NRA = No Real Answers

I heard the title phrase for this blog during a CNN panel discussion immediately following the unscheduled speech of NRA Executive Director Wayne LaPierre at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) on Wednesday.

He called for the hardening of schools, describing them as "...virtually wide open, soft targets for anyone bent on mass murder."

He also said, "the elites care not one whit about America's school system and schoolchildren."

He also said, "and you should be anxious, and you should be frightened. If they seize power, if these so-called 'European socialists' take over the House and the Senate, and God forbid they get the White House again, our Americans freedoms could be lost and our country will be changed forever."

Aside from the fact we should not have to harden schools against men and boys (almost every mass shooter to this point has been male) with assault rifles, it isn't just schools that we have to harden if that is going to be our next move in trying to stop these tragedies.  

That's the Luby's in Killeen Texas.  Maybe this second photo will be more familiar:

That's the truck that 35 year old George Hennard drove through the plate glass window at this particular Luby's before getting out and using two handguns to kill 23 people.  Ten of them were killed with single shots to the head.  Another 27 of the roughly 140 people present were wounded.

So do we harden all restaurants in addition to all schools?  Will that work?

That's the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.  Maybe this second photo will be more familiar:

Or this photo of some of the 26 people who were killed in this church:

So if we follow the twisted pretzel of logic offered by Mr. LaPierre, we have to harden every single public place in our nation and that will prevent mass shootings.  

Welcome to Food Hood, near Killeen Texas.  

That is then Army Major Nidal Hassan, a psychiatrist who killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others at Fort Hood in 2009.  He is currently awaiting execution on the military's Death Row at the United States Disciplinary Barracks.

Fort Hood is home to tens of thousands of military personnel with access to firearms.  No good guy with a gun prevented the murder of over a dozen people.  In fact, a civilian base police officer named Kimberly Munley engaged Hassan in a gun battle and he shot her three times.  Fortunately, her partner, Mark Todd did better and managed to shoot Hasan.  Otherwise there is no telling how many people he might have murdered.

Did the lessons of this shooting lead to safer conditions on Fort Hood?  

At Fort Hood, about 4.5 years after the Hasan shootings, Army Specialist Ivan Lopez shot and killed 3 other soldiers before taking his own life.  He bought his gun at the same store where Nidal Hassan had bought the gun used in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood.  

I guess even the most hardened targets are vulnerable, aren't they Mr. LaPierre?

* * *

Arming teachers is not the answer either.  A Rand Study showed that highly trained NYPD officers hit their targets only 18% of the time when being fired at by a suspect.  

In a well-lit indoor range, or on a sunny day at an outdoor range, shooting at 25 yards with a handgun, I could shoot expert over and over during my Air Force days.

That is the Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksmanship ribbon.  Mine had a service star to indicate I had shot expert with more than one weapon.  But shooting on the range isn't the same as when someone is shooting back.

When would teachers have time to receive the training needed to even begin to confront armed intruders?  The answer is never.  There is barely enough time to do the work they are required to do in terms of lesson planning, curriculum development, professional development and everything else we ask of our teachers.  

NRA.  No Real Answers.