Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

Huh. Can't imagine why he'd do that! On January 5th, he stepped down before the trial began on the 8th. He has been accused of diverting NRA funds to support a lavish lifestyle. The NRA moved its headquarter from New York State to Texas in an effort to avoid prosecution, but that isn't really going to make a difference as the law suit was already in motion. The only thing it'll do is increase their travel costs.

From the article: "In December, a judge ruled against the NRA’s bid to have New York Attorney General Letitia James’ probe into the organization dissolved, the trial is set to begin on Jan. 8. Among the remediations sought by James was the removal of LaPierre from his position as a chief executive of the anti-gun control organization.

In 2020, James filed a lawsuit against the NRA alleging that LaPierre and other top-level executives at the organization had engaged in “illegal conduct because of their diversion of millions of dollars away from the charitable mission of the organization for personal use by senior leadership.” The lawsuit sought the full dissolution of the NRA, as well as restitution payments for violations of New York tax laws.

Yes, she's seeking the potential dissolution of the NRA! Wouldn't that be something! For years, the NRA has been taking in a lot more money from corporate sponsorship than it has from individual memberships, something that I find pretty sad.

Years ago, not long after LaPierre became head of the NRA, they wanted to make a TV commercial of him shooting guns. Makes sense, right? Head of the NRA, shooting guns? It's a natural! So they take him out to the range, camera crew, bunch of guns! Easy peasy!

The guy was a menace. Didn't know the first thing about gun safety. Was unsafely waving loaded guns around in all directions, endangering everyone around him. Finally they had enough and they scrapped the idea of the shoot before it became an actual shoot.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/wayne-lapierre-resigns-nra-corruption-trial-1234941163/

"The gates of success swing open for hypocrites, chameleons, bullies, and yes-men."
—NRA ad, on the world

The NRA released a new TV ad at their weekend convention, adding a new high (or low) to their hype. I love the irony of the above line, looking at the continuing record sales for gun and ammo manufacturers.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/26/nra-unveils-fear-mongering-in-a-world-gone-mad-membership-drive-television-ad/


When I was a kid, I took an NRA hunter safety course. I still have the card. Now they're just shills and undeclared lobbyists for the gun industry, they just won't admit it.

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun...I call on Congress today, to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation."
– Wayne LaPierre, at NRA press conference

"I wish to God she had had an M-4 in her office."
– Rep. Louie Gohmert on Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochspring

Who exactly would pay for a rapid response team for every school? Does he think a volunteer force would work? To effectively counter the threat of a lone gunman, you would need people in full body armor all the time, and even then, you don't have an answer to one of them going nuts. Arming everyone is not the answer.

Gohmert also needs a reality check. Too many assumptions. That she's present when the shooting starts, that she has the presence of mind to grab the rifle (which would have to be locked up, so it would also assume that she has the presence of mind to unlock it), that she can shoot accurately and take out the shooter. The top rules of shooting a gun are to treat all guns as if they are loaded and to be sure of what's behind your target. Could you imagine how the principal would feel if she missed and killed one of her students? I'm sure there would be no litigation if that were to happen. A SWAT member specializes in not only accurate shooting, but also tactical manouvering, and they practice it on a regular basis, does a school principal have the time for that?

Video games are not to blame, nor are TV and movies. The problem is too many guns in circulation and people with profound mental disturbances who should not have access to guns in the first place. But since mental health problems are not "manly", we can't address them as they should be.

*sigh*

LaPierre needs an attitude adjustment, the country's opinion is heavily against the NRA at the moment and if he doesn't come up with something more reasonable, his organization and him are just going to become increasingly irrelevant.

"Freedom... Now, imagine our country without it... Defeat Obama."
—NRA ad

Yes, we Americans have a freedom to possess and bear firearms. But the NRA buying ads like this? Obama has loosened gun laws: you can now carry a gun in a national park and on Amtrak trains. Obama hasn't announced any plans for any gun control that I've heard of. Romney? While governor he signed a ban, I don't know if it was on automatic weapons or "assault" (semi-automatic) weapons. He became a life-long member of the NRA in 2006 when he ran for governor, and was caught in a lie when asked about the guns he owns: what he described was a gun owned by one of his sons.

And the NRA endorsed Romney over Obama.

I don't have a problem with people owning and carrying guns, I've owned many in my time and I had a concealed carry permit for 10 yeas in Arizona. But the NRA and the Republicans have diluted gun laws to such a degree that it is beyond stupid. Florida was sort of the starting point, some 10-15 years ago, when they passed a concealed carry law that was basically filling out a form and you get your permit. Arizona's law at that time required fingerprinting, a criminal background check, a two-day class, and you had to shoot a gun and prove that you had a good chance of hitting what you were aiming at. I thought that was perfectly reasonable requirements to carry a concealed weapon. Now Arizona's law is closer to Florida's. New Mexico's CCW law still seems to be somewhat sane, at least you are still required to take classroom time and demonstrate proficiency, but they also require proficiency by caliber: if you qualify with a .38 special, that's the largest caliber that you can carry. So you're better off borrowing and qualifying with a .45 ACP.

We need reasonable gun laws in this country. It's ridiculous that a mental patient could get ahold of guns and so much ammunition and perpetrate things like the Aurora theater shooting. He should have been flagged for no-sales, and most states used to have prohibitions against sales to people flagged with mental illness, I guess those laws either either no longer exist or are no longer enforced, or maybe they have no way of checking them across state lines.

But because of the NRA's constant shouting of "The gubmint's gonna take away our guns and we need 'em to fight Commies!", things like this can continue to happen.

And things like the Batman shooting will continue to occasionally happen.