While the National Rifle Association went silent over social media following the Sandy Hook school massacre last week, the organization continued to broadcast over its Internet station NRA News, Dylan Byers of Politico reports.
(The first startling news here is that the NRA has an Internet station.)
Byers cites many examples of the NRA's hosts blaming the Sandy Hook shootings on moral failings and other problems with America that have nothing to do with guns.
Host Cam Edwards, for example, cited a lack of "love" in the country. Other prominent folks cited such intangibles as "godlessness"— although according to Gun Owners Of America executive director,Larry Pratt, gun ownership is a right given by God for the god-fearing folks to defend themselves from the godless.
There are a host of reasons to comment on the Sandy Hook shootings, and host of reasons to keep mum. In this instance, mum would have been preferable.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a former Marine. I'm for gun rights. And I support the Second Amendment. But the time to argue for the right to bear arms isn't in the hours-old wake of the second deadliest massacre in U.S. history.
The proper time would be the upcoming round of debates that seem almost sure to occur as Congress and the president decide what the best course of action will be.
Until then, the comments from the NRA hosts are, at best, grossly insensitive. Twenty-seven people, including 20 children, were shot to death last week by a troubled young man wielding an assault weapon. To express anything other than shock, horror and sympathy about that tragedy is deeply offensive.
Please follow Military & Defense on Twitter and Facebook.