2/22/2018

GUNS/NRA: “The head of the National Rifle Association called for fortifying the nation’s schools and cast efforts to tighten gun laws as attacks on American freedom, in a speech just over a week after a Florida school shooting that left 17 dead.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and chief executive of the NRA, told a conservative conference that liberal lawmakers are cynically using the latest school tragedy to roll back Second Amendment gun protections…
Current laws, if more vigorously enforced and observed, are sufficient to dramatically curb incidents of mass shootings, he said. The NRA, the nation’s largest gun-rights group, faces renewed scrutiny following the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Critics say the NRA’s campaign donations carry inordinate influence in Congress, staving off stricter gun controls and loosening existing ones.
The group endorsed President Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race and spent $30 million in ads supporting him and attacking his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
In his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, Mr. LaPierre took an aggressive posture, blaming Democratic lawmakers for politicizing the shooting rather than coming up with what he billed as practical solutions.”

-Peter Nicholas, “NRA Chief Defends Gun Rights in Wake of School Shooting,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 22, 2018 01:15pm