{"id":671479,"date":"2022-05-25T15:43:13","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T15:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=0e9bbc2e24020dd66815c600afdca2d7"},"modified":"2022-05-25T15:43:13","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T15:43:13","slug":"in-response-to-texas-massacre-right-wingers-want-more-guns-and-cops-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/05\/25\/in-response-to-texas-massacre-right-wingers-want-more-guns-and-cops-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"In Response to Texas Massacre, Right-Wingers Want More Guns and Cops in Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ten days after an 18-year-old male<\/a>, clad in body armor and wielding a semi-automatic weapon, walked into a grocery store in Buffalo and killed 11 people, targeting ten Black patrons, another 18-year-old male,<\/a> wielding a fully loaded weapon walked into an elementary school in Uvalde Texas and killed 21 people, 19 of them children under the age of 10.<\/p>\n

The echoes of the Charleston massacre in 2015 and the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 are deafening. Yet it just keeps happening.<\/p>\n

There was a time when we might have thought that the mass shooting of an elementary school would have been the final straw. Targeting tiny children in their classrooms, randomly gunning them down in front of their friends who had to witness the carnage, the horror endured by the families of the victims would seem to be the sort of thing that would shock the collective conscience. And back in 2012, it did.<\/a> But just for a little while. There was bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill, law enforcement and right-wing media were in accord, and even the NRA’s board understood that this had crossed a line. A teenage boy had obtained a semi-automatic rifle, killed his mother, and gunned down 20 first-graders and six teachers in an elementary school. Something had to be done.<\/p>\n

Then Wayne LaPierre, the undisputed leader of the gun rights movement and then the head of the National Rifle Association (NRA), put his foot down. He appeared at a press conference in Washington at which everyone expected him to offer a compromise on the NRA’s rigid refusal to contemplate any gun reform measures at all. But he didn’t. Instead, he gave a barn burner of a speech in which rather than offering some concessions, he doubled down. He famously proclaimed:<\/a><\/p>\n

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The only way \u2014 the only way \u2014 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. What if, when Adam Lanza started shooting his way into Sandy Hook elementary school last Friday, he’d been confronted by qualified armed security?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

All reforms of the gun laws stalled from that point forward. The right, completely in the clutches of the gun lobby, never engaged in good faith again. Even the horrifying image of grade school kids being sprayed with semi-automatic gunfire didn’t move them.<\/p>\n

The NRA and LaPierre have since been disgraced in a series of financial scandals but as is so common on the right, their dishonesty and corruption haven’t reduced their clout with the GOP. As a matter of fact, they are holding their annual meeting in Texas on Friday:<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\" Just a few days left until President Trump speaks at NRA\u2019s Annual Meeting for the 6th time!<\/p>\n

Hear from Trump this Friday, May 27, 2PM in Houston, TX! Visit https:\/\/t.co\/76lbF2FHBr<\/a> for more info! pic.twitter.com\/HmKCshDwKn<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NRA (@NRA) May 24, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n