The answer? Nothing. We will learn nothing

From The Huffington Post today: NRA Instructor Shoots Student: What Can We Learn? When an NRA safety instructor accidentally shoots a student in one of his classes, is it a teachable moment about guns in America? I am referring to an incident reported in the Orlando Sentinel in which a person attending a National Rifle Association class for applicants for concealed carry licenses was shot when his instructor's gun accidentally discharged during the class. The bullet penetrated a table before hitting the victim, who fortunately recovered from his wound. I think it's safe to say that the NRA instructor in this case is unlikely to appear in future "I'm the NRA" promotional ads. Here we have an individual, who the NRA itself has decided is such an expert in safe gun handling that he can teach a class in it, nevertheless accidentally discharging his weapon in a public place and wounding an innocent person. If this can happen to the instructor, what can we expect from his students, who presumably will be carrying their concealed guns on the streets? Back to me: We will learn from this, as a nation, exactly what we learned from the Vietnam War--nothing. Again, nothing. Sorry, that's my take on it. I am sadly, frustratingly convinced that's what we'll get from this. Link to original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-a-henigan/nra-instructor-shoots-stu_b_680349.html

An ugly anniversary for the country

"Echoes of the NRA's insurrectionist rhetoric can be heard from the leaders of the gun activists who plan to converge on Washington, D.C. on April 19, a date with great emotional resonance for the "gun rights" movement and, for different reasons, for the rest of us. It is both the anniversary of Lexington/Concord and of the tragic federal assault on the David Koresh compound in Waco, Texas in 1993. It also is the anniversary of what was, to that date, the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history - Timothy McVeigh's 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City."

From Dennis A. Henigan of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence (www.BradyCenter.org) via the Huffington Post (Link to original post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-a-henigan/gun-rights-and-political_b_530253.html)


Unfortunately, coincidentally, tragically, to me, anyway, it is also the date my Mom was born.

It was one more reason to resent Timothy McVeigh's cowardly, stupid, irresponsible, ugly actions that day in Oklahoma City.

It would be nice if, one day soon--today?--the ignorance of what Timothy McVeigh did that day were a lesson for the Right Wing extremists of today.

As I so frequently say here, hey, I can dream, can't I?

Quote of the day

"It is too easy for politicians and political commentators to treat our increasingly incendiary political atmosphere as a product merely of disparate extremist individuals and groups on the fringes of our political system. Treating the problem as the product of a relatively few misguided individuals with bizarre violent fantasies misses a far more troubling reality. What we are seeing is the acting out of an ideology of violence as a tool of political power that has long had a home on the American right - particularly in the "gun rights" movement dominated by the National Rifle Association."




Complete original post, here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-a-henigan/gun-rights-and-political_b_530253.html