Not only did Mr. Wayne LaPierre, President and CEO of the National Rifle Association, double down on his statements from Friday, but in doing so envisioned a truly dark future for America. He once again emphasized a need for a policeman in every school and a national database of the mentally ill and that we can keep those 'lunatics' as he called them off the street and from being able to obtain firearms.
The eventual result is a police state where armed guards are every where and every one is plugged into one database or another. David Gregory was unable to get any sort of admission from the NRA chief that guns play any role in the epidemic of mass violence. Because Mr. LaPierre didn't answer Mr. Gregory's question about his statement and his answers on the program today are the ultimate dodge in not acknowledging guns, we will have to.
His answer was the ultimate dodge, and what he is really saying is that "I, Wayne LaPierre, let Pandora out of her box when it comes to guns, so just give it up ever trying to legislate against access." He never even took the perspective of trying to get the gun out of the bad guy's hands in the first place as Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) suggested.
His perspective is the ultimate statement of denial, like an addiction, that everything else - the 'media machine' for example - is to blame (or plays a part) except my own view. It's a very obvious psychology. Even when presented with Mr. Gregory's magazine visuals, Mr. LaPierre ultimately stated that legislation on limiting capacity simply won't work and that the NRA wouldn't support it. Not to mention that he also feels that the assault weapons ban, spearheaded by Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), is a "phony" piece of legislation that does not work.
Having outlined all that, we don't believe that heavily legislating gun ownership is the sole solution, but let's face it, it's a large part - the largest part - of the equation. So given Mr. LaPierre's sentiment that we should try anything to stop these kinds of mass-murder tragedies except trying to alter people's access to all kinds of guns, essentially eliminates him from the conversation in general.
Also, Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) was wrong when he said that limiting magazine capacity infringed on people's second amendment rights. Capacity is capability and by that rationale, one could own a tank and drive it around or should have that right. His answers were not even the least bit thoughtful. Conversely, Senator Lindsay Graham's (R-SC) rudimentary logic is a better example. He owns an AR-15 and shouldn't be denied the right to buy another one. He posed it as a question of would it hypothetically make America safer if he didn't have it, he explained. Fine, but our question is always - what do you need it for? After that, the Republican Senator basically shut down any compromise of legislating guns or ammunition. From Senator Schumer's tone, which pretty much mirrors the rest of the Democratic part of the Senate is that he knows there won't be heavy legislation on assault weapons or magazine capacity so he uses words like 'holistic approach' and 'compromise' but Republicans will not have it. And as this gets drawn out, once again, less will be done - we predict very little.
In Mr. LaPierre's equation, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with one, and the first reaction that everyone has is why not eliminate guns from the equation all together? Also, implied in there is the solution of adding more guns into society to curb the violence. Chuck Todd pointed out if the White House agreed with the strategy of putting a policeman in every school, it could be something that the NRA and the Administration could get together on, but that's a difficult stretch, not likely. And Republicans' won't give any ground politically on guns, metaphorically sticking to them.
Where Republicans will be less successful standing their ground is in the 'fiscal cliff' negotiations, and we agree with Chuck Todd on the point that the President should go after the big deal one more time because one, they are almost at a deal point, and two, if they only go for the small deal then they'll cede too much political ground to the Republicans when they don't have to. For us, the American public, we want the long-term contract, this season to season stuff (to use the sports metaphor) is exhausting.
And what's also exhausting are cheap shots from Senators thrown at the President like the one Lindsay Graham lobbed today saying that the President has been a pathetic fiscal leader, when the lack of leadership is being keenly exemplified by the Speaker of the House, who conducted a vote the other night - his Plan B - and he didn't have the votes. We love how Andrea Mitchell summed it up - effective leaders in the House need to know how to count. Not to mention that Senator Graham simply doesn't understand the repercussions of his statement when he threatens to use the debt ceiling as leverage in negotiations. The stock market reacts negatively to those types of statements. Not to mention that it predicts that we will go off the so-called 'fiscal cliff' because if the deal were to get done, the debt ceiling debate becomes a non-issue.
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