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We had submissions from three Soylentils with different takes on the NRA (National Rifle Association) and the public response in the wake of an attack at a Parkland, Florida high school.
Public Outcry Convinces National Companies to Cut Ties with NRA
Common Dreams reports:
In the latest sign that the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida tragedy may be playing out differently than the fallout from other mass shootings, several national companies have cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA).
[Car rental companies] Alamo, Enterprise, and National--all owned by Enterprise Holdings--announced late on [February 22] that they would end discounts for the NRA's five million members. Symantec, the security software giant that owns Lifelock and Norton, ended its discount program on Friday as well.
The First National Bank of Omaha also said it would stop issuing its NRA-branded Visa credit cards, emblazoned with the group's logo and called "the Official Credit Card of the NRA". The institution is the largest privately-held bank in the U.S., with locations in Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota.
Additional coverage on TheHill, MarketWatch, Independent and Politico.
The NRA Just Awarded FCC Chair Ajit Pai With a Gun for His 'Courage'
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai joined the pack at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday alongside fellow Republican commissioners Michael O'Rielly and Brendan Carr—the architects of the recent order repealing net neutrality protections passed in the Obama era.
Upon taking the stage, it was announced that Pai was receiving an award from the National Rifle Association: a handmade Kentucky long gun and plaque known as the "Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award."
https://gizmodo.com/the-nra-just-awarded-fcc-chair-ajit-pai-with-a-gun-for-1823273450
These Companies are Sticking by the NRA
Fallout continues from the mass murder in Florida. The National Rifle Association is taking it up the wazoo. A national boycott is emerging. If you are old enough, you will remember that this is what brought down Apartheid in South Africa.
From the Huffington Post:
In what may be a pivotal moment for American gun law reform, the National Rifle Association has become the object of intense pushback from anti-gun activists and survivors of last week's mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 dead.
All the attention prompted the gun-rights group to break from its usual strategy of keeping quiet after mass gun deaths. NRA officials have gone on the attack to rail against the "politicization" of a tragedy, and going so far as to suggest that members of the media "love mass shootings" because of the ratings they supposedly bring.
The uproar has once again presented companies affiliated with the NRA, and its powerful pro-gun lobby, with a question: to cut ties, or to continue a relationship with a large but controversial group?
The NRA partners with dozens of businesses to spread its pro-gun message and provide discounts to its members, who number 5 million, according to the group. But this week, some companies have begun to jump ship.
Facing pressure from consumers, the First National Bank of Omaha said Thursday it would stop issuing NRA-branded Visa credit cards after its contract with the group expires. Enterprise Holdings, which operates the rental car brands Enterprise, National and Alamo, says it will end its discount program for NRA members next month, along with Avis and Budget. Hertz is out, too.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Monday February 26 2018, @02:40AM (5 children)
"My point is that gun free zones made those vulnerable areas even more vulnerable."
More vulnerable to mass shooting incidents like this, yes, i think you are correct.
But because its a gun free zone, the only way a gun gets onsite is pre-meditated intent to commit a crime with a gun. That eliminates a lot crime of passion and accidental gun related injuries.
So its more vulnerable to a pre-medicated attack, and a lot less vulnerable to a bunch of other things. Does the net cost of the former exceed the net gain of the latter?
"if the police officer on the scene had engaged the shooter, that would have stopped his rampage and maybe saved some lives."
Funny you say that. If there'd been no police officer at all, people would be saying "if only there had been an armed police on the premises. That would have stopped his rampage'.
But there was. And he didn't.
So now its 'if only the police officer had engaged...then that would have stopped the rampage' And what if he had engaged?? We don't know that it would have stopped the rampage as you claim... maybe he'd have missed and shot a student, or maybe he'd have gotten shot himself.
In any case 'One good guy with a gun' wasn't enough because he decided to wait for backup instead of playing rambo, I guess what we really needed was even more guns!!
"Anyone else with a firearm could have done the same, even a 70 year old granny. "
Let's suppose it worked, and the rampage was cut short, that would be offset by all the stories in the news about people getting shot/killed with guns stolen from 70 year old granny teachers at school. Or perhaps even shot by some unhinged teacher.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 26 2018, @03:57AM (2 children)
If you think pre-medicated attacks are worse, wait until you see how a post-medicated attack looks like.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by vux984 on Monday February 26 2018, @06:19AM (1 child)
That's got to be one of my better typos :)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 26 2018, @02:50PM
One can only strive for better (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 26 2018, @07:55AM (1 child)
Neither which is particularly common either. The vast majority of those happen at home. Nor do I advocate that everyone should be armed.
What was the point of that paragraph? Why do we need to have perfect knowledge of alternate histories in order to be allowed to reason about this subject? Instead, I'll point to several professional sources [newsday.com] such as the Sheriff of the county and a police training profession who support my claim:
[...]
Moving on:
So I can't be allowed to have an opinion on what-could-have-been, but you'll just make shit up? We already have two sources of such firearms, legally from police officers and illegally from students and whatnot who bring them onto the campus. They don't get into the national news, until they're fairly large mass shootings.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 26 2018, @09:57AM