# 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:** 12
### Author:  [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/221 "2012-12-22T07:20:37Z")
Penny Arcade [put it succinctly](http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/12/21):
> [@](#):
>
> It is a very odd sort of Patriot that would destroy the First Amendment to protect the Second
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### Author:  [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/222 "2012-12-22T07:26:50Z")
Assuming 2 guards at $30,000 each times 100,000 schools =
$6,000,000,000.
Security companies are smacking their lips.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/223 "2012-12-22T07:35:29Z")
Hell, we just cut the school lunch programs. Kids gonna be too nervous to eat anyway.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/224 "2012-12-22T07:58:17Z")
So, he’s gotta be armed and trained, yes? Pistol? With that special ammo that penetrates chest protectors? Or can he be trained to reliably do a head shot from any given distance. Under conditions of extreme stress. And if he misses, its adios motherfucker.
And after all this training and equipping gets done, we send him to a school where he will be on site every school day (and other events?), where he will do absolutely nothing. But be there.
Does Mr LaPierre read any history? Like how its a truism that many, many men, confronted with the terror of mortal combat for the first time, about half of them lose their shit and are utterly worthless?
So, this guy is part Seal, part Green Beret, part Chiricahua Apache, and part Wolverine. He can take out a heavily armed and armored madman with a single shot…he’s not likely to get two…with calm, professional efficiency. Even as he is _most_ likely to spend his entire working career bored comatose.
Yeah. That’ll work.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/225 "2012-12-22T11:57:22Z")
> [@Algher](#):
>
> So you are equating people who agree with the Supreme Court on 2nd Amendment rights with slaveowners?
>
> Just want to confirm your stance. Hate to misunderstand. Hate to think that you are calling me the moral equivalent of a slaveowner, when you don’t mean that.
> [@Debaser](#):
>
> So gun rights are like slavery? Sorry, but you’ve lost me.
Sorry I have not responded sooner (life got in the way).
I am equating gun owners with slave owners but let me explain.
Obviously these are two very different things but in each case you have a group perpetuating a social ill. The ill itself and their reasons for wanting to perpetuate it are, of course, very different but it remains that both want to continue a shitty practice.
Make no mistake…America’s love of guns sees things like what happened in Newton as the price for their guns and apparently gun owners are ok with that. I’m not ok with that.
Yes, violence occurs other places but America is off the charts when it comes to this sort of thing.
Yes, people can use other weapons to commit violence but guns are FAR and away the preferred method (they account for more violent crime than all other methods put together in the US).
So, keeping guns is similar to slavery inasmuch as both groups wanted to keep the status quo DESPITE all evidence that show it to be a blight on society.
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### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/226 "2012-12-22T11:58:09Z")
> [@jasg](#):
>
> Well, OK but my point was that he did not seem to know that 20 first graders and 6 adults we murdered last Friday.
Point taken.
They can kill, but they can’t count.
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### Author:  [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/227 "2012-12-22T12:36:01Z")
> [@Algher](#):
>
> I have no issue with a national ID that works for voting, that also has designation that I am allowed to purchase a firearm (the two should be the same - if you are OK to vote, you should be OK to own a gun. Conversely, if you are not a good enough citizen to trust with a gun, you should not be allowed to vote).
Will these people denied the right to vote be required to pay taxes?
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> Well, that and maybe stop playing video games
Allow me to be the first to say that I’d give up Mortal Kombat if it meant there were no more fatalities IRL.
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/228 "2012-12-22T12:49:29Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#):
>
> Yes.
And yet if some politician uttered those words today, you could hear the cries of “nanny state !” or “autocrat !” all the way to Severomorsk. Funny how that works.
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### Author:  [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/229 "2012-12-22T13:41:41Z")
> [@AtomicDog](#):
>
> Assuming 2 guards at $30,000 each times 100,000 schools =
>
> $6,000,000,000.
>
> Security companies are smacking their lips.
Oh…don’t forget the contractor’s cut.
Let’s say 7-10 billion.
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### Author:  [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/230 "2012-12-22T14:58:58Z")
> [@AtomicDog](#):
>
> Oh…don’t forget the contractor’s cut.
>
> Let’s say 7-10 billion.
I don’t think he said they’d be paid.
My daughter is at university to be an elementary school teacher. She also has a sharpshooter’s certification. Seriously. At one point, she and her friend wanted to be FBI agents, so they’ve been taking shooting lessons for 4 summers now.
At first, I was reticent to have her take shooting lessons because I wasn’t sure my hormonal teenage daughter should master this particular skill. Now I’m thinking it might be an excellent thing to have on her resume.
“Can teach English, Science, and History. And can take down armed intruders, with precision, from 50 yards.”
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/231 "2012-12-22T15:18:05Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#):
>
> At one point, she and her friend wanted to be FBI agents, so they’ve been taking shooting lessons for 4 summers now.
… because they think FBI agenting involves a lot of shooting ?
And these people, you say they teach children ? Oy vey 😛
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### Author:  [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/232 "2012-12-22T15:31:17Z")
I love the idea of keeping guns away from mentally ill people. I can imagine myself being on the panel
Mr Smith thinks he needs to strap on a gun to go to WalMart. Insane: permit denied.
Lucy Little keeps 11 rifles, 2 shotguns, 5 handguns, and 10,000 rounds of ammunition in case “society breaks down”. Clearly paranoid, permit denied.
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/233 "2012-12-22T15:35:03Z")
Schools have enough time rustling up volunteers for the bake sale.
But we are supposed to believe that there will be a long cue of people wanting to serve as psycho killer deterrants. For free.
Um…okay.
I 'spose these good folks will have stellar background checks, psychological profiles, and references. And–oh yes!–be the type of people you’d feel comfortable exposing your kids too.
Perhaps it’s because I am prejudiced and mean, but I’m not thinking that the kind of person who has enough free time to walk around with a gun all day with no pay is the type of person I want in the presence of my (imaginary) kid. I think everyone is picturing their tough-as-nails but salt-of-the-earth Marine vet grandfather, who’d rather guard his grandbabies and their friends than decay in front of the TV in his older age. If only there were enough of these types around. But no, what’s more numerous is the police academy-drop out, Gomer Pyle-looking guy wanting to make a name for himself so he can escape his Jerry Springer life. Guys like this tend to have an assortment of problems–problems that do not belong anywhere near a classroom. If I were a parent, I wouldn’t want to have to worry if that guy I went to school with back in the 1990s, the loser who everyone knows used to swap his Ritalin for weed and surprisingly can’t seem to find a paying job now, is volunteering at my kid’s school. But if he’s the only one stepping up for the task, maybe I don’t have a choice?
If a school can’t scrap up any volunteers, will the school be liable if Mr. Psycho Killer comes to town?
I don’t get people saying that the NRA’s plan sounds reasonable. It sounds like, “Okay, you got us. We ain’t got nuttin’.”
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### Author:  [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/234 "2012-12-22T15:40:34Z")
I think ShortyDoowap says it best:
“I believe the foremost person responsible for protecting my family and myself is me,” writes iReporter ShortyDoowap, who owns a pair of AR-15s. “These rifles provide me with the tools to perform that duty. I don’t own these guns to target shoot, though I do that with them. I don’t hunt with them, though I could in a pinch.”
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### Author:  [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/235 "2012-12-22T15:46:34Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#):
>
> I think ShortyDoowap says it best:
>
> “I believe the foremost person responsible for protecting my family and myself is me,” writes iReporter ShortyDoowap, who owns a pair of AR-15s. “These rifles provide me with the tools to perform that duty. I don’t own these guns to target shoot, though I do that with them. I don’t hunt with them, though I could in a pinch.”
I’m not seeing where shorty is saying anything especially novel or interesting there. Do you really think you couldn’t have said that better than shorty?
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/236 "2012-12-22T15:48:27Z")
> [@monstro](#):
>
> I don’t get people saying that the NRA’s plan sounds reasonable. It sounds like, “Okay, you got us. We ain’t got nuttin’.”
Forget the feasibility aspect: postal shootings don’t all happen at schools, far from it. Any place people congregate in herds is fair game - malls, cafés, cinemas, churches, yoga classes…
So even if that plan \*was \*feasible, it’d still be a retarded way to tackle the issue.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/237 "2012-12-22T16:08:46Z")
Yeah, but its not really about the facts, but about the fear. It’s the fear that does the most damage, because fear rots the mind. If this allays the fear, it works. Sorta. Kinda.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/238 "2012-12-22T16:17:57Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> 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.
I only saw a little of the speech, heard more of it on NPR, but, yeah, that is one creepy MoFo!
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### Author:  [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/239 "2012-12-22T16:18:52Z")
> [@Kobal2](#):
>
> … because they think FBI agenting involves a lot of shooting ?
Yeah, you don’t want a lot of American t.v., do you? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/240 "2012-12-22T16:37:20Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#):
>
> Yeah, you don’t want a lot of American t.v., do you? 🙂
(I assume “want” was meant to read “watch” ?)
I do, but that’s sort of my point ;).
To put it another way, and please read the following in an upperclass British accent because I think it adds to the comedic effect: in much the same way the first question asked of prospective lion tamers probably isn’t “do you have your own hat ?”, I suspect the first question asked of prospective investigators, surveillance experts, internet monitors, evidence analysts, behaviourists, fraud trackers and glorified middle managers is not “did you bring your own gun ?” 😛
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