WASHINGTON – National Rifle Association Executive Wayne LaPierre kicked off the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday with an unyielding defense of gun rights, just one week after the South Florida school shooting tragedy as the NRA’s first public response to the school massacre that left 17 students and faculty dead.
CPAC officials kept LaPierre’s name off the official schedule they released on Monday, in an apparent effort to avoid public protests at the National Harbor Convention Center in suburban Maryland, where the event was being hosted.
LaPierre criticized the mainstream news media and Democratic politicians for “exploiting” the tragedy for their own political gain and diminish Second Amendment rights. He also said the news media isn’t adequately addressing the FBI’s failure to investigate a warning about the alleged shooter last month, before his mass killings at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
“As usual, the opportunists waited not one second to exploit tragedy for political gain,” LaPierre declared to the CPAC gathering of conservative activists and GOP leaders. “Chris Murphy, Nancy Pelosi, and more, cheered on by the national media, eager to blame the NRA and call for more government control.”
He was referring to Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a prominent gun control advocate who took office one month before the 2012 murder of 20 first-graders and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., another gun control advocate.
In her introduction of LaPierre to the CPAC audience, NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch shared these sentiments. She said the media “loves mass shootings,” and the ratings that come with tragedy.
LaPierre shared his own suggestions for increased safety in schools, saying that schools should pay for armed guards and enhanced security, just like banks and Hollywood elites do.
“Do we really love our money and our celebrities more than we love our children?” he said.
He suggested eliminating gun-free zones and arming teachers with guns or having security detail in schools.
“Evil walks among us and God help us if we don’t harden our schools and protect our kids,” he said.
These thoughts echoed the statements President Donald Trump made on Wednesday at the White House, during a meeting with school shooting victim’s families and friends.
Trump also suggested arming teachers and other staff at the schools, saying that a gun-free zone means nothing to a potential shooter.
“A gun-free zone to a maniac is … ‘let’s go in and let’s attack because bullets aren’t coming back at us.’ If these cowards knew that the school was well guarded… I think they wouldn’t go into the school to start off with,” Trump said.
While some of those present at the White House seemed to agree with the President, many disagreed.
“School teachers have more than enough responsibilities right now than to have the awesome responsibility of lethal force to take a life,” said Mike Barden, whose 7-year-old son, Daniel was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. “Shooters are not going to care if someone’s there with a gun.”