Since the massacre of children in Newtown, Conn., Americans — and the rest of the world — have attempted to identify the cause of the violence. The National Rifle Association remained oddly quiet after the tragedy. When NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre finally did deliver a statement at a press conference this week, Charles M. Blow of the New York Times and many others were not impressed by his words.
Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A.'s executive vice president, blamed gun violence in general, and mass shootings in schools in particular, on everything except for the proliferation of brutally efficient, high-capacity guns and his organization's efforts to resist virtually any restriction on people's access to those weapons.
It was an appalling display of deflection and deception. So much smoke and so many mirrors.
He blamed American culture, and the media, and video games and even natural disasters. But not a society saturated with guns that spray bullets the way that Super Soakers spray water and have made us the embarrassment of the developed world.
He blamed "every insane killer," "monsters and the predators," and "people that are so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons that no sane person can ever possibly comprehend them." It is true that America has those types of people, but so do other countries. The difference here is that help can be too hard — and guns too easy — to come by.
Read Charles M. Blow's entire piece at the New York Times.
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