The new NRA Narrative: Blame the Media for Mass Shootings

[Coolthulhu]

They sell weapon. How do you defend yourself from these weapons? By buying weapons yourself. Keep your family safe from psychos who bought our guns by buying our guns!

Guns wouldn't sell if people weren't afraid others would shoot them with theirs. We don't have this issue in most parts of the world. We don't in Canada, but then again guns are quite uncommon here.

In Europe we don't have a mass shooting issue but we still buy guns. How does that work?

[Slant]

Yeah, not the guns yet again, it's the Media that talks about the Situation. CNN handled the Parkland Shooting properly without portraying the shooter in a positive light.

Weeeell, while it's laughable that the NRA tries to shift blame to someone else, the media is to blame for this, too. US media is living off the "bread and games" concept. Has done so since CNN discovered that the only thing selling better than a war movie is a war itself back in '91.

Many of these shootings happen because someone wants his 5 minutes of fame. A horrid American concept, by the way. Deny him that fame and you'll save a few lives on the side.

[Stormdash]

Weeeell, while it's laughable that the NRA tries to shift blame to someone else, the media is to blame for this, too. US media is living off the "bread and games" concept. Has done so since CNN discovered that the only thing selling better than a war movie is a war itself back in '91.

Many of these shootings happen because someone wants his 5 minutes of fame. A horrid American concept, by the way. Deny him that fame and you'll save a few lives on the side.

The NRA can't "shift" blame, since it starts entirely blameless and has none to shift if it wanted.

[Dontrike]

The NRA can't "shift" blame, since it starts entirely blameless and has none to shift if it wanted.

Yeah, the NRA never does anything wrong. Nope. Never. Nadah. Not once.

[Mormolyce]

He wasn't. He did not feel the AR-15 style rifles were needed for self defense. But it was just his opinion and like noses, we all have them. :P Also, you do not dislike a president based on one disagreement. At least I do not.

Also while governor of California he passed the Mulford Act, which repealed all public carry:

Republicans in California eagerly supported increased gun control. Governor Reagan told reporters that afternoon that he saw “no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.” He called guns a “ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will.” In a later press conference, Reagan said he didn’t “know of any sportsman who leaves his home with a gun to go out into the field to hunt or for target shooting who carries that gun loaded.” The Mulford Act, he said, “would work no hardship on the honest citizen.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...f-guns/308608/

I mean he did it because everyone was afraid of the Black Panthers getting guns, but hey, baby steps lol.

[Realitytrembles]

The NRA is a disgusting gathering of idiots stuck in the past. It's president is now one of the most ethically challenged pieces of human garbage ever produced by this country.

Fitting.

The 2nd amendment is a relic, and the heartless s.o.b.s who defend it are barely human filth.

[Themius]

In Europe we don't have a mass shooting issue but we still buy guns. How does that work?

better gun control which gets blocked here due to nra lobbying despite both left and right wing people wanting some of the same changes.

[Noradin]

The NRA can't "shift" blame, since it starts entirely blameless and has none to shift if it wanted.

You can "shift" blame while being blameless.
(Not saying that the NRA is.)

[Stormdash]

better gun control which gets blocked here due to nra lobbying despite both left and right wing people wanting some of the same changes.

The NRA's bold strategy of spending less money on political contributions than their political opponents has been astoundingly successful.

[Noradin]

The NRA's bold strategy of spending less money on political contributions than their political opponents has been astoundingly successful.

You think "lobbying" is a synonyme of "bribing"?
That explains a lot.

[Dontrike]

The NRA's bold strategy of spending less money on political contributions than their political opponents has been astoundingly successful.

Didn't they give Trump $30 million? No lobbying group should ever be spending that much, no matter what/who they support.

[GennGreymane]

We all know its caused by the devil's music and lettuce!

[Felya]

We all know its caused by the devil's music and lettuce!

It’s like the candy man... you say school shooting 3 times on TV, it will happen.

Is “shooting” too pejorative for NRA yet? Can we come up with a word that doesn’t blame guns?

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The NRA's bold strategy of spending less money on political contributions than their political opponents has been astoundingly successful.

Who are NRA’s political opponents? The relatives and friends of those that were killed?

Edit: There is no lobbying against the NRA or to balance against the NRA, because families of the dead are not a competing manufacturer trying to take the spot of current gun manufacturers.

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Didn't they give Trump $30 million? No lobbying group should ever be spending that much, no matter what/who they support.

I want to hear who he considers NRA’s political opponents that spend more.

[Stormdash]

Michael Bloomberg, the financier of Everytown, the Trace, AND Moms Demand, contributed 24x what the NRA did to political campaigns last year. So aside from failing to crack the top 150 overall of organizations donating to political campaigns, the NRA doesn't even come in on the top spending side of their own issue. But by all means, stick with the take that their money runs Washington. Not like these facts could dispel it anyway. You know what you know, clearly.

[Felya]

Michael Bloomberg, the financier of Everytown, the Trace, AND Moms Demand, contributed 24x what the NRA did to political campaigns last year. So aside from failing to crack the top 150 overall of organizations donating to political campaigns, the NRA doesn't even come in on the top spending side of their own issue. But by all means, stick with the take that their money runs Washington. Not like these facts could dispel it anyway. You know what you know, clearly.

Bloomberg donated to a shit tone of causes and before being independent, was a Republican. To claim he was fighting the NRA, while being tied to the same party and never actually lobbying against the NRA, is deceitful.

NRA has their own television network and is a regular guest at CPAC. There is no lobbying group that targets NRA and cannot be, because there is no business associated with dead children.

[Mayhem]

Even stranger is that, despite semi-automatic rifles and handguns, pump shotguns, and revolvers all having been continuously available for private ownership in the US for over a century, this phenomenon of nihilistic blaze-of-glory mass murders by misanthropes is only about 20 years old. Strange, I mean, since it's been decided that the only reason this happens is because of guns.

Are you saying mass shootings first happened about 20 years ago?

[Grapemask]

Even stranger is that, despite semi-automatic rifles and handguns, pump shotguns, and revolvers all having been continuously available for private ownership in the US for over a century, this phenomenon of nihilistic blaze-of-glory mass murders by misanthropes is only about 20 years old. Strange, I mean, since it's been decided that the only reason this happens is because of guns.

You're close. You missed that availability of goods has skyrocketed in the last half century thanks to increased connectivity provided by cars, planes, trains, boats, and better tech for all of those things; more goods get to more places, and more people have more access to more places to acquire those goods.

We have stats to show that per-household firearm ownership in general has remained steady for a century, but a family owning a gun is a far different stat than a family owning many guns, or owning specific types of guns - or, a bigger piece of the statistic, that the average size of households has dropped nearly in half in that same timeframe. Meaning, there are less people per household and more households, but the same amount of gun distribution per household, so we have actually proven that the number of firearms has increased dramatically.

Further, if we're to seriously pursue the media angle, we have to recall that despite what the rightwing screams, we are actually at a moderate-to-low point in media thrill-seeking. The entire current state of media is the result of backlash in the 19th/early 20th century to unscrupulous media tactics and "yellow journalism." If you think the media today is dramatic, you should take a look at the news around the 1880s. So if the media is to blame, if increased availability of goods is bunk, if firearms are not the problem, why wasn't the US just a vast ocean of blood in the 19th century, when the papers would fill an entire issue with the latest gossip on killers?

[Stormdash]

Are you saying mass shootings first happened about 20 years ago?

Blaze of glory nihilistic teenagers turned this into a macabre sport and cult of personality starting with Columbine, yes. Mass murder affiliated with organized crime, paramilitary action, or genuinely dissociative mental illness have occurred sporadically for as long murder itself.

[Felya]

Are you saying mass shootings first happened about 20 years ago?

It’s an irrelevant point as well. Regan was making these arguments in the 80s. If we want to go correlation and causation... here is one...

Until the mid 90s, NRA contributed to both political parties. DNC only saw 30% of lobbying, but it wasn’t until the late 90s, that NRA became defined and sololey connected to the RNC. Unlike previous shootings, like that of Reagan him self and the bell tower sniper, both parties were able to come to a bipartisan conclusion. As late as late 90s, we were able to get a 10 year assault rifle ban.

If you want to make the argument it started around 20 years ago. I present the argument, that unlike any time in history or in places where gun control became an issue after a mass shooting, a political party got bought by gun manufacturers. It no longer was a bipartisan issue or an issue that saw DNC get a 30% cut. It now became the defining issue of a political party, that unlike previous shootings, they did nothing... making it return and them spend millions to ignore it.

I don’t even know why we are talking about it. I’ve been waiting for the Parkland thing to settle down, so we can have a rational discussion. Oh well... reset the clock!!!

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Blaze of glory nihilistic teenagers turned this into a macabre sport and cult of personality starting with Columbine, yes. Mass murder affiliated with organized crime, paramilitary action, or genuinely dissociative mental illness have occurred sporadically for as long murder itself.

The guy in the Vargas shooting was a teen ager?

[Mayhem]

Blaze of glory nihilistic teenagers turned this into a macabre sport and cult of personality starting with Columbine, yes. Mass murder affiliated with organized crime, paramilitary action, or genuinely dissociative mental illness have occurred sporadically for as long murder itself.

Do you have anything to back that up or is this just your opinion disguised as meaningful?