Doubling down on stupid just makes you twice as stupid

National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre went on Meet the Press this morning to make sure the entire country knows just how off base and out of touch he and the gunphiles he speaks for are with their plan to put a gun-toting protector in every school in the USA. The National Center for Education Statistics says that, in the 2009-2010 school year, there were 132,183 public and private K-12 schools in this country. Leave it to the NRA to come up with a solution to school shootings that involves putting over 132,000 new guns into our schools.

This public demonstration is just the latest piece that supports LOLGOP’s contention that they want us to believe they are crazy.

David Gregory was uncharacteristically good in his questioning of LaPierre and as the segment went on, a little spittle ball in the corner of LaPierre’s mouth swelled larger and larger. He repeated his call for a national registry of “lunatics and monsters” while defending his position that background checks at gun shows should be done away with. He talked about how reducing the size of ammunition clips won’t work. He talked about how assault weapons bans won’t work. He tried to explain why the armed guards at Columbine who fired on the shooters were somehow different than the 132,000+ “good guys with guns” that he wants to put into our children’s schools. But he never once allowed for the fact that the prevalence of guns in our society is in any way responsible. Never once did he concede that there may be laws that could be part of the solution.

Leonard Pitts of The Miami Herald had, perhaps, the most eloquent statement on this issue that I have seen this week:

Come, then. Let us weep for the 20 children shot to pieces by the young man who invaded their elementary school wielding semiautomatic weapons. Let us mourn for the six adults who could not save the children, could not save themselves, who died as the children died, shot multiple times at close range. Let us whisper our sorrows and shed our tears. Let us stagger against one another in our mountainous grief. Let us light our candles and leave them at makeshift shrines to be cared for by the uncaring sun and rain. But let us also understand these as acts of moral masturbation, in that they satisfy some need, yet have no chance of producing anything of lasting consequence. Let us not pretend our sorrow in this moment means a damn thing or changes a damn thing, because it doesn’t and won’t. Not until or unless the American nation is finally willing to confront its unholy gun love.

Evidence of that unholy gun love is on display in Michigan this weekend as the Novi Gun and Knife Show is underway. According to organizers, the 4,000 people that showed up yesterday represented a 20% increase in attendance. Why are they there? To satisfy their unholy gun love and feed their bizarre gun fetish.

[Event promoter Doug] Carl said that in 45 years in the firearms business, he’s seen such fears among gun owners when there’s a drumbeat for stricter laws. On Saturday, he said prices were up for ammunition, and demand for paramilitary weapons already is making it harder for gun sellers to procure. {…} Customers reported that the line to enter the exposition hall, which boasts more than 60,000 square feet of space, was a half-hour long when doors swung open at 9 a.m. Out in the parking lot, arriving vehicles regularly idled waiting for others to pull out.

The scene is being played out across the country as, once again, the fears stoked by LaPierre and his gun pornography have created an artificial surge in gun and ammunition sales.

Considering that the NRA gets 74% of their funding from the firearms industry, it’s very clear that this is nothing more than a crass marketing ploy.

Just exactly like their plan for our nation’s schools.

P.S. Just to show just how absurd and unserious LaPierre’s plan is, the National Association of School Resource Officers estimates that it would cost $80,000 per school to do.

132,183 schools x $80,000 = $10.6 billion.

Even using the lower annual cost of a security guard used by the U.S. Labor Bureau — $27,040 — you have a total cost of $3.6 billion.

Do I have to remind everyone that we are cutting school funding in our nation’s schools right now? By nearly $2 billion in Michigan alone.