The NRA has spoken.

The NRA has spoken; and their answer to the horrors of Newtown Connecticut is to tell Congress to set aside a massive amount of money to station an armed guard at every school.

This is a great solution for weapons manufacturers because it creates a huge new market for their products.

I have a better suggestion.  

If stationing an armed guard at every school is the only way to avoid another Newtown massacre, weapons manufacturers, not taxpayers, should bear the burden as a cost of doing business.

Half of all taxpayers don’t even own a gun, but we are all vulnerable to weapons stockpiled by the rest, and we all pay the collateral costs of gun violence.

I don’t want to hear any more about how “guns don’t kill people; people kill people.”  People with guns kill people in extremely large numbers in this country, and that smug little truism does nothing to alter reality.

It is shocking and shameful that we have allowed our Constitution to be hijacked by an industry and its auxiliaries to justify a class of products that are about nothing more noble than wholesale slaughter.

It’s time to demand from Big Weapons the same kind of payback as we demanded from Big Tobacco, who successfully avoided government regulation of their deadly product for decades with the argument that it would violate our Constitutional rights.

About Sue Prent

Artist/Writer/Activist living in St. Albans, Vermont with my husband since 1983. I was born in Chicago; moved to Montreal in 1969; lived there and in Berlin, W. Germany until we finally settled in St. Albans.

9 thoughts on “The NRA has spoken.

  1. Oh yes,

    following this logic we need to station armed guards at every burning house.

    What about psychologically evaluating every American?

    At least this would give jobs to psychologists instead of gun manufactures.

  2. My wife came across this to-the-point photo as posted on a friend’s FB page (originally from beingliberal.org, although she couldn’t find it there yesterday):

    Photobucket

    NanuqFC

    What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

    Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
    ~ Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

  3. is a not-so-cleverly disguised continuation of a national arms race. It’s not the answer imho. And using this tragedy to capitalize & further politicize the situation is reprehensible. I find it incredibly f’ked up.

    I do not agree with this as any ‘solution’. After thinking this over, I do not believe there should be weapons in any school or armed guards. Because they can be overpowered.

    Teachers and other staffers cannot be ruled out as a threat either. A better solution as far as I’m concerned would be police dept hooked up to the surveillance cameras around the school & ready to act upon any threat, sort of like the nuclear chain of command, someone is always in a readiness mode.

    Schools, at least middle & high school should have metal detectors since we now know students can also be a threat.

    Another reason I do not believe that gun control laws will have any effect is that if someone is bent on causing mass destruction , they will merely find another way. So, do we want guns or grenades & home-made bombs as in McVeigh.

    The deer rifle argument doesn’t cut it. If someone is interested in protecting family & friends, being outgunned is an issue so one assault rifle or automatic weapon could be necessary in some situations. I would like to see strong regulation which has been discussed (like a motor vehicle) & stiff penalties for all violators. If we outlaw assault weapons, only outlaws will have assault weapons. Once weapons are outlawed, there is no bringing them back.

    I am aware my stance is controversial, fire away.

    Cleanish version:



  4. is a not-so-cleverly disguised continuation of a national arms race. It’s not the answer imho. And using this tragedy to capitalize & further politicize the situation is reprehensible. I find it incredibly f’ked up.

    I do not agree with this as any ‘solution’. After thinking this over, I do not believe there should be weapons in any school or armed guards. Because they can be overpowered.

    Teachers and other staffers cannot be ruled out as a threat either. A better solution as far as I’m concerned would be police dept hooked up to the surveillance cameras around the school & ready to act upon any threat, sort of like the nuclear chain of command, someone is always in a readiness mode.

    Schools, at least middle & high school should have metal detectors since we now know students can also be a threat.

    Another reason I do not believe that gun control laws will have any effect is that if someone is bent on causing mass destruction , they will merely find another way. So, do we want guns or grenades & home-made bombs as in McVeigh.

    The deer rifle argument doesn’t cut it. If someone is interested in protecting family & friends, being outgunned is an issue so one assault rifle or automatic weapon could be necessary in some situations. I would like to see strong regulation which has been discussed (like a motor vehicle) & stiff penalties for all violators. If we outlaw assault weapons, only outlaws will have assault weapons. Once weapons are outlawed, there is no bringing them back.

    I am aware my stance is controversial, fire away.

    Cleanish version:



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