The letter writer certainly believes that the Parkland school tragedy can be laid at the feet of the NRA and does a good job delineating the history of the campaigns that organization has initiated in support of the Second Amendment. I watched the initial on-the-scene news conference on the day of the tragedy when all the officials got in front of the camera to tell everyone how devastated they where, and then went directly to placing blame and starting to run for cover.
The FBI representative said it's difficult to vet all tips as to their accuracy. The school district representative blamed the fact the school was underfunded, and more money was needed to improve security. The state's AG representative and governor stated that gun laws were to blame, and something had to be done.
Then as the week unfolded the real story came to the surface. The shooter was no longer a student at the school, and had no business being in the building. The FBI had advance notice, interviewed the shooter personally, and determined the threat was minimal. The armed school resource officer hid from danger.
Unable to break the hurricane windows with rifle fire and rain down more carnage at fleeing students while the armed deputy hid, the shooter decided to quit, and try to flee by mixing with other students. All of this came to the surface after the news conference, so undoubtedly the news conference officials knew there was going to be fallout.
The writer goes on to say that politicians who cave in to the NRA's influence are cowards and need to be voted out of office. What she doesn't realize is the NRA's influence and political clout are financed by members' dues, and donations and votes. These are real people, not some Godless esoteric entity. These people are no different than the people who donate money to gun control/ban advocates, groups and progressive politicians. In fact, I'll wager their donations match or exceed funding to the NRA. The writer conveniently overlooks this fact. Blaming the NRA is comparable to blaming a cellphone every time some idiot makes a poor choice and texts at the wheel and kills someone.
One could go on for pages discussing issues that have contributed to the general decline of societal norms and behavior over the past 50 years. We can start with abortion and a society that says unwanted pregnancy is the egg's fault for being there so that makes it easy to absolve responsibility and abort the fetus. Or we can examine all the issues that have led to the alienation of our young and the development of personalities unable to cope in what is considered the new normal society.
The writer needs to take a hard inward look at the progressive agenda and ask herself if society today would be better with a return to core American values of self-reliance, consideration, courtesy, accountability and responsibility. Instead we live in a celebrity-centric society, with internet sensations, reality TV personalities famous for bad behavior and the cesspool that is Hollywood, and let's not forget the "swamp."
Wayne Allen
Lewes
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