Appearing embattled and threatened by the remarkable and driven teenagers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the #NeverAgain movement they’re empowering, the NRA and their Republican cronies including Donald Trump are once again trying to throw grit in the eyes of Americans who want sensible gun control.
This is the real motivation of their current agenda (which follows their same strategy after every gun-caused massacre), derail the growing demands for assault weapon bans and restricting ownership of weapons of war by pushing an outrageous and offensive campaign.
The NRA has been whipping up hatred, attacks and conspiracy theories against these outspoken and noble teens and their families who suffered this tragedy just last week. The NRA has been spreading lies in the traditional and social media and in a survivors’ town hall to justify greater and greater gun sales (and massacres and deaths). The NRA has branded those who are fed up with inaction to protect children and other Americans from those seeking to commit mass killings, socialists, tyrants, anti-American and intent on taking all guns away.
And as always, their offered solution to deal with horrific murders by the very guns they have put in the hands of mentally unstable people through their lobbying and buying of politicians, is the insanity that more people having more guns will make everyone safe.
Of course this makes no sense to anyone with a brain bigger than a bullet yet the news media always seems to take the bait and regards as a serious proposal, that teachers should be armed and ready every school day to become self-sacrificing killers who will shoot down maniacal students.
Our news media does have ratings to consider and tries so hard to look impartial even when the Right Wing side is unhinged. This is how Trump’s campaign gained steam and this is how such absurd and desperate propaganda becomes validated. No, you don’t have to repeatedly make the case that arming teachers is stupid and unacceptable, you don’t have to have hour after hour of interviewing teachers and people from the military to attest to how this is a bad idea. Doing this is validating the propaganda which is just what the NRA wants. Propaganda should be quickly invalidated and dismissed as such and the media should instead promote a focus on truths and the real solutions being supported (by 90% of Americans) to prevent future murderous attacks.
One news segment that shoots holes through this NRA propaganda is enough and then energy and attention could then be quickly returned to affirming truths and exploring solutions to the too-frequent mass murdering of Americans. And that could be done so simply. Just several realities can be tossed out every time the NRA attempts this kind of misdirection and whipping up of its base. Then we can move on.
Eight Statements That Shoot Holes Through the NRA’s Propaganda
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Sane people want to prevent school massacres by banning assault rifles, not increase the amount of victims by setting up crossfires.
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It is always too late for an armed teacher to prevent a mass shooting. They are teaching when it begins.
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The only thing that won’t stop a Kevlar-wearing bad guy with an AR-15 is a terrified teacher with a hand gun.
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Even a trained deputy was too frightened to confront a shooter, teachers will be at least as frightened.
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A teacher’s gun would be there in school where it could be stolen and used by a disgruntled student or teacher.
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Police with training and experience wrongly shoot people they mistakenly perceive to be threats, how many students accidentally killed by teachers would be acceptable to “keep schools safe”?
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Banning assault rifles decreases mass killings (see U.S. 1994-2004, Australia, New York City, etc.).
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Every country has mentally ill people, violent films and video games yet only gun-drowned America has huge numbers of mass shootings.
Thanks to CNN, here are a few graphs that make the point very simply that more guns means more murders.
If more guns made people safer, none of this would be the case. It’s a lie, plain and simple. A flat out lie. More guns causes more murders. That’s the proven truth.
Knowing a crumb of background on the NRA, that it is financed and controlled by gun manufacturers and acts against the desires of 90% of its members to make bigger profits for its bosses, makes it clear how and why they are in the business of murder and fear and are a fraudulent organization.
The NRA claims it has 5 million members. There are up to 86 million gun owners in America. While it is only a claim that could be false like most of their claims and we have no idea how many of their members are inactive or uninterested, the NRA has less than 6% of U.S. gun owners claimed as members. 94% of gun owners do not belong to the NRA. The NRA is not a representative for a majority of gun owners, just a tiny minority.
Another interesting number, there are around 80 million Millennials in the U.S. (Americans aged 18-35). Even if all 5 million NRA members voted and followed like robots against pro-gun-control candidates (which they wouldn’t), there are many times more Millennials who, if motivated, could easily overwhelm that vote. The NRA is about promoting fear, it’s worked with spineless politicians afraid of getting on the wrong side of them but if the #NeverAgain movement continues to grow and becomes more powerful, if they defeat pro-NRA Republicans, the power of the NRA could actually be stripped away this year.
As for the latest NRA propaganda, it just needs to be shot down quickly and effectively as it stalks this country. Every American should be armed intellectually with the facts, then the bad guys with the guns can be stopped by the good guys with consciences and solutions.
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