Honey, what have you done?

The National Rifle Association (NRA) needs to run away from negative messaging.

I used to be an NRA member until Ted Nugent (board member of the NRA) started to

(Above) NRA message embraces ‘bitterness’

make hostile remarks against our President of the United States, and his political opposites.  As a result of the NRA turning a blind eye to the Nuge — I quit being a member.   Whether you voted for Obama or not and whether or not you stand on the other side of the political aisle — one should not wish death upon fellow Americans and certainly not our elected officials and especially our President! To my knowledge, the NRA has not yet removed Nugent from their board.

During 2012, Nugent said:

“If the coyote’s in your living room, pissing on your couch, it’s not the coyote’s fault. It’s your fault for not shooting him…” 

I am a believer in freedom of speech but how far do we take that?  God help Nugent if anything happens to our President.  I have already asserted my concerns here and my growing discomfort with the NRA.  You would think the NRA would have already learnt a lesson when Lee Harvey Oswald had purchased his rifle, a Mannticher-Carcano, through an ad placed in the NRA’s American Rifleman magazine later used on November 22, 1963, with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Now, before we go any further, I do believe in protecting our 2nd amendment rights, but I also believe that we should re-evaluate automatic assault rifles and our mental illness programs. How is it that we have trillion$ to spend in bombing the shit out of other countries and war yet we slash budgets that support the mentally ill here in our own Homeland?

I DO NOT BELIEVE WE SHOULD BAN ALL GUNS.   [I'm confident Mexican-Americans who revere Pancho Villa and Emilio Zapata have somewhat similar views, too. So I'm told.]

That said, I do believe it is dangerous for the NRA to embrace a negative message while tying it into the 2nd amendment agenda.  What may have been meant for good with regard to the NRA is now backfiring.  Why is it important for the NRA to run from embracing the negative message of bitterness?  Don’t they know that they are shooting themselves in the foot?  Don’t they know that subliminal messages can be taken very wrong?

How can the NRA rebrand itself before it’s too late?

They can begin with taking Nugent off their board.  They can also stop pushing such negative energy via ‘bitterness messaging’ and simply push the fact that owning guns is a 2nd amendment right under the United States Constitution.  They can also address the mental illness situation that seems to be choking our Nation.  There is no need to turn a blind eye to these realities.  It is a reality that our Arizona Congressman via Gabby Giffords was shot in the head by a madman.  Why should we run away from that reality?

We know what is going on here …  the mainstream media has gone from immigrant scares to gun scares and the gun issue is now dominating the airwaves.  Talk of banning guns is causing American citizens to purchase more weaponry for grandfather law purposes.

Extremists on both sides still have not figured out that they can start by figuring out what they do agree on so that they can build healthy discussions and move our Country forward to a better place.

The solution?  Both sides ought to find out what they can agree on and build from there.

smdh

Meanwhile …  Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his posse will be patrolling public schools in Maricopa County, and that may make some in Arizona feel good but others are complaining that this advances his military dictatorship-style.

Before … the trend in the media had much to do with “immigrant scares” and now we see “gun scares” taking place.  That said — I still can’t understand why a pipe bomber is still on the loose after years of pipe bombs being planted in our State?  Arpaio has been very good at ‘catching undocumented immigrants’ while they are working at fast food restaurants and local businesses — but can he catch the mysterious pipe bomber?

A bomb squad detonated a suspicious device Saturday afternoon at a parking lot in front of a Safeway in Central Phoenix.

The lot near 7th Avenue and Osborn was roped-off and shoppers were being re-routed.

KTAR’s Lou Romano spoke with store employees who said it was “business as usual” inside the store, but the lot was full of police cars and fire trucks.

Authorities are looking for suspects.

Too many pipe bomb incidents are occurring in our state and it seems it would be a good idea to have a bomb dog handler patrolling grocery stores, random neighborhoods where pipe bombs have been discovered in an effort to deter explosives. More importantly, these dogs are trained to detect explosive devices several hundred yards away.

Our hearts hurt for the parents who lost their little ones today.  Our thoughts, good energy and prayers are with them.

I can’t help but think that the rise of multiple shootings in our nation … albeit in theaters, malls, schools, colleges … are a wake up call to many of us.  It would be a good idea for schools to now consider having ‘shooter’ drills.  As a parent, I will be teaching my children basic survival skills in the event that this takes place (may God forbid it) in their schools.

Our kids should be taught and trained what a weapon or firearm sounds like so they can immediately take cover and hide behind school desks, tables, chairs or whatever they can find to protect their skull, and other important body parts.  We live in an age where schools perform fire drills, earthquake drills, tornado drills and etc., and I think it is time to have productive discussions on training our young children how to protect themselves from mad men/women via ‘shooter’ drills  — especially in a school environment.  The proactive skills they learn in school may transcend into necessary skills they can use in malls, theaters or public places later on in life. The investment in our children will not be wasted.

I encourage parents to teach their children basic survival skills anyway, in the event that schools decide against “shooter” drills from a ‘take cover’ point of view particularly when most classrooms have only one entry/exit point to begin with.

Our children are worth the time we teach them to try and protect themselves.  They need to be trained how to kick over their small desks and take cover.  We must train little ones to defend themselves as best we can because their lives depend on the skills we offer and teach them.

May God be with the families who lost their children and loved ones today.

From the UK Guardian:

Many dead in Newtown, Connecticut school shooting – live updates

In this photo provided by the Newtown Bee, Connecticut state police lead children from the Sandy Hook elementary school. Photograph: Shannon Hicks/Newtown Bee

The hypocrisy of the Fast and Furious, Gun lobbying et al is described below…

The House recently voted to block an Obama administration effort to give the authorities a vital additional tool to fight trafficking of assault rifles to Mexico — yet they want to scrub their fingerprints off of the Fast and the Furious.  Everyone knows the NRA is Republican Right ideology/fight.

From My San Antonio:

The Brady Campaign is named for Jim Brady, the former press secretary to Ronald Reagan who was gravely wounded in the attempted assassination of the 40th president.

Gross blamed the GOP for standing in the way of efforts to combat the illegal smuggling of U.S. weapons to Mexican drug cartels.

“The House Republican leadership decries the failure of U.S. authorities to prevent illegal guns from crossing the border, yet the House recently voted to block an Obama administration effort to give the authorities a vital additional tool to fight trafficking of assault rifles to Mexico,” he said.

Gross said Boehner refuses to meet with victims of gun violence, even as he traveled to Florida “to meet with the leaders of the gun industry.”