Living up to the promise

President Obama’s speech today on limits to gun ownership today was courageous and inspirational.  He tackled head-on the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the congressmen they fund in a bid to limit high-powered assault rifles and large capacity rounds.  He started off by referring to Sandy Hook (with parents of victims close by) but expanded it to say that 900 Americans in the month afterwards died as a result of a gunshot. 

The response of the NRA was to drag President Obama’s children through an advert saying that he has armed officers guarding his children but is not extending the same courtesy to other children, making him just another out-of-touch elitist.  It was all narrated by a forboding Hollywood trailer-style heavy voice (which is beyond satire anyway).  For a start, it is despicable bringing Obama’s children into the debate when they have no input or right of reply but it is to be expected of an organisation like the NRA for whom scruples play a distant second to their own vested interests.  Secondly, they are the daughters of the president, facing a round-the-clock threat.  Finally, taking the argument to its logical conclusion, the advert is saying that every single child should have their own armed guard.  It is beyond ludicrous but the NRA are hoping that enough Americans are stupid enough to buy into it.

Their proposal for an armed guard in every school has been proven repeatedly to fail.  Columbine High School had that system in place and a massacre was still carried out.  Recently, a school in California which also had an armed guard faced an armed assailant.  Where was the armed guard?  He couldn’t get into work because of bad weather.  What did the staff do?  They talked the gunman (although he was still a kid really) to give up after he had injured one person with his weapons.  If an armed guard started firing, escalation would be instant and a lot more people would have been killed and injured, including probably the gunman themselves.  Plus more guns, even in the hands of registered officers, means more profits for weapons manufacturers.

As for the mental health register, are the NRA going to turn over their membership list to go on it?  I can’t see that happening, even though, joking aside, quite a few would no doubt qualify.  With no pressure of re-election, President Obama is being brave (for this could threaten his second-term legacy) and I commend him for it.  He doesn't even have to ban 'arms' for the second amendment says nothing about ammunition.