Way back in 2007, I personally invited Wayne LaPierre, the director of the National Rifle Association, to live in Baghdad. I had been there, less than 24 months earlier, and I thought LaPierre might appreciate the opportunity to live in a society which lived up to his standards. Surprisingly, he never took this offer up, nor did he ever visit the troops in Iraq, or Afghanistan for that matter, which is, well, normal for him. He likes his guns, but he is really not cool with being surrounded by them, like he would have been, had he ever visited our troops in Baghdad, or Helmand, or Kabul…or basically anywhere.

In Iraq, every single household (with a male that is) may have one assault rifle. This seems to be Mr. Wayne LaPierre's ideal. And interestingly, we have a country (a couple, actually) where his vision exists. Iraq and Afghanistan.

Somewhat curiously, for Mr. LaPierre anyway, this social experiment is not really working out the way that Mr. LaPierre contends that it must, that a "well armed" society is a more polite one. Gun deaths are off the scale in both countries and all forms of violence exceed anything we see in countries with fewer guns. So how is that working out Mr. LaPierre? You would appear to prefer to turn us into a nation like Iraq. Myself, I consider your position to be prostitution for the purpose of profit. But more on that later.

Contrast that, if you would, Mr. LaPierre, with the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Hell, the whole country, if you like. They have a rate of 0.30/100K dead from weapons. The rate in America is 10.3 per 100K. Are the people of India so much more advanced than us Mr. LaPierre? Do you really think Americans are that much more ignorant than the Indians?

I understand that during the time of the nation's need you had other pressing needs that kept you from serving in Vietnam, but surely, despite your lack of travel, you might have learned at least a little about the rest of the world? Yes....ah, OK. No.

I get it Mr. LaPierre, you are a political operative for a single-issue topic and you probably never heard of Uttar Pradesh, despite the fact that it is a proud, and honorable, state in the country of India. Were it independent, it would be about 1/3 of the size of the US, and the sixth largest country (by population) on the planet. More than 30M Muslims live there, more than in all of Iraq. And the violence there is horrific…more than 100 died there in Muslim/Hindi attacks. Oh, wait, 100 people...that's less than a single day in America.

But, if you think that the Shia/Sunni split caused this violence there, you would be wrong.

Oh heck, who am I kidding? You probably do not even know what a Shia Muslim is, let alone what a Sunni Muslim is, besides what you have been told by your minders. (Who are now, no doubt, desperately using Google to figure that out.)

Mr. LaPierre, perhaps you need to return to the nation of your forefathers from 40 or 50 years ago, and leave America to others more vested in the security of the nation.

These opinions are solely those of the author and do not reflect the Department of Defense, the Army, or any Unit with which he is associated. You can write to me at R_Bateman_LTC@homail.com.

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