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Daily Archives: July 10th, 2016

NRA Revolt-At Last?


There are 2 parts to this post, first part is generic statement by Top man at the NRA and second part from the rank and file. First part highlighted in yellow.

VICE PRESIDENT & CEO WAYNE LAPIERRE

(FAIRFAX, VA) – The following statement was issued this morning by Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President and CEO of the National Rifle Association of America.

“On behalf of the more than five million members of the National Rifle Association, and especially on behalf of our members from the law enforcement community, I want to express the deep anguish all of us feel for the heroic Dallas law enforcement officers who were killed and wounded, as well as to those who so bravely ran toward danger to defend the city and the people of Dallas.

With heavy hearts, NRA members honor their heroism and offer our deepest condolences to all of their families.”

The NRA’s internal revolt over Philando Castile
2 / 27
The Washington Post
Brian Fung 15 hrs. ago
© Eric Miller/Reuters

Diamond Reynolds weeps after she recounts the incidents that led to the fatal shooting of her boyfriend, Philando Castile, by Minneapolis area police during a traffic stop on July 6 at a “Black Lives Matter” demonstration…
After a fatal shooting in Minnesota, it wasn’t just gun control advocates criticizing the National Rifle Association.
Some blowback, surprisingly, was coming from within the organization.
People claiming to be lifelong members of the NRA challenged the group’s stance on gun rights after the organization appeared to drag its feet in addressing the police-involved shooting in Falcon Heights, Minn., of Philando Castile, a law-abiding gun owner, which had already garnered national attention.
The organization released a statement on the shooting following the attack in Dallas that left five officers dead. Although the NRA obliquely referenced Castile’s death by referring to “reports from Minnesota,” it neither named Castile directly nor took a position on the matter.
“It is important for the NRA not to comment while the investigation is ongoing,” the organization said. “Rest assured, the NRA will have more to say once all the facts are known.”
From the organization’s Facebook page:
“As the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization, the NRA proudly supports the right of law-abiding Americans to carry firearms for defense of themselves and others regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation.
“The reports from Minnesota are troubling and must be thoroughly investigated. In the meantime, it is important for the NRA not to comment while the investigation is ongoing.
“Rest assured, the NRA will have more to say once all the facts are known.”
The NRA statement does not mention the officers killed in the line of duty, emphasizing instead the “right of law-abiding Americans to carry firearms for defense of themselves and others.”
In tone, the NRA’s approach bore a close resemblance to its statement in the wake of last month’s mass shooting in Orlando. Two days after the massacre, a lobbyist for the gun rights group wrote an op-ed in USA Today going on the offensive against stricter firearms regulation.
“Destroy radical Islam, not the right of law-abiding Americans to protect themselves,” wrote Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action.
Cox’s broadside against greater restrictions was viewed as tone-deaf by many gun-control advocates, while gun proponents lined up on the other side.
This time, however, the NRA faces an internal division as its members argue that the group did not do enough to defend gun owners’ rights by speaking out on behalf of Castile.
Castile had a valid permit to carry a gun. He also reportedly informed the officer who shot him that he was armed, in an attempt to head off a misunderstanding.
Still, Castile was killed by police — prompting outrage among some Americans that following the rules was not enough to save Castile from a violent death.
The delay in addressing Castile’s death, as well as the promptness with which the NRA spoke out after the Dallas shooting, has prompted complaints of a double standard in the way the organization defends gun owners.
“Your lack of message concerning the Castile case disappoints me and makes me question my membership,” wrote one user, Marco Gallologic, on the NRA’s Facebook page. “…What do I pay fees for if you do not represent gun owners and our rights?”
“Your silence is causing NRA members such as myself to question/wonder what exactly you do and don’t stand for,” another user, Bruce Johnston, wrote.
© Provided by WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post
That sentiment was reflected across social media this week, with members and non-members alike demanding that the NRA voice its support for Castile.

Dallas Shooting


Sportscaster Dale Hansen: Dallas shooting was an ‘attack on our basic humanity’

Michael Walsh

Reporter
July 9, 2016

 

 

Texas sports anchor Dale Hansen gave a blistering speech about the state of violence in the United States as the nation mourns the loss of five cops who were killed in an ambush Thursday night.

The WFAA sportscaster told his viewers that he was almost embarrassed that he knows the Texas Rangers lost to the Minnesota Twins 10 to 1 that night — because news of the tragedy should have drawn his attention away from the game.

“It was another shooting in America. It was in our city this time and police officers were being killed, but it was a couple of blocks away and the Rangers were being shut out. This is what I have become. This is what too many of us have been for a long time now,” he said in a segment called “Hansen Unplugged.”

Hansen said that people will fly their flags at half-mast, say the rights things and make promises they won’t keep. In the end, he said, nothing will change.

“Our lives will go on, while the lives of so many others won’t, because we expect it now and we accept it. It wasn’t this way when I was a boy, but it is life in America now,” he said.

Hansen said police officers are great people because they run into buildings we run from and look for people we hide from, but they cannot make mistakes because they have the power of God in their hands in the form of guns. For this reason, he said, we cannot and should not defend all police officers.

“A white man in America doesn’t die for selling cigarettes on a street corner, he gets a ticket,” he said. “A white man in America doesn’t die for driving with a broken tail light, he gets a ticket, too. And the officers who abuse the badge and the power they have should be punished, but too many times they are not.”

But, he said, opening fire on the city streets of Dallas does not do anything to right the wrongs that people deal with every day and that the shooter might have killed good cops in the process.

Hansen said that minority communities hate to suffer the indignity of stereotypes but that the killer did the same exact thing by shooting at any cops “because don’t we all really know, they’re all the same.”

“It was not just an attack on the Dallas police; it was an attack on our basic humanity and the common decency we used to cherish in America,” he said. “But that’s all gone now —we lost that a long time ago.”

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