The official NRA statement is ongoing right now. Up until Friday the NRA has purposefully kept quiet in order to honor the victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. According to USA Today , the official NRA statement proposes a “model school shield program” as a solution to school shootings but also blames the media, Hollywood, and even video games .
According to USA Today the NRA statement claims ” that armed guards at schools and not pushing for more gun control measures is the way lawmakers should go after the issue.” The NRA believes that “providing armed security could provide an important line of defense to protecting school children”. They call on the media to “at least admit that it’s possible” this idea has merit and that 26 lives could have been saved.
The NRA is creating a “model school shield program” where armed and trained volunteers will help improve security at schools. This new program, which is very similar to the school protection program in Israel , will be lead by former House Representative Asa Hutchinson and will be made available to every school that wants it free of charge.
In addition, the NRA statement calls on Congress “to immediately appropriate money to put armed officers in every school in America.” In order to make this happen the NRA will provide “11,000 police training instructors” and they question anyone who dislikes this idea:
“Why is the use of a gun when it’s asked to be used to protect the president or used by the police, but bad when it’s used to protect children?”
Since NRA memberships have been increasing at record rates the NRA apparently feels it has the initiative in making a statement that blames others for school shootings. They think the media get basic gun facts wrong and that “they don’t even know what they are talking about.” As an example, he cites statistics that say “Federal gun prosecutions have decreased by 40% to lowest levels in a decade” yet many in the media blame school shootings on guns.
According to CNN , the NRA statement says that entertainment from Hollywood and video game producers are largely to blame for influencing our society to be more violent:
“[The NRA blame] media conglomerates, saying their products deliver ‘a toxic mix’ of criminality ‘into our homes’ around the clock. But corporate owners and stockholders act as ‘silent enablers.’ He said the media has ‘demonized gun owners.’”
What do you think of the NRA statement?
