Over the weekend, the National Rifle Association's (NRA) Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre attacked the media for "sensational reporting from Florida" about the Trayvon Martin case. Mr. LaPierre even called the news media a "national disgrace."
For those unaware of the NRA's work, it is the nation's leading advocate of gun rights in the United States. The NRA efforts are instrumental in protecting the nation's $6 billion a year gun and ammunition industry.
The NRA is also one of the organizations that lobbied states to enact the "Stand Your Ground" law, the very one that George Zimmerman -- the man who shot Trayvon Martin -- is invoking as his legal defense for the shooting. I assume the reasoning for the NRA supporting these laws is: Why should you own a gun if you aren't going to have a chance to use it?
Did Mr. LaPierre offer any sympathy to Trayvon Martin's family? No.
Instead, he chose to denounce the media for their coverage of the case, alleging that the media's: "... dishonesty, duplicity, and moral irresponsibility is directly contributing to the collapse of American freedom in our country."
What makes Mr. La Pierre's comments especially callous is that they were made at the annual NRA convention which was being held this weekend in St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis has the unenviable distinction of being the city with the second highest rate in the country for youth being killed by guns. Indeed, the gunshot murder rate for 10 to 19 years old in St. Louis is more than three times the average for larger cities according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The NRA leadership should not have been denouncing the media coverage of the killing of an innocent teen, rather they should be focusing their efforts to work with federal, state and local governments to reduce the number of gun related deaths in our nation. In 2010, there were 12,996 murders and of those 8,775 were caused by guns. That means almost 70 percent of those murdered in 2010 were as a result of gun violence.
It is not happenstance that the states with the highest number of guns also have the highest number of people murdered by guns. To put it simply: You are literally five times more likely to be shot to death in Arizona than in Hawaii.
Guns are a part of the fabric of America. There are over 200 million guns in the U.S. They will never be eliminated-nor should they be. The right to bear arms is enshrined in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court in the last few years has recognized that American citizens have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms for lawful purposes and this right cannot be violated by federal, state or local laws.
Despite knowing this reality, some gun advocates prefer to spew misinformation and inspire fear among gun owners that the government is coming to take their guns away. This is nothing more than a rallying cry used by some to scare people into opposing reasonable laws that could save lives, such as background checks for all people purchasing guns even if sold at a gun show or by private citizens.
The tired cliché espoused by the NRA that "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" should be retired. It is an over-simplification of a problem that doesn't have easy answers.
Reducing gun violence will take a concerted strategy, such as the one New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in February with his initiative to reduce gun violence. This multi-faceted program combines funding for communities to create anti-violence strategies and provides state support for both advertising campaigns and community-based programs to counter gun violence. This is certainly a step in the right direction.
There's no doubt that both those who love guns and those who detest them, want to lower the number of people killed by guns each year. However, comments by the NRA's Wayne LaPierre simply do not help us reach our common goal.
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Daniel Gross: NRA Becomes Toxic When Exposed to Light
A blatant emotional statement that is both dishonest and false.
"The NRA leadership should not have been denouncing the media coverage of the killing of an innocent teen,"
Why not denounce something that has expressed sensationalism coverage. Like a constant publishing a picture of a 12/13 year old Martin. Continually implying that he was a small young innocent boy when in fact he was 6'3" and a football player who was younger, stronger and was about 6 or 7 inches taller then Zimmerman. Also the medis continued misrepresentation of the law is bordering on criminal. Not to mention all the bad press against Zimmerman concerning everything and the misinformations that has been published has put a jury trial in jeopardy of becoming more of a lynching than a trial. Then there is that NBC reporter who tampered with the 911 recording and then aired the altered version to make it sound rasist which it wasn't. One more thing about the medias 'coverage' on this case. It was the media who virtually condemned Zimmerman over an arrest record. By law and by moral standards, and judgement should be done with a conviction record. He may have been arrested, but it is the convictions that count against you, or that's the way it should be.
The media have selectively reported mainly the flimsy evidence that makes Zimmerman look bad when the great bulk of the evidence has not been released, such as the autopsy report, ballistics, crime scene photos, forensic analysis of clothing, Zimmerman's three police interviews, witness statements to police, paramedic and doctor reports on Zimmerman's injuries, etc.
One example is the grainy video of Zimmerman being taken into the police station, which people assumed showed lack of injuries. Zimmerman's injuries were confirmed up close by police and paramedics at the scene and he was cleaned up before going to the station. That makes the video highly misleading.
The media often refers to Martin as Trayvon, as if he is a friend on a first-name basis, but Zimmerman is usually just Zimmerman. The media usually use photos of a smiling Trayvon as a boy while they use a frowning mugshot of Zimmerman.
The media bias is very obvious. It reminds me of the media frenzy in many other cases where they convicted innocent people before all the evidence was known, such as the Duke lacrosse team rape case and Richard Jewell, the wrongly suspected Olympic park bomber.
We also have the NBC reporter who altered and aried the altered version of the 911 tapes to mislead a racial prejudiced Zimmerman. The release of out of focus pictures of Zimmerman at the police station after he was cleaned from th eblood from wound. The refusal of reporting of any eye witness. The constant implications that Zimmerman stalked and was intent on killing anyone.
All of these things were wrong and the media poorly handled the reporting of this case. It was more along the lines of The National Enquirer sensationalism, than actual reporting. It even still goes on with this article. Instead of actual reporting of the claims of misreporting, the auther went on the offense and started attacking with emotional overtures. [the pleas that LaPierre should say he's sorry for Zimmerman shooting Martin] ANd the further implying that the NRA is responsible for it is even more emotional tirades.
Have you called the Martin family and apologized yet? If not, why?
No one can deny the out of control killings amongst the rival drug gangsters and drug pushers in the streets, but creating laws like the Stand Your Ground law is not helping matters in the least. If people are afraid of teenagers out in the streets looking to profit from the work of others and are using thuggish strategies and guns to accomplish those assaults and robberies in towns, cities in the USA, is not reason to allow for laws to serve as courts of the streets with no good outcomes for everyone but the NRA and the people that love to push guns and incarceration rates as high as possible to curtail the advancement of minority races at all cost.
He chased after Martin. That right there nullifies any hope he had to avoid a conviction. The officers on the scene went on the information they had at hand, once the details became clear - lo and behold he was charged and arrested.
LaPierre didn't mention anything about Martin because this whole story has been hijacked to become an issue about gun control and civil rights, neither of which were really in an issue here. Zimmerman murdered a young man, maybe not in cold blood, but murder nonetheless - and let me repeat HE WAS NOT STANDING HIS GROUND. This is a ridiculous ploy by gun control activists to overturn laws that save the lives of law abiding citizens just to sate their desire to deface the Bill of Rights and the Constitution as a whole.