After a week of the nastiest barrage of media abuse in recent memory, gun owners have reason to look up. The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and the Second Amendment Foundation have already called for a national commission to investigate media violence including violent video games, lapses in mental health care, and false reliance on “gun-free zones” as contributing factors in mass shootings.
Today, after a week of respectful silence, the National Rifle Association’s Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre addressed the media. His strong message stands out as a beacon of hope from the hateful and accusatory anti-gun rants of not only media types but prominent politicians over the last week. You can read it yourself, but Wayne’s standout message is his offer of the NRA’s vast resources and experience to assist every school in America in deploying a robust security plan. He calls it the National School Shield Program, and it will be headed by former Arkansas congressman, U.S. Attorney, DEA chief, and Department of Homeland Security official Asa Hutchinson.
While the haters hate, gun owners build. And we are serious about protecting the most precious things in the world, our children.
—Timothy Wheeler, MD is director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, a project of the Second Amendment Foundation.