# Having laid low, the N.R.A. is fully prepped and rehearsed to control legislation. As usual.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [December 20, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605 "2012-12-20T05:02:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 11
### Author:  [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/201 "2012-12-21T20:14:01Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> Not just blowing them away. Doing anything unpleasant to them. There are no firearms in Mortal Kombat or Splatterhouse. So presumably he’s also against Super Soakers. Or chess. Or Risk.
You sunk my battleship.
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### Author:  [@hansel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hansel)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/202 "2012-12-21T20:15:16Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#):
>
> The NRA promoted a law that restored Zettergren’s right to bear arms following a felony conviction. But it was LEGISLATORS, both at a federal and state level, who actually passed the laws. I don’t understand why people are targeting the NRA, instead of focusing on the people with the real power – the ones who actually pass laws. Freedom of speech cannot and should not be curtailed. But there’s nothing in our constitution that says big lobby groups automatically get their way.
Because legislators are almost always working from a donor base providing model legislation to them in a pretty explicit quid pro quo. The legislators are middlemen in the process, which doesn’t excuse them because responsibility isn’t a zero sum game; but as Cartooniverse’s links about the NRA and Debra Maggart show, the origin of the law and the pressure to pass is the NRA.
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/203 "2012-12-21T20:28:11Z")
> [@Kobal2](#):
>
> Are legislators supposed to go against the will of their electorate ?
Legislators routinely pass legislation on matters that haven’t even crossed most voters’ minds. I bet this was one instance of that.
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### Author:  [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/204 "2012-12-21T20:41:46Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> I think pretty much all of the rest of them aren’t nearly as bad as the NRA is (as far as conspiracy-mongering and fear-inciting to raise money), but that just may be because the rest are pretty small. I plan to investigate further.
The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) is a legal advocacy group that was behind the Heller and McDonald supreme court cases and is a leader in gun rights litigation. They accept donations. I find their work to be more impressive than the NRA of late.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2012, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/205 "2012-12-21T21:21:25Z")
I’m just floored that the NRA spent a week figuring out what could be done about this sort of outrage, and the result of a week’s study, brainstorming, and solution crafting was… Paul Blart.
Suppose you hire tens of thousands of guys at affordable rates tocarry guns in schools. Anyone else think the next school shooter might be the guy you hired in a rush to carry a gun in a school?
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### Author:  [@hansel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hansel)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/206 "2012-12-21T21:36:43Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> Suppose you hire tens of thousands of guys at affordable rates tocarry guns in schools. Anyone else think the next school shooter might be the guy you hired in a rush to carry a gun in a school?
Indeed. The last time the U.S. freaked out about security and created a monolithic security agency to staff vulnerable places, we got… the TSA.
That the NRA could come to that (except with guns) as a serious proposal is just… IDEK?
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### Author:  [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2012, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/207 "2012-12-21T21:42:43Z")
> [@jasg](#):
>
> He also asked that we at least consider if that would have saved the lives of **26** innocent children…:smack:
> [@Cartooniverse](#):
>
> Far be it for we idiotic life-lovers to deny the N.R.A. their God-given and Constitutionally-guaranteed right to decide what kids are innocent and what kids are not.
>
> Assholes.
Well, OK but my point was that he did not seem to know that 20 first graders and 6 adults we murdered last Friday.
[QUOTE=Wayne LaPierre]
Will you at least admit it’s possible that 26 little kids, that 26 innocent lives might have been spared that day?
[/QUOTE]
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### Author:  [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/208 "2012-12-21T21:43:49Z")
It’s not like schools are necessarily small places. How many security guards would you have at a typical 1,500 student High School? One? Two? I look at our local High School and there are dozens of way onto campus and dozens of classrooms. By the time such a person found out is would be too late. The idea that a cop or security guard or whatever is going to have any appreciable affect is ridiculous.
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### Author:  [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/209 "2012-12-21T22:36:26Z")
> [@Dob](#):
>
> Holy shit.. did the head of the NRA just stand up in front of the entire country and blame the shootings on the media, holly wood, government, (unarmed) teachers, video games, TV, and democrats??
>
> Then offered (in spite of every teacher union in the country) to place arm guards in every school in the country??
>
> What the fuck was that??? I’m just at a loss to understand…
When all you have is a hammer, every problem you see is a nail.
When your entire raison d’etre is to promote guns, then the solution to a nutbar killing children with guns he got from a family member is… to ensure that even more guns are available to potential nutbars in the future.
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### Author:  [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/210 "2012-12-22T00:33:05Z")
This guy is fucking insane and needs to be put out to pasture with his archaic references to 20 year old games and movies to bolster his argument for more guns in schools.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/211 "2012-12-22T02:17:31Z")
Aren’t you rabidly pro-gun? I mean, it’s admirable that you’d see that LaPierre is not exactly the person you want speaking for you, but I suspect it’s a rare sentiment among gun owners.
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### Author:  [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/212 "2012-12-22T03:07:40Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> Aren’t you rabidly pro-gun? I mean, it’s admirable that you’d see that LaPierre is not exactly the person you want speaking for you, but I suspect it’s a rare sentiment among gun owners.
Based on my social media feeds, there are a fair number of us gun nuts who think that Wayne blew it.
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### Author:  [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/213 "2012-12-22T03:08:53Z")
Nah, you have me confused with someone else.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/214 "2012-12-22T03:12:21Z")
Happens to me all the time. And George Clooney doesn’t even _have_ a twin!
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/215 "2012-12-22T03:39:07Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#):
>
> It’s not like schools are necessarily small places. How many security guards would you have at a typical 1,500 student High School? One? Two? I look at our local High School and there are dozens of way onto campus and dozens of classrooms. By the time such a person found out is would be too late. The idea that a cop or security guard or whatever is going to have any appreciable affect is ridiculous.
Our high school had 1200 students and couldn’t even prevent a kid from skipping class. There had to be a dozen exits, at least.
We never had a security guard. It would have seemed… well, bizarre.
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### Author:  [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/216 "2012-12-22T05:48:47Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#):
>
> It’s not like schools are necessarily small places. How many security guards would you have at a typical 1,500 student High School? One? Two? I look at our local High School and there are dozens of way onto campus and dozens of classrooms. By the time such a person found out is would be too late. **The idea that a cop or security guard or whatever is going to have any appreciable affect is ridiculous.**
The bolding above is mine.
It would have a HUGE affect. How can you not see it?
Imagine the number of guns that would be sold if every school had an armed guard posted? THAT is the only purpose of the NRA - to promote gun sales and enrich the gun makers. The degree they care about gun owners and the 2nd Amendment is totally dependent on that one thing.
And that press conference was the most amazing rickroll I’ve seen in a long time.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/217 "2012-12-22T05:56:38Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#):
>
> The bolding above is mine.
>
> It would have a HUGE affect. How can you not see it?
>
> Imagine the number of guns that would be sold if every school had an armed guard posted?
In the context of U.S. gun ownership, not that many. There are 100,000 schools, more or less, in the United States. Assuming two guards per school (presumably you need a backup) 200,000 guns sounds like a lot, but it’s a very small fraction of the U.S. arsenal; Americans own somewhere between 250 and 300 million guns, in civilian hands, and buy millions of guns a year.
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### Author:  [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/218 "2012-12-22T06:13:09Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> In the context of U.S. gun ownership, not that many.
I meant in the context of what the NRA and Wayne LaPierre are about, namely selling more guns.
That’s all they care about. 200,000 guns may not be that many guns in terms of the number of guns already in circulation. But, by golly, that would certainly be some decent coin for a not so hard day’s work.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/219 "2012-12-22T06:52:06Z")
> [@Kobal2](#):
>
> Are legislators supposed to go against the will of their electorate ?
Yes.
[QUOTE=Edmund Burke]
Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure; no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. **Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.**
[/QUOTE]
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/220 "2012-12-22T06:59:51Z")
Of all the public attempts at persuasion I have ever witnessed, this last speech has to be one of the most tone-deaf and brain-dead efforts I have ever seen. Makes Romney look like the silver tongue devil who can charm the birds out of the trees, Makes Gingrich appear reasonable. Colonies on Mars? Armed guards in every school? “Why not?” you may ask. “What the fuck?”, more likely.
LaPierre had the warm and engaging presence of a rattlesnake on meth. Sit next to him on the bus and you practice the zen of invisible non-presence. Keep conversation to a minimum and express no opinion, on any subject, whatsoever.
He desperately needs chiropractic. Laxatives. A hit of acid, meditation, something. Because that is one deeply fucked up human simulator. He embodies every negative connotation for the word “straight”. If I find out he’s a Taurus, I’ll change my birthday. But I’m guessing Leo with some major Scorpio problems.
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