This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 21, 2012 - WASHINGTON – Taking the “High Noon” approach to preventing school killings, leaders of the nation’s top gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, called on Congress Friday to “act immediately” on a plan to deploy and train armed guards “in every school.”
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” asserted NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, arguing that gun-free school zones were an invitation to mass killers. “Would you rather have your 911 call bring a good guy with a gun from a mile away or from a minute away?”
That proposal – made at a tumultuous NRA news conference interrupted by two shouting and banner-unfurling anti-NRA protesters – met with a decidedly mixed reaction from lawmakers trying to define appropriate responses to last Friday’s school massacre in Newtown, Conn., during which 20 students and six adults were killed.
“The NRA appears unwilling to come to the table in a realistic way to help us stop mass slaughter of innocent children,” said U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who earlier this week had called on the NRA to be a “constructive partner” in helping the White House and Congress forge realistic solutions to prevent more gun violence.
“They seem to think the only way to address gun violence is with more guns, namely more guns in our kids’ schools. And as a mother, I know that’s not the answer.”
As of Saturday morning, there were more than 12,700 signers of McCaskill’s petition, which was listed via her campaign website. Click here for the petition.
U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, disagrees with the NRA’s approach and argued this week for a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines.
“I have strongly advocated that we renew the assault weapons ban, close the gun show loophole by requiring background checks for all gun purchases, prohibit on-line sales of firearms and ammunition, and ban large capacity magazines,” Clay said.
“We also need to engage in an honest national conversation that reveals and begins to repair the root causes of this senseless violence.”
Protests erupt, NRA blasts violent video games
At the NRA news conference in Washington, LaPierre said former Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., would help the organization establish a model “school-shield” program that would seek to use local volunteers, such as retired military and police officers, to help protect students.
LaPierre’s statement was twice interrupted by protesters, one of whom held up a sign: “NRA Killing Our Kids.” Another demonstrator shouted: “The NRA has blood on its hands!”
As the nation’s most powerful gun lobby, the NRA has consistently fought against bans on assault weapons, high-capacity ammunition magazines and more stringent requirements for gun registration and ownership.
The NRA has spent between $2 million and $3 million annually on federal-level lobbying efforts, contributed about $1 million to federal candidates, and spent about $18 million in “outside spending” on issue advertisements and related efforts, according to Open Secrets.
At the news conference, LaPierre argued that violent video games – including one he displayed, called “Kindergarten Killers” – and films that glorified violence were harming American children. He also contended that gun-free zones near schools had backfired in some cases.
“Politicians pass laws for gun-free school zones, they issue press releases bragging about them, they post signs advertising them,” said LaPierre. “And in doing so, they tell every insane killer in American that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.”
Mixed reaction to NRA, other proposals
Most Republicans in Congress tend to be generally sympathetic to the NRA’s arguments, even if some lawmakers were hesitant Friday to endorse the concept of stationing armed guards in every school – an idea that one group has estimated would cost about $5 billion to implement.
U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, told the Beacon that he supports the rights of Americans to own guns but is not sure if the proposal to post guards at all schools makes sense. “Is that realistic, or are there other ways we can protect our citizens, our children and our public places?” he asked.
“There are other alternatives that we need to consider. Let’s take a big-picture view of how we can address this situation.”
Luetkemeyer said he is especially interested in the experience of school districts that have used armed guards. “Let’s see the statistics on how this would play out,” he said. “I’d like to see if it’s been tried in other places and if it works. Obviously, if you’re someone who is mentally deranged, you’re not going to go into a police station to start shooting. You’re going to go someplace where there are no guns, where there is no deterrent.”
Responding to the Newtown shootings, U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., focused more on mental health than on gun control. He called this week for “a serious and thoughtful national discussion about preventing this kind of senseless violence and protecting our children in their schools.”
In an op-ed, Blunt wrote that officials should look into “finding ways to spend federal dollars more wisely when it comes to treating and identifying people who are mentally ill. It should also include a conversation about ways that we can intervene before someone who is mentally ill does something that tragically impacts their lives and the lives of others.”
Arguing that “many communities do not have adequate mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment services and facilities,” Blunt wrote that Missouri’s Mental Health First Aid program “focuses on helping the public identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders.” He added: “As a nation, we must learn how best to care for the mentally ill in the hope that we may help to prevent tragedies.”
U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Belleville, a former officer with the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department, told the Beacon that “every law-abiding citizen should have the ability to purchase and possess a gun” – and he does not believe in strict gun-control initiatives. In Congress, Costello worked with former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, the Arizona Democrat who was badly wounded in a mass shooting in Tuscon in 2011.
“I don’t think that any legislation that’s passed by Congress will have an effect on [the sort of shooting that] happened in Connecticut,” said Costello in an interview. Such restrictions would “create a black market,” he contended, “and criminals and people who are unstable will always have the ability to get their hands on a gun.”
U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, Ill., said Friday that he “stands in support of the Second Amendment,” which guarantees the rights of Americans to own guns. He said the NRA’s proposals for armed police at schools at least deserves consideration.
“There’s a huge debate going on in St. Louis” on the school guard issue, Shimkus pointed out. He said the debate centers on “how you get more protections in the schools, or do you train staff” on the proper use of guns.” He said the concept was worth debating, but he hadn’t yet taken a firm position.
For his part, Luetkemeyer told the Beacon that it is “not realistic” to impose an assault weapons ban, given that there are many such weapons already in circulation. Instead, he – like Blunt – favors a stronger focus on mental health.
“We’ve got to find a way to discern who the people are who are most prone to do things like this, and either work with them and get them past the point where they would think about something like this,” Luetkemeyer said, “or – if they are still dangerous to society – find a way to keep them from being able” to obtain and use guns.
But many city officials dismissed the NRA’s proposals as unrealistic and too much focused on schools rather than other public venues where shootings occur.
Mayor John DeStefano of New Haven, Conn., a former president of the National League of Cities, called the NRA statements “tone deaf to the national mood” and said the armed-guard proposals “ignore the reality that this is not just a school shooting issue."
“Every day in cities across this nation, residents wake up to media accounts of shootings, robberies and other issues involving guns. The nation has seen shootings in movie theaters and even on an Army base.”
The president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, contended that the NRA, instead of offering a constructive solution, “proposed instead the equivalent of an arms race. Through the years their solution to the nation’s public safety problems has always been more guns.”
Nutter said the Conference of Mayors has called on Congress to
- Enact legislation to ban assault weapons and other high-capacity magazines;
- Strengthen the national background check system and eliminate loopholes in it; and
- Strengthen the penalties for “straw purchases” of guns by third parties.
“The discussion of steps that need to be taken to make schools safer places for children and teachers is now underway," Nutter said.
“The NRA says that it is not the problem, it is the solution — and that’s the problem.”