NRA's Hypocritical Background Check Stance On Full Display After Navy Yard Shooting

[babylonsister]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/09/22/nras-hypocritical-background-check-stance-on-fu/196025


NRA's Hypocritical Background Check Stance On Full Display After Navy Yard Shooting
TIMOTHY JOHNSON


National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre claimed to support increasing the number mental health records in the gun background check system, even though his organization was instrumental in blocking legislation that would have made that change earlier this year.

LaPierre appeared on the September 22 edition of NBC's Meet the Press to deliver his first public comments since the September 16 mass shooting at the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard. During the segment, LaPierre claimed that "the NRA supported the gun check because we thought the mental records would be in the system." In April his organization was singled out by President Obama for influencing the defeat of the Manchin-Toomey proposal to improve the background check system that was filibustered by a largely-Republican coalition of Senators. The NRA falsely claimed that the legislation would have created a national gun registry, even as the bill itself explicitly prohibited such an action. Instead, Machin-Toomey would have expanded background checks to all commercial gun sales -- including sales at gun shows and over the Internet -- and would have increased the number of disqualifying records in the background check system.

snip//

LaPierre also distorted the issues associated with private gun sales without a background check.

Host David Gregory asked LaPierre to address a question that had been posed earlier in the week by Virginia Tech massacre survivor Colin Goddard, "Do you think that as a responsible human being, that if you sell a gun to somebody you don't know that you should require a background check to make sure they legally own it?" LaPierre responded, "Private sales between hunters, a hunter to a hunter in another state, a farmer to a farmer, shotgun, no I don't believe you ought to be under the thumb of the federal government."

Private sales, however, represent far more than transactions between individuals who know each other to be allowed to own a gun, as LaPierre suggested. Indeed, there is significant evidence that many crime guns are sold without a check. A 2004 survey of prison inmates found that nearly 80 percent obtained a firearm though a private transaction without a background check, in many cases from a friend or acquaintance. Private sales have also been linked to a 2012 mass shooting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, and are an acquisition method employed by Mexican drug cartels. A 2011 undercover investigation conducted by New York City found that 62 percent of online private sellers agreed to sell a firearm to someone who said they probably couldn't pass a background check. To the contrary, states that have strong background check laws see reductions to violent crime and in particular a lower rate of intimate partner homicides.

During his appearance, LaPierre also adopted the right-wing media's claim that the Navy Yard shooting, which claimed the lives of 12 victims, could have been prevented by the presence of more firearms. Despite the presence of armed guards - and the fact that the shooter reportedly obtained one of his handguns from a fallen guard -- LaPierre claimed that Navy Yard was "completely unprotected" and suggested that the shooting would have been stopped within 30 seconds if more people had been armed.

[tularetom]

1. Are firearms allowed inside the NRA's headquarters?

I don't know the answer to this question, I'm just curious.

It would be rather ironic if they weren't.

[Recursion]

2. There's a shooting range in their headquarters

So, yes

[tularetom]

4. So, someone could walk right into ol' Wayne's office with a concealed handgun on their person

or an autoloading rifle on their shoulder and nobody would say jack shit?

I'm not talking about a range in the basement, I mean in the offices and among the cubicles.

Don't get me wrong, my opinion of them would be enhanced if they allowed this. At least they'd be living what they preached.

[Recursion]

6. I've never been inside there so I'm not sure; they may have a no-weapons zone

Any business in VA can post a sign forbidding concealed carry on whatever part of their premises they wish; the NRA is still broadly supportive of that (keep in mind they started back in the day as a gun control organization, supporting the rights of anglos to have rifles but opposing the rights of Irish immigrants and other minorities to have pistols).

[doc03]

3. I think this shooting proved that firearms laws do save lives. Hom many

more people could have been killed if Alexis could have purchased that AR-15 in
Virginia?

[rightsideout]

5. NRA American flag at half staff

Drove by the NRA Headquarters on the way to the Steely Dan Concert and noticed they had the flag at half-staff, half-mast or whatever they call it.

I thought it was so hypocritical. They push to get guns out everywhere then all act surprised and serious when something like a mass shooting happens. Like duh. You push for people to have guns and some will go batshit crazy and kill other people. Why act all solemn and serious when you are the one perpetuating the problem?

Let me see if there is something similar and just as insane. Yea, it's like an organization pushing to arm every citizen then having a memorial after someone get's shot. No wait.

They should just leave the flag at half staff. What's the count now? Over 7,000 since Newton? I hate the NRA and all the gun toting idiots who think they are tough shit swaggering around like John Wayne.