I just read that in spite of (or rather because of, I suppose) recent tragedies, the NRA is to hold a Gun Appreciation Day on the very day set aside in America to celebrate the life and achievements of Martin Luther King. To a non-American, this is really quite astonishing.
This surely has to be tragi-farce at its most extreme. Black comedy is tasteless by its very nature, and that's usually OK. But when it displays a mind boggling insensitivity to those currently in deep mourning, it isn't OK.
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4 comments:
The NRA is getting move dangerous with every event that happens, i.e. their suggestion to have armed guards in children's schools. I am truly frightened that there are so many NRA enthusiasts out there.
I suppose the NRA is just the most visible manifestation of a more complex and insidious cultural problem, Wendy. Lets hope there will eventually be enough people like you to tip the balance.
This is horrible news. Oddly, what you've posted here is all i've heard of it.
I don't agree with a lot of what the NRA says or does, but i will say that it seems that armed guards at schools may not be a bad option. There was one posted at my high school after Columbine. There was an attempt of a school shooting very close to my home in 2010 that didn't get a lot of national attention, i guess because, fortunately none of the students were harmed. It was at Sullivan Central High school here in Kingsport. An armed man attempted to enter the school and an officer posted at the school, who also had her own gun, was able to keep him at bay until the local police arrived. The man was shot and killed in order to keep him from harming anyone else. When you have things like this happen closer to home it changes your perspective on it a bit.
Of course I have to be circumspect in what I say about armed guards in schools, since we in Britain are not habituated to the ubiquitous presence of guns, as you are in America. Even our regular police and routine security guards don't carry guns. There's no gun culture here except in gangland.
Whether having armed guards in schools would generally protect children, or whether it would further inflame the situation, is a matter for the experts to argue over. What I would say is that I would find the prospect of having somebody carrying a gun in school more chilling than reassuring. And it would surely be a damning indicator of the failure of American society to engage with the mores of modern society.
But maybe I'm seeing the whole thing from a European point of view. You might rightly argue that I just don't understand America.
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