No mention of VA Tech shooting spree at NRA.org, no condolences

[TheWebHead]

No condolences, no information, nothing. You'd think they'd offer some message to the families of those murdered today.

http://www.nra.org/

[southerncrone]

1. They don't see the connection, or acknowledge it.

[billbuckhead]

4. All their IT people are over here spinning propaganda

[Erika]

5. One of the 2 decent things W Sr. did was to resign from the NRA

and sign the ADA.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. So any site without a condolence is a site of scum?

I didn't put any on my own website, nor my church's website...

Did PETA put a condolence? Google? IBM? The Russian Orthodox Church? Snopes? Columbia University? MIT? CalTech? The Civil War Museum? France?

I guess we're/they're all scum and shit.

[NovaNardis]

7. But the NRA is pimping guns...

So I mean they have an active interest in gun violence.

If Jesus Christ came back and killed all of the world's polar bears, your Church might be interested in making a response. Just saying.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

13. The NRA works for the GOP

I know gun owners who have renounced their membership because of what a bunch of political hacks they are.

[Redstone]

15. I've liked you ever since I joined DU. But after tonight, I don't think I like you anymore.

I'm sorry, but your posts seem to reflect a position that guns are more important than human lives.

I'm sure you'll respond with all sorts of attacks on my personality and ethics and Americanism, so go right ahead. After all, guns are more important than anything else, aren't they?

What a disappointment for me. I've found you to be smart and funny in the past, but you've been no less than rabid tonight.

Go ahead and give me all the talking points and NRA phrases; no problem. I can take it. Attack me at will, if it makes you feel better; I know other people to whom guns are more important than friends (or anything else), so it won't be the first time for me.

Redstone

[Rabrrrrrr]

29. I would not attack your ethics or your Americanism. I disagree with your position on guns.

And where did I say guns are more important than human lives?

Why must it be an either/or proposition? Life is a gray area; very little is black and white.

I believe we have a right to own guns. I believe that right comes with a responsibility. I also believe all people have an inalienable right to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.

That's why murder is illegal, and why I support murder being illegal. That's why we have laws that make it illegal to threaten with a gun, to discharge a gun in a great many places, or to have guns in certain geographical areas (schools, for instance).

Banning guns will do nothing. They have nothing to do with it.

The only thing that will help is a systemic change in our society from one of bloodthirsty, vengeance-seeking, violence-based adolescence, to a more thoughtful and respectful adulthood. I pray that in another generation or two, America will finally have grown up.

Guns ain't the problem. It's murderous assholes who are the problem; and a society that glorifies violence as an appropriate and honorable solution to one's problems AND a society that often forces people into having to resort to violence to be heard or have justice done for them, or just to survive.

I'm sure that VA TECH already had rules that barred firearms on campus. We as a nation already had rules making murder illegal. Virginia even has the death penalty for murderers. Sadly, the only things the laws do is give us a legal way to punish people AFTER they commit a crime. They do not keep crimes from happening; and it's a pure pipe dream of the grossest naivette to think that making something illegal will make it go away.

We need to change our society. Not make more laws.

[Critters2]

21. Just for the record, here's what your church says about gun violence

http://www.ucc.org/justice/jpr.htm



I especially like this part: "to pursue legislation in the United States Congress, State Legislatures and the United Nations that will help diminish the acceptance of violence in any form and restrict the availability of instruments of violence using every means possible to advise our leaders and the leaders of the world that the violence must stop;"

[Redstone]

23. Ooh. Now, THAT's gotta hurt. At least to someone who values guns over human lives, yes?

Redstone

[mrreowwr_kittty]

3. I'm sure they're on the case

Ginning up support for having armed teachers in the schools. Wait for the onslaught of LTTEs.

[Webster Green]

9. Armed teachers?.....Where the hell were the cops?

Shootings at 7 in the morning, nobody apprehended, and the campus is open for business as usual?

Somebody fucked up big-time. This makes no sense.

Where were all the cops, chasing pot-heads?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

12. Well SOMEBODY has to enforce VA's draconian drug laws!

Those lucrative private prisons aren't gonna fill themselves, ya know.

As for the rest of us, we need to arm ourselves to the teeth for protection. DIY law enforcement. Fits in perfectly with the conservative public policy doctrine.

[Kerrytravelers]

6. Let me recover from my shock.

[Redstone]

8. aBecause, after all, GUNS are not the problem. Even though he killed those people with GUNS, hey

he could have used WATER, according to one poster here tonight.

Others have said he could have done the same with a box-cutter knife, a car, or an axe.

So, since GUNS are not the problem, why should the NRA be ashamed of promoting them, and promoting the ease with which people buy them?

Hey, they took his gun away from him when they pried it from his cold, dead hand. Isn't that what the NRA likes to say? He's one of their own.

Redstone

[Bjornsdotter]

14. Water?

I know you are serious but I still find it incredible.....glad I missed that thread.

Cheers

[Redstone]

16. You are LUCKY that you missed that one. He indicted swimming pools, too. I guess because they

have water in them.

Redstone

[Critters2]

20. So the shooter would have done, what?

Herd 32 people to the nearest swimming pool and push 'em in?

I don't think that would have been nearly as efficient. And that's the point, ain't it?

[Redstone]

22. The point exactly. You know, people like you confirm my faith in DU. Thank you.

Redstone

[Critters2]

24. Just doin' what little I can. nt

[alarimer]

25. My own personal favorite is that everyone should be armed

Then someone would have shot the guy before he killed all those people. :eyes:

Maybe. But probably they would have all shot each other instead.

I don't know what the answer is. We have a screwed up society for one thing and an extremely violent one too, for reasons I cannot comprehend.

I do not believe more guns are the answer, however.

[Critters2]

27. Or they would have shot THEIR OWN girlfriend and her RA

and on and on.

Yeah, guns solve problems. Right.

[jobycom]

10. They are still waiting for the obligatory "I had a gun but left it in my house because

the liberals won't let me carry it" person to come forth and explain how he could have saved everyone. Then they can respond to the event.

[Redstone]

11. Oh, yes. We've seen PLENTY of those posts right here tonight.

Redstone

[Critters2]

18. No, but plenty of "if even one student had had a gun" posts

Students packing heat to their engineering classes. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. :eyes:

[charlie]

17. They do now

The National Rifle Association joins the entire country in expressing our deepest condolences to the families of Virginia Tech University and everyone else affected by this horrible tragedy.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families.

We will not have further comment until all the facts are known.

Andrew Arulanandam
Director of Public Affairs
National Rifle Association

http://www.nra.org/Article.aspx?id=8442

Meanwhile, McCain is making the most of this opportunity to tweeze himself apart from the pack and whore votes as 2nd Amendment champion:

"We have to look at what happened here, but it doesn't change my views on the Second Amendment, except to make sure that these kinds of weapons don't fall into the hands of bad people."

"I do believe in the constitutional right that everyone has, in the Second Amendment to the Constitution, to carry a weapon," he said. "Obviously we have to keep guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens."

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ct=title&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1115439141
http://news.google.com/news?q=mccain+va+tech

[Critters2]

19. Interesting. I thought they were no more responsible for this massacre

than my church, or France.

Looks like someone's worryin'. And rightly so.

[jobycom]

26. Glad they do. McCain's comments are goofy, though.

Everyone should be allowed to carry a gun, except bad guys. Well, gee, John, thanks for that. No one else has such a clearly defined position.

[charlie]

28. I don't know if it's selective quoting

but those are the entirety of his comments, as reported by news outlets. It's why I posted search links instead of to a single article, so entire pages of McCain's pandering without any expression of humanity would come up. Some of the articles have statements from the other candidates and Mr Straight Talk stands out starkly as the crass one.