the N.R.A. bans guns

April 30, 2018 Fox News headline:

No guns allowed at NRA convention when Trump, Pence speak

-------------- Esquire-UK headline:

"The NRA Believe In The Right To Bear Arms
(Unless It's At Their Own Event)"

---------------------- [from the article] ---------- In the past few months companies have been demonstrating where they stand on  the gun control debate, with YouTube banning videos selling firearms, Google swapping the gun emoji for a water pistol and Bumble banning photographs of weapons on the dating app.

     Their decisions to weigh in demonstrates a growing resistance to the country's relaxed gun control laws which have contributed to an epidemic of mass shootings in America.

     The National Rifle Association's response to the calls for tighter laws on gun ownership has been to reiterate that the second amendment is a God-given right of all U.S. citizens, and peddle the line that guns are not dangerous, people are dangerous.  They have long pushed the idea of a "good guy with a gun" to neutralise the bad.


     So when the NRA announced last week that they would be banning guns for a speech by Vice-President Mike Pence to NRA members, many were quick to point out their hypocrisy.

[from Twitter] --

Kurt Eichenwald
I don't understand.  The NRA has banned guns at their convention because Pence will be there.  But guns don't kill people, people kill people.  I know that because the NRA says so....

Amy Siskind
Gawd the irony never stops:  but we can have them in our schools.  https://www.dallasnews.com/news/dallas/2018/04/24/vice-president-mike-pence-will-speak-nra-convention-dallas ...

"Guns banned for Vice President Mike Pence's speech at NRA..."


UnsilentMajority

NRA - We need guns in our schools!!

Me - You start by allowing them at your conventions and we'll talk

NRA - whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not get crazy here


Catherynne Valente

The NRA banned guns at their event for Mike Pence.

I just don't understand.  Why does the NRA want the Vice President to put himself in danger?

Wouldn't he be safest if every single person in the room had an open carry AR-15 for which they didn't have a pass a background check?

Guns:  safe enough for schools but not for an NRA Convention!

Fred Guttenberg
On so many levels, this is enlightening.  According to the NRA, we should want everyone to have weapons when we are in public.  

But when they put on a convention, the weapons are a concern?  I thought giving everyone a gun was to enhance safety.  

Am I missing something?


--------------------- The news prompted criticism from survivors of the Parkland school shooting, to whom Trump floated the idea of arming teachers in order to protect them.  It appears that the NRA are happy to foster a gun-free area for themselves but nowhere else.

     "Wait wait wait wait wait wait you're telling me to make the VP safe there aren't any weapons around but when it comes to children they want guns everywhere?" tweeted Matt Deitsch, a Parkland student.  "Can someone explain this to me?"

     Fellow student Cameron Kasky also mocked their announcement saying that, "The NRA has evolved into such a hilarious parody of itself."

|||||||| [memo]

NRA Dallas Annual Meetings

Due to the attendance of the Vice President of the United States, the U.S. Secret Service will be responsible for event security at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum.  As a result, firearms and firearm accessories, knives or weapons of any kind will be prohibited in the forum prior to and during his attendance.

(And they add, "Click here for additional information.")

--------------- end, Memo -----------------------------


     March for Our Lives organiser and Parkland survivor David Hogg has called on Pence to cancel his NRA appearance, calling it, "a slap in the face to Americans -- from Parkland to Chicago to Nashville -- hurting from gun violence" in a petition that has nearly 50,000 signatures.

------------------------------ written by Olivia Ovenden
April 30, 2018

____________________________________

All the saints and sinners
They pay handsomely
MSCAE they make the weapons 
And they run the prisons
And they sell the justice
'Cause being guilty is just good business
Well, we're standing on the borderline
Ain't no one here going to stop it now

Murrow's turnin' over in his grave
Murrow's turnin' over in his grave
Ed Murrow had a child
The damn thing went wild
Murrow's turnin' over in his grave
Murrow's turnin' over in his grave
Ed Murrow had a child
The damn thing went wild

Half-closed eyes and unconscious death
Do you feel the ooze as your brain drains out
From the pneumatic drills and sharpened knives?
Blood in the sky, are you dead or alive?
All the restless people and the bitter green
Well, it takes this gold, make the spirit mean

Murrow's turnin' over in his grave
Murrow's turnin' over in his grave...


-------------------------------
Fleetwood Mac song from the Say You Will album (2003)

written by Lindsey Buckingham

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