issue press releases bragging about them. They post signs advertising them.
And in so doing, they tell every insane killer in America that schools are their safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.
How have our nation’s priorities gotten so far out of order? Think about it. We care about our money, so we protect our banks with armed guards. American airports, office buildings, power plants, courthouses — even sports stadiums — are all protected by armed security.
We care about the President, so we protect him with armed Secret Service agents. Members of Congress work in offices surrounded by armed Capitol Police officers.
Yet when it comes to the most beloved, innocent and vulnerable members of the American family — our children — we as a society leave them utterly defenseless, and the monsters and predators of this world know it and exploit it. That must change now!
The truth is that our society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters — people so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons that no sane person can possibly ever comprehend them. They walk among us every day. And does anybody really believe that the next Adam Lanza isn’t planning his attack on a school he’s already identified at this very moment?
How many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame — from a national media machine that rewards them with the wall-to-wall attention and sense of identity that they crave — while provoking others to try to make their mark?
A dozen more killers? A hundred? More? How can we possibly even guess how many, given our nation’s refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill?
And the fact is, that wouldn’t even begin to address the much larger and more lethal criminal class: Killers, robbers, rapists and drug gang members who have spread like cancer in every community in this country. Meanwhile, federal gun prosecutions have decreased by 40% — to the lowest levels in a decade.
So now, due to a declining willingness to prosecute dangerous criminals, violent crime is increasing again for the first time in 19 years! Add another hurricane, terrorist attack or some other natural or man-made disaster, and you’ve got a recipe for a national nightmare of violence and victimization.
And here’s another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal: There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.
Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here’s one: it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?
Then there’s the blood-soaked slasher films like “American Psycho” and “Natural Born Killers” that are aired like propaganda loops on “Splatterdays” and every day, and a thousand music videos that portray life as a joke and murder as a way of life. And then they have the nerve to call it “entertainment.”
But is that what it really is? Isn’t fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?
In a race to the bottom, media conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate and offend every standard of civilized society by bringing an ever-more-toxic mix of reckless behavior and criminal cruelty into our homes — every minute of every day of every month of every year.
A child growing up in America witnesses 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence by the time he or she reaches the ripe old age of 18.
And throughout it all, too many in our national media … their corporate owners … and their stockholders … act as silent enablers, if not complicit co-conspirators. Rather than face their own moral failings, the media demonize lawful gun owners, amplify their cries for more laws and fill the national debate with misinformation and dishonest thinking that only delay meaningful action and all but guarantee that the next atrocity is only a news cycle away.
The media call semi-automatic firearms “machine guns” — they claim these civilian semi-automatic firearms are used by the military, and they tell us that the .223 round is one of the most powerful rifle calibers … when all of these claims are factually untrue. They don’t know what they’re talking about!
Worse, they perpetuate the dangerous notion that one more gun ban — or one more law imposed on peaceful, lawful people — will protect us where 20,000 others have failed!
As brave, heroic and self-sacrificing as those teachers were in those classrooms, and as prompt, professional and well-trained as those police were when they responded, they were unable — through no fault of their own — to stop it.
As parents, we do everything we can to keep our children safe. It is now time for us to assume responsibility for their safety at school. The only way to stop a monster from killing our kids is to be personally involved and invested in a plan of absolute protection. The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Would you rather have your 911 call bring a good guy with a gun from a mile away … or a minute away?
Now, I can imagine the shocking headlines you’ll print tomorrow morning: “More guns,” you’ll claim, “are the NRA’s answer to everything!” Your implication will be that guns are evil and have no place in society, much less in our schools. But since when did the word “gun” automatically become a bad word?
A gun in the hands of a Secret Service agent protecting the President isn’t a bad word. A gun in the hands of a soldier protecting the United States isn’t a bad word. And when you hear the glass breaking in your living room at 3 a.m. and call 911, you won’t be able to pray hard enough for a gun in the hands of a good guy to get there fast enough to protect you.
So why is the idea of a gun good when it’s used to protect our President or our country or our police, but bad when it’s used to protect our children in their schools?
They’re our kids. They’re our responsibility. And it’s not just our duty to protect them — it’s our right to protect them.
You know, five years ago, after the Virginia Tech tragedy, when I said we should put armed security in every school, the media called me crazy. But what if, when Adam Lanza started shooting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday, he had been confronted by qualified, armed security?
Will you at least admit it’s possible that 26 innocent lives might have been spared? Is that so abhorrent to you that you would rather continue to risk the alternative?
Is the press and political class here in Washington so consumed by fear and hatred of the NRA and America’s gun owners that you’re willing to accept a world where real resistance to evil monsters is a lone, unarmed school principal left to surrender her life to shield the children in her care? No one — regardless of personal political prejudice — has the right to impose that sacrifice.
Ladies and gentlemen, there is no national, one-size-fits-all solution to protecting our children. But do know this President zeroed out school emergency planning grants in last year’s budget, and scrapped “Secure Our Schools” policing grants in next year’s budget.
With all the foreign aid, with all the money in the federal budget, we can’t afford to put a police officer in every school? Even if they did that, politicians have no business — and no authority — denying us the right, the ability, or the moral imperative to protect ourselves and our loved ones from harm.
Now, the National Rifle Association knows that there are millions of qualified active and retired police; active, reserve and retired military; security professionals; certified firefighters and rescue personnel; and an extraordinary corps of patriotic, trained qualified citizens to join with local school officials and police in devising a protection plan for every school. We can deploy them to protect our kids now. We can immediately make America’s schools safer — relying on the brave men and women of America’s police force.
The budget of our local police departments are strained and resources are limited, but their dedication and courage are second to none and they can be deployed right now.
I call on Congress today to act immediately, to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every school — and to do it now, to make sure that blanket of safety is in place when our children return to school in January.
Before Congress reconvenes, before we engage in any lengthy debate over legislation, regulation or anything else, as soon as our kids return to school after the holiday break, we need to have every single school in America immediately deploy a protection program proven to work — and by that I mean armed security.
Right now, today, every school in the United States should plan meetings with parents, school administrators, teachers and local authorities — and draw upon every resource available — to erect a cordon of protection around our kids right now. Every school will have a different solution based on its own unique situation.
Every school in America needs to immediately identify, dedicate and deploy the resources necessary to put these security forces in place right now. And the National Rifle Association, as America’s preeminent trainer of law enforcement and security personnel for the past 50 years, is ready, willing and uniquely qualified to help.
Our training programs are the most advanced in the world. That expertise must be brought to bear to protect our schools and our children now. We did it for the nation’s defense industries and military installations during World War II, and we’ll do it for our schools today.
The NRA is going to bring all of its knowledge, dedication and resources to develop a model National School Shield Emergency Response Program for every school that wants it. From armed security to building design and access control to information technology to student and teacher training, this multi-faceted program will be developed by the very best experts in their fields.
Former Congressman Asa Hutchinson will lead this effort as National Director of the National School Shield Program, with a budget provided by the NRA of whatever scope the task requires. His experience as a U.S. Attorney, Director of the Drug Enforcement Agency and Undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security will give him the knowledge and expertise to hire the most knowledgeable and credentialed experts available anywhere, to get this program up and running from the first day forward.
If we truly cherish our kids more than our money or our celebrities, we must give them the greatest level of protection possible and the security that is only available with a properly trained — armed — good guy.
Under Asa’s leadership, our team of security experts will make this the best program in the world for protecting our children at school, and we will make that program available to every school in America free of charge.
That’s a plan of action that can, and will, make a real, positive and indisputable difference in the safety of our children — starting right now.
There’ll be time for talk and debate later. This is the time, this is the day for decisive action.
We can’t wait for the next unspeakable crime to happen before we act. We can’t lose precious time debating legislation that won’t work. We mustn’t allow politics or personal prejudice to divide us. We must act now.
For the sake of the safety of every child in America, I call on every parent, every teacher, every school administrator and every law enforcement officer in this country to join us in the National School Shield Program and protect our children with the only line of positive defense that’s tested and proven to work.
A few snippets for you speed readers out there who might’ve missed them:
Politicians pass laws for Gun-Free School Zones. They issue press releases bragging about them. They post signs advertising them.
And in so doing, they tell every insane killer in America that schools are their safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.
How have our nation’s priorities gotten so far out of order? Think about it. We care about our money, so we protect our banks with armed guards. American airports, office buildings, power plants, courthouses — even sports stadiums — are all protected by armed security.
We care about the President, so we protect him with armed Secret Service agents. Members of Congress work in offices surrounded by armed Capitol Police officers.
Yet when it comes to the most beloved, innocent and vulnerable members of the American family — our children — we as a society leave them utterly defenseless, and the monsters and predators of this world know it and exploit it.
There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.
Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here’s one: it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?
Then there’s the blood-soaked slasher films like “American Psycho” and “Natural Born Killers” that are aired like propaganda loops on “Splatterdays” and every day, and a thousand music videos that portray life as a joke and murder as a way of life. And then they have the nerve to call it “entertainment.”
But is that what it really is? Isn’t fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?
In a race to the bottom, media conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate and offend every standard of civilized society by bringing an ever-more-toxic mix of reckless behavior and criminal cruelty into our homes — every minute of every day of every month of every year.
A child growing up in America witnesses 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence by the time he or she reaches the ripe old age of 18.
And throughout it all, too many in our national media … their corporate owners … and their stockholders … act as silent enablers, if not complicit co-conspirators. Rather than face their own moral failings, the media demonize lawful gun owners, amplify their cries for more laws and fill the national debate with misinformation and dishonest thinking that only delay meaningful action and all but guarantee that the next atrocity is only a news cycle away.
…why is the idea of a gun good when it’s used to protect our President or our country or our police, but bad when it’s used to protect our children in their schools?
Got an answer to that last question?
I don’t.
Now…I fully expect to get slammed here for this post. The media winds are blowing at full gale force right now and most leftinesses are as supple as willow trees in the face of media force. So it goes.
But think, goddamnit!!! I read an article recently claiming that Adam Lanza had retreated into his room over the several months preceding his breakdown and that all he did was play video games.
Hmmmm…I wonder what kind?
Bet on it.
From HCPlive, a medical website:
Violent Video Games Desensitize Brain to Violence, Increase Aggressiveness
| May 26, 2011
Pediatrics | Neurology | Psychiatry |“This Is Your Brain on Violent Video Games” is how the journal article title begins, and as such, the reader should know what to expect from the get-go.
“This Is Your Brain” is based on a study performed at the University of Missouri (MU) which offers an explanation as to why violent videogames increase aggression in their players. The answer, it would appear, is that the brains of individuals who play violent videogames become less responsive to violence–in the game as well as in reality–and this reduction of brain response to violence is an accurate predictor of increased aggression.
Associate professor of psychology at MU, Bruce Bartholow, performed the study on seventy young adult volunteers.
“Many researchers have believed that becoming desensitized to violence leads to increased human aggression,” said Bartholow. “Until our study, however, this causal association had never been demonstrated experimentally.”
Bartholow randomly assigned each participant either a nonviolent or a violent videogame to play for twenty-five minutes; immediately following the videogame, the researchers showed the participants a collection of neutral photographs (such as a tree or a man on a bike) and violent photographs (such as a man pointing a gun at another man). While they viewed these photos, researchers measured their brain responses.
Lastly, the researchers set the participants up against a rival in a competition which involved the participants blasting a loud noise at their opponent; the intensity of the noise blast the participants fired at their opponent was the measure of aggression in the study.
Researchers used reduced brain response to the violent photos–an indicator of desensitization– as a predictor of the aggression levels of their participants. They discovered that the smaller the brain response to violent photos, the more aggressive participants were.
The findings concluded that several popular violent videogames–such as “Call of Duty,” “Hitman,” “Killzone” and “Grand Theft Auto”– were associated with participants who shot louder and more intense blasts of noise at their opponents during their competition as opposed to participants who played a nonviolent videogames and who blasted their opponents with much less aggression.
Participants who did not play many violent videogames prior to completing the study underwent a noticeable change in brain response if they played a violent game during the study: They showed reduced brain response to the photos of violence from the twenty-five minute segment of playing the violent game.
Additionally, participants who reported to having previously played violent videogames a great number of times prior to the study showed small brain response to the violent photos, regardless of which type of game they played in the lab.
“The fact that videogames exposure did not affect the brain activity of participants who already had been highly exposed to violent games is interesting and suggests a number of possibilities,” Bartholow said. “It could be that those individuals are already so desensitized to violence from habitually playing violent videogames that an additional exposure in the lab has very little effect on their brain responses. There also could be an unmeasured factor that causes both a preference for violent videogames and a smaller brain response to violence. In either case, there are additional measures to consider.”
According to Bartholow, future research should center on ways to curb media violence effects, especially among individuals who are routinely exposed. There are plenty of surveys, he said, that show the average elementary school child plays videogames spends more than forty hours per week; the time spent on this activity is unprecedented by any other in a child’s life with the exception of sleeping.
Researchers urge parents to gauge the type of violent behavior their children are exposed to habitually, as a child spending that much time on an unsuitable videogames could suffer from desensitization and become accustomed to violent behavior as their brains are forming.
“More than any other media, these videogames encourage active participation in violence,” said Bartholow. “From a psychological perspective, videogames are excellent teaching tools because they reward players for engaging in certain types of behavior. Unfortunately, in many popular videogames, the behavior is violence.”
The journal article, “This Is Your Brain on Violent Video Games: Neural Desensitization to Violence Predicts Increased Aggression Following Violent Video Game Exposure,” will be published in a forthcoming edition of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Do we hear St. Obama saying anything about the media culture of ultraviolence that is now almost totally in place in the United States?
Hell no!!! The media is a power that he dare not cross. He’d be better off picking a fight with China. Or the NRA. Much better off. The media made him and it can break him. And yes, there are monsters out there. Worse monsters than if they were not living in a glorified war comic book of a culture. Bet on it.
I knew a guy in NYC…a wonderful composer, Tom Pierson…who opened every performance by saying “Homicide is not entertainment.” People laughed at him. He eventually moved to Japan, where people do not laugh at him.
When are we going to get it?
I dunno, myself.
NYC has small precincts’ worth of armed guards in many of its schools. Metal detectors, the works.
Maybe LaPierre isn’t so far off after all.
Later…
AG
