Local Connecticut school and public officials were predictably less-than-pleased with Wayne LaPierre's unhinged press conference yesterday.
Teachers, school superintendents, mayors and police chiefs in Connecticut are rejecting the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) response to the shooting in Newtown, describing the gun lobby’s proposal to equip schools with armed guards and more guns as too simplistic, shameful, and opportunistic.
One Connecticut school superintendent dismissed the NRA’s suggestion as “an ill-conceived reaction from an organization that does not have any credibility or expertise with respect to addressing school violence” and said that the idea “is an excuse for not addressing the need to enact meaningful safe gun legislation in conjunction with an investment in mental health services.” Putnam Police Chief Rick Hayes called the proposal “scary,” noting that teachers can’t possibly have the kind of training necessary to safely handle large weapons.
"Ill-conceived" may be the best description, because the only thing LaPierre accomplished was demonstrating, unequivocally, how unhinged proponents of lax gun regulations are and he now serves as a poster child of the opposition to all thinking, rational people.
In other words -- if one of your goals in life is stricter regulations on guns, he made your job much easier yesterday.
LaPierre is to guns what Rush Limbaugh is to reproductive healthcare and Tony Perkins is to LGBT rights. Figures who turn the controversial into the indefensible.