The NRA, March for Our Lives, and yet another school shooting
It’s been only three months passed since the fatal shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students were massacred.Today, another fatal shooting. Although the faces, names, and place have changed, the facts remain the same. This photo essay interweaves pictures from the March for Our Lives rally in Parkland, Fl, with quotations taken from academic journals, and from news articles.
“What, then, is this National Rifle Association? A sporting group, first. Historically, the NRA goes back to the post-Civil War days. It was founded and developed by two zealous patriots, a former war Correspondent, William Conant Church, and a former Union Army general, George Wingate, reputedly to improve the marskmanship of soldiers and the National Guard.” Source: “Lethal lobby: the National Rifle Association” by Pierre Lagayette in Revue Française d’Etudes Américaine, 1995.
“For the first time, thanks to the relentless efforts of Jim and Sarah Brady, an embryo of control was established against the will of Washington’s most formidable lobby, a lobby that every member of Congress had learned to fear, an organization that combines the popular weight of over 3 million members with the financial strength of a corporation, valued at nearly $ 100 million.” Source “Lethal lobby: the National Rifle Association” by Pierre Lagayette in Revue Française d’Etudes Américaine, 1995.
“The NRA’s aggressive lobbying techniques, its tactics of intimidation traditionally commanded respect and fear on the Hill. Newly elected Congressmen were cautioned not to cross the NRA and avoided to vote with the gun group if they intended to seek reelection.” “Lethal lobby: the National Rifle Association” by Pierre Lagayette in Revue Française d’Etudes Américaine, 1995.
“Many an election until the late 1980s effectively depended on NRA backing. And quite a number of candidates knew that they owed their defeat to adverse NRA campaigns. Not even Michael Dukakis, that stinking Greek, as one of the NRA Board members called him, could survive the NRA’s $ 7 million drive against him in the 1988 presidential election.” Source: “Lethal lobby: the National Rifle Association” by Pierre Lagayette in Revue Française d’Etudes Américaine, 1995.
“To win the American public over to its side, the NRA reaches out to two fundamental feelings : fear and pride, alternatively using what Osha Gray Davidson calls the “Armageddon Appeal” and the “Patriotic Imperative” in its mail or media campaigns. The first suggests that each NRA battle is a crucial one and that the world might collapse.” Source: “Lethal lobby: the National Rifle Association” by Pierre Lagayette in Revue Française d’Etudes Américaine, 1995.
“By appealing to the citizen’s feeling of insecurity and fear of disaster, the NRA always managed to improve (at times to stabilize) its level of public support. At the same time, since the survival of the entire nation appears to be at stake, the NRA’s arguments carry patriotic overtones. In short: whoever supports the NRA cares for his country and therefore is a good patriot.” Source: “Lethal lobby: the National Rifle Association” by Pierre Lagayette in Revue Française d’Etudes Américaine, 1995.
“The latter poll shows the typical gun-owner to be a white, 50–64 years old, rural, southerner with no college education, a GOP card, and an income in the $ 30,000- 49,990 bracket! It is for this kind of citizen, voter, and potential adherent that the NRA carries the greatest appeal.” Source: “Lethal lobby: the National Rifle Association” by Pierre Lagayette in Revue Française d’Etudes Américaine, 1995.
1999 — By a 51–50 vote, with the tie-breaker vote cast by Vice President Gore, the Senate passes a bill requiring trigger locks on all newly manufactured handguns and extending the waiting period and background check requirements to sales of firearms at gun shows. President Clinton announces a $15 million Federal gun buyback plan, to be run through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
2001 — The George W. Bush Administration ends funding for the HUD gun buyback program.
2004 — The assault weapons ban, provided for in the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, is allowed to expire under the law’s sunset provision.
Source: Congressional Digest. Mar2013, Vol. 92 Issue 3
“The average age of the killers was 35. Only one of them was a woman. (See Goleta, Calif., in 2006.) Forty two of them were white males. The youngest killer was a mere 11 years old.” Source: “A Guide to Mass Shootings in America” Mother Jones, 2012.
Of the 143 guns possessed by the killers, more than three quarters were obtained legally. They included dozens of assault weapons and semi-automatic handguns with high-capacity magazines. Source: “A Guide to Mass Shootings in America” Mother Jones, 2012.
More than half of the cases involved school or workplace shootings (12 and 20, respectively); the other 30 cases took place in locations including shopping malls, restaurants, and religious and government buildings. Source: “A Guide to Mass Shootings in America” Mother Jones, 2012.
“There are reportedly about 200 million firearms of all types circulating in the U.S. today as compared with 50 millions in 1945, which means nearly one for every resident. This includes 60 to 70 million handguns and an estimated 1 to 3 million semi-automatic assault type weapons.” Source: “Lethal lobby: the National Rifle Association” by Pierre Lagayette in Revue Française D’Etudes Américaine, 1995.
“Recent public health studies have revealed that Blacks are more likely to fall victim to gun violence at a highly disproportionate rate relative to other races.” Source: “The Role of the Media in the Disparate Response to Gun Violence in America Author” by Wanda Parham-Payne in the Journal of Black Studies, 2014.
“Shootings on school grounds are especially shocking. Statistics reveal that the collective number of Blacks who have been exposed to gun violence is also disproportionate to the number of White children who have been exposed to gun violence on school grounds.” Source: “The Role of the Media in the Disparate Response to Gun Violence in America Author” by Wanda Parham-Payne in the Journal of Black Studies, 2014.
“During the years 1994 to 1999, Black minors were killed in school-associated events at a rate 3 times higher than their White counterpart.” Source: “The Role of the Media in the Disparate Response to Gun Violence in America Author” by Wanda Parham-Payne in the Journal of Black Studies, 2014.
August 20, 1982. Carl Robert Brown opens fire inside a wielding shop in Miami, Fl killing 8. Source: Mother Jones Mass Shootings database, 1982–2018. Source: US Mass Shootings, 1982–2018: Data From Mother Jones’ Investigation.
October 16, 1991. George Hennard drives his truck into a Luby’s in Kileen, Texas, and kills 24 people. Source Mother Jones Mass Shootings database, 1982–2018. Source: US Mass Shootings, 1982–2018: Data From Mother Jones’ Investigation.
“Since 1982, there have been at least 99 public mass shootings across the country, with the killings unfolding in 34 states, from Massachusetts to Hawaii.” Source: “A Guide to Mass Shootings in America” Mother Jones, 2012.
On April 22 2018 Travis Reinking opens fire inside a Waffle House in Nashville, TN, killing four people. Source: US Mass Shootings, 1982–2018: Data From Mother Jones’ Investigation.
“Ten people were killed and 10 others were injured in a shooting Friday morning at a high school in the southeastern Texas city of Santa Fe, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed.” Source: CNN.
