Mass Shootings the last six months

[Townsend]

How can anyone with a shred of intellectual honesty not see a liberal bias when they call Wayne LaPierre "defiant" in their headline and story?

And BTW, I'm NOT a LaPierre fan, simply stating that calling him "defiant" suggests, at least in their view, that a vast majority of Americans disagree with his position.

He's a scoffer.

NRA Calls for Armed School Guards, Scoffs at Gun Laws

The National Rifle Association stood its ground today in arguing that the answer to gun violence in schools is an armed security force that can protect students, while blaming the media and violent entertainment and video games for recent deadly shootings.

"The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said in presenting the NRA's first comments about the Connecticut school shooting since it occurred a week ago today.

LaPierre offered no olive branch to gun-control advocates who have called for tougher laws in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Instead, he called for schools across the country to recruit armed security professionals to protect their students.

"It's not just our duty to protect [our children], it's our right to protect them," LaPierre said at a news conference. "The NRA knows there are millions of qualified active and reserved police, active and reserve military, security professionals, rescue personnel, an extraordinary corps of qualified trained citizens to join with local school officials and police in devising a protection plan for every single school."

He was interrupted twice by protestors who stood in front of LaPierre's podium holding signs and shouting that the NRA "has blood on its hands" and that the NRA is "killing our kids." The protestors were eventually escorted out of the room.

LaPierre also scoffed at the notion that banning so-called assault weapons or enacting gun control laws would stop school violence. He instead cast blame for gun violence in schools on violent entertainment, including video games, and the media.

"How many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame from a national media machine that rewards them with a wall of attention they crave while provoking others to make their mark?" he asked.

LaPierre announced that former U.S. congressman Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas would lead the NRA's effort to advocate for school security forces. Hutchinson specified that the NRA is calling for volunteers to act as the armed guards, rather than requiring funding from local or federal authorities.

"Whether they're retired police, retired military or rescue personnel, I think there are people in every community in this country who would be happy to serve if only someone asked them and gave them the training and certifications to do so," Hutchinson said.

NRA leaders have held off on interviews this week after refusing to appear on Sunday morning public affairs shows. They said they would grant interviews beginning next week to discuss their position.

NRA News anchor Ginny Simone said Thursday that in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, membership surged "with an average of 8,000 new members a day."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the NRA is partially to blame for the tragedy.

"We're not trying to take away your right to advance the interests of gun owners, hunters, people who want to protect themselves," Bloomberg told "Nightline" anchor Cynthia McFadden in an interview Thursday. "But that's not an absolute right to encourage behavior which causes things like Connecticut. In fact, Connecticut is because of some of their actions."

The guns used in the attack were legally purchased and owned by the shooter's mother, Nancy Lanza, whom Adam Lanza shot to death before his assault on the school.

In the aftermath of the shooting, many, including Bloomberg, have called for stricter regulations on the type of weapons used in this and other instances of mass gun violence this year.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has said she intends to introduce a bill banning assault weapons on the first day of next year's Congress -- a step the president said he supports.

President Obama announced Wednesday that Vice President Joe Biden will head a task force of leaders from across the country that will evaluate the best solutions to reduce gun violence in the United States.

Obama said he will "use all the powers of this office to help advance efforts aimed at preventing more tragedies like this."

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, of which Mayor Bloomberg is co-chair, released a letter to President Obama signed by more than 750 mayors calling on him to produce a plan to "make it harder for dangerous people to possess guns."

The letter asked for mandatory background checks for gun buyers, a ban on high-capacity rifles and ammunition magazines, and a designation of gun trafficking as a federal crime.

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos looked at whether strict gun control laws like those that have worked for the United Kingdom and Japan could work for the U.S. on "Good Morning America" Thursday.

Others have argued that, rather than banning guns, the government should be arming teachers and administrators in schools so that they can defend students in the event of another school shooting.

While Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a measure that would have let guns into schools on Tuesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell praised the idea.

Speaking on the NRA's daily news program Tuesday, Dave Koppel of the Independence Institute said the teachers at Sandy Hook should have had weapons.

"We'd certainly be talking about fewer innocent people and children dead," Koppel said.

While a national debate over the necessary solutions to prevent a tragedy of this nature from ever happening again wages on, Connecticut residents will have to wait "several months" before the final Connecticut State Police report on the Newtown shootings is complete.

[Townsend]

Wayne LaPierre Wants Armed Guards at Schools. Columbine Had an Armed Guard.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/12/21/wayne_lapierre_wants_armed_guards_at_schools_columbine_had_an_armed_guard.html

There was a point. After some meandering around about video game violence, LaPierre proposed a national initiative -- funded by your tax dollars -- to put armed guards in schools. "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?" he asked. "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."

But this isn't an entirely new idea. You probably don't remember the name of Neil Gardner, a sherrif's deputy in Jefferson County, Colorado. He was the armed guard assigned to watch Columbine High School, who usually ate lunch with the students, so he could be in the school.

[Teatownclown]

Hale High's on lockdown.

Again? Sheeesh....like 4 times this month.

[DolfanBob]

Hale High's on lockdown.

Yep. Student was passing out bullets.

[Red Arrow]

Yep. Student was passing out bullets.

I just heard on Ch 6 that the lockdown has been lifted.

[Townsend]

Yep. Student was passing out bullets.

TW FB post:

Hale High School searched after student hands out bullets as Christmas presents

[Red Arrow]

TW FB post:

Has the student passing out bullets died?

[DolfanBob]

That's one helluva stocking stuffer. Putz!

[patric]

Again? Sheeesh....like 4 times this month.

Someone jog my memory...  
Which school went on lockdown just as kids were arriving in buses, essentially locking them OUT with the potential shooter?

[patric]

Columbine Had an Armed Guard.

Comparisons to Columbine are mostly apples and oranges  --
There hadnt been any "Active Shooter" tactics developed at that point, so many casualties were friendly fire.
Only weeks before, the head of the local SWAT gave an interview to local media saying he was "ready for anything" ...and someone lacking moral restraints obliged him.

But to Townsend's point, Columbine was built like a prison, with surveillance cameras, electric door locks and all.

[Conan71]

The Most Revolting Press Conference In History December 21, 2012by James Schlarmann
  
http://www.politicalgarbagechute.com/the-most-revolting-press-conference-in-history/

Indeed...Joe Biden's battle. The perfect soldier for this one!

We're coming for your assault rifles and 30 shot magazines!

Bwhhhhhaaaaa!!!!!

I'm sure the author doesn't see the tragic irony dripping from his comment:

A week ago today, twenty kindergartners and six adults whose job it was to protect those children were mowed down

Now, how were they going to protect these children from a hail of bullets, regardless what sort of weapon they were fired from??  Paddles? Straws? Dull butter knives?

[AquaMan]

Hale has often been on lockdown over the last few years. Drugs. One first hand story related to me concerned a student who had failed to pay his lunch tab and had been refused more credit. He returned with a shotgun and threatened the cafeteria staff. He could afford the shells but not the food apparently. There are plenty of lockdown and "guns on board" stories that never make it to the press for fear of parents pu;ling their kids and wrecking school budgets. For instance this week I personally know of two incidents that went unreported. 10-33-2a.

Tulsan's love to teach their kids about standing up for themselves and how to use their fists and their guns to do so.

[patric]

There are plenty of lockdown and "guns on board" stories that never make it to the press for fear of parents pulling their kids and wrecking school budgets. For instance this week I personally know of two incidents that went unreported. 10-33-2a.

Before they took education money to create their own police department, those incidents were all public record and in the media.
Good thing they fixed that...

[Teatownclown]

He chose poorly? Or he had an irresponsible family?

[Teatownclown]

The 10 Craziest Quotes From The NRA Press Conference
1) Gun-free schools zones “tell every insane killer in America that schools are their safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.”
2) “There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.
3) “[V]iolent 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.”
4) “We need to have every single school in America immediately deploy a protection program proven to work —and by that I mean armed security.”
5) “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?”
6) “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.”
7) “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.”
“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.”
9) “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?”
10) “Isn’t fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/12/21/1372001/the-10-craziest-quotes-from-the-nra-press-conference/

Arm the children! Right Conan. How'd it go when you were a child?