TCTI: Too Crazy Too Ignore
 Dave Ross
AP: 282597e9-344b-4f14-95aa-6884aeb0c6cb
The National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, speaks during a news conference in response to the Connecticut school shooting on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 in Washington. The nation's largest gun-rights lobby is calling for armed police officers to be posted in every American school to stop the next killer "waiting in the wings." (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Is he crazy, or just trapped?

BY Dave Ross  on December 24, 2012 @ 7:12 am (Updated: 8:49 am - 12/24/12 )

Over the weekend NRA chief Wayne La Pierre endorsed the idea of armed and trained officers in every school, paid for by the federal government. And people called him crazy.

But his suggestion is not crazy. It's inevitable. When you run an organization whose policy is to make it easy to sell powerful guns to almost anyone, regardless of training or character, what else can you suggest but to have cops everywhere?

Plus he says the government needs to start tracking the mentally ill. As he pointed out on Meet The Press, "We have no national database of these lunatics."

The NRA now wants a comprehensive mental health database, because a country that's flooded with these powerful weapons can't afford to tolerate even a single mentally ill person walking the streets. What's happening is that the NRA's policy of resisting gun control, is leading to PEOPLE control.

A few more shootings like this, and we'll have to start keeping files on people who brood a lot, or post scary things on the Internet, or honk too much in traffic.

The NRA will have to endorse it all. Because rejecting government control of guns leads inevitably to government control of potential gun users: Federally-subsidized cops everywhere, the government tracking medical records - the NRA slowly finds itself endorsing the very kind of government control that the Second Amendment was supposed to prevent.

Dave Ross, KIRO Radio Talk Show Host
Dave Ross is co-host of The Ross & Burbank Show on KIRO Radio (weekdays 9-Noon) and never too far from the spotlight.
More Dave Ross

MyNorthwest.com - Purpose of Comments statement
Bonneville Media encourages site users to express their opinions by posting comments. Our goal is to maintain a civil dialogue in which readers feel comfortable. At times, the comments can descend to personal attacks. Please do not engage in such behavior. We encourage your thoughtful comments which: have a positive and constructive tone, are on topic, are respectful toward others and their opinions. Bonneville reserves the right to remove comments which do not conform to these criteria.

Comments (79)


  • Add A Comment

  • calapete wrote...
    yes he is crazy
    December 24, 2012 8:23 am
    I liken the NRA to Boehner and the House. Both have taken so much money from a small fringe of Americans. They are torn between what Americans want and what pays the bills.

    NRA and the House do not represent Americans, they represent their own greed.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • RonJ wrote...
    calapete the NRA
    December 24, 2012 5:52 pm
    represents me, a hardworking American who has paid taxes since 1974. I am also a Life Member of the NRA and a member of Gun Owners of America and contribute to Jews for the Preservation of Firearms. What surprises me that you somehow didn't inject race into this issue but I'll do it for you. Where are the fake Obama tears whenever a young black male gets gunned down in Chicago or Detroit or Philly? Ain't none, bro, ain't no political points to be made when blacks kill each other. Only time he gets his half-black posterior on TV is when young upper middle class white children get killed. Who's the racist among us?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • William Lawn wrote...
    The new TSA
    December 24, 2012 8:25 am
    Large, rude people is silly uniforms

    With guns

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Drool wrote...
    Niether
    December 24, 2012 8:26 am
    This is what he is paid a million dollars a year to do.

    The tobacco industry did the same thing.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Stevebo wrote...
    The NRA is starting to look a lot like PETA in my opinion.
    December 24, 2012 8:26 am
    The statements they made on Friday were absolutely silly... and I generally support gun rights (though I firmly believe there should be better controls in place).

    Honestly, arm our teachers? Place armed police officers at EVERY school?!? The only way to stop a bad buy with a gun is a good guy with a gun? Seriously?

    The next thing we're going to see, is NRA sending young attractive females wearing next to nothing out into public while packing heat...(sadly, I probably just gave the NRA a "great" idea).

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rock-the-Boat wrote...
    So, Dave what is your definition of a "powerful gun"?
    December 24, 2012 8:29 am
    Seems to me 3000+ women , men and children died from 4 jets that were taken over with "powerful" box cutters, in a gun free zone. Even then you could not have a gun on a plane. Now pilots have guns and they have secured doors, and we have air marshals. It is now not a "Gun Free Zone"! If you are going to make "Gun Free Zones" then you need to add security some other way to these now created soft targets.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • sportsguru wrote...
    Real talk Dave
    December 24, 2012 8:29 am

    The NRA is basically suggesting that the American people lose some more of there civil liberties and personal freedoms so that they may be able to make a profit for the GUN MANUFACTURES that they lobby for. Just more proof that the NRA don't care about the 2nd amendment, they are all about free enterprise and making a buck off the death of people.

    People are not buying weapons to hunt and target shoot, nor are they buying weapons to protect against the tyranny of our government. They are buying weapons to protect against the tyranny of EACH OTHER, the citizenry of the U.S. and that my good folks is a profitable business model as death and destruction has always been a profitable boom for the weapons manufactures.

    Happy hunting folks and Merry Christmas.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • UrbanCowgirl wrote...
    Clinton added police to schools back in 2000
    December 24, 2012 8:35 am
    Soooooo The head of the NRA is nuts for saying he likes having armed police to watch over kids, and you say he is nuts... But you sure all get on the band waggon when your own poster boy says we should do it! http://articles.latimes.com/2000/apr/16/news/mn-20323
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • William Lawn wrote...
    Clinton did propose that, and guess who thought it was a terrible idea?
    December 24, 2012 8:59 am
    Republicans
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    Hey, Lawn. If Obama can 'evolve', so can republicans.
    December 26, 2012 3:55 pm
    But I guess the left evolved too. Back then THEY thought it was a great idea.

    I believe, sometimes, that if the right endorsed water, the left would die of thirst. .. And if the left endorsed food, the right would starve.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Mike Hunt wrote...
    @ Dave
    December 24, 2012 8:49 am
    I'm guessing you've lived here all your life. Seattle has been great for me, but as an newcomer I see it as very monolithic (and in my opinion that is not progressive)

    Brainstorming - we've done this in many of our research projects when one of us hits a wall: You get together & throw out a bunch of ideas to look at. Unless you're practicing censorship/one party rule, you don't call other ideas stupid or crazy.

    Just because someone/an idea doesn't fit into your NW paradigm of party line voting doesn't mean you should be intolerant. Listen to all sides, and perhaps we can grow as a society.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • cw1997 wrote...
    Seriously
    December 24, 2012 9:13 am
    Dave, the people who are crazy are the nut jobs like this dumb mom who knew her kid was just more than a bit off and she allowed him access to the gun that killed her and these children. PERIOD! We have crossed the line to where no one is responsible for their actions so those who are law abiding get to pay the price because some liberal screw ball, yes Dave, some liberal screw ball just is not into people having guns. So let's see Dave 27 people a day die from drunk drivers, so do we take away the cars or the booze. Funny I don's see you on a crusade about that.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Moondoggie wrote...
    Low cost solution
    December 24, 2012 9:20 am
    If the media stops shouting the names of the perps after these killings, then the other potentional killers will learn that their name's will not go down in history if they follow suit. Yes it may cost the news media some money in lost revenue, but isn't it worth it? Yes, I know it won't stop every maniac but it will stop some and our president just said that all our efforts are worth it, even if it only saves ONE life.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Drool wrote...
    Moondoggie
    December 24, 2012 10:03 am
    Yeah, because not talking about suicide in the news has done a great job of stopping it.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • 2112 wrote...
    Moondoggie!
    December 24, 2012 3:03 pm
    Finally! someone has it right. Thanks for posting a big part of the problem. At least one forensic Psychiatrist agrees; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PezlFNTGWv4
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • RonJ wrote...
    Low cost solution
    December 24, 2012 6:00 pm
    would be installing doors that actually keep people out. Didn't the perp smash a window and then unlock the door? Hello?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }