“The PTA, a nonpartisan, largely nonpolitical child advocacy association with a diverse constituency, does not usually wade into debates over divisive political issues outside of education policy,” according to huffingtonpost.com. Except when they do. “With a strong Southern drawl, [National Parent Teacher Association president Betsy Landers] tells nearly 300 PTA leaders from around the country about three school safety policies they will ask their representatives in Congress to support on Capitol Hill the following day: a ban on assault weapons, a ban on high-capacity magazines, and comprehensive gun-purchase background checks.” You want to talk about a turncoat . . .
Not only is Ms. Landers a Republican from Arkansas but she’s also one of those “my family has always had guns” gun grabbers. To wit:
I grew up around guns and am comfortable with having a shotgun or a .22 in the house for hunting purposes. It’s that connection piece, followed by the education piece, that makes a good advocate . . .
Part of Landers’ effectiveness is understanding how to craft a message about guns that doesn’t alienate people in gun states. For instance, she carefully avoids the term “gun control.”
“It’s not a message about gun control,” Landers said. “It’s about protecting our children. In working with the administration, the message is about gun safety and violence prevention, with the violence prevention being, for me, the part we need to concentrate on. It’s about educating families and communities about how can we prevent a tragedy like Newtown from happening in our schools.”
I wonder how “education” would have saved the children, educators and administrators from Adam Lanza’s murderous spree. It’s a question PTA members might have asked since 1999, when the org first decided that gun control should be on their agenda.
Of course, political fixers like Landers—who trained under Bill Clinton (so to speak)—know how to manipulate the levers of power both inside and outside their cabal. They know that appealing to rational thought can’t hold a candle to emotional overload. They’re never afraid to turn out the lights of reason and fire-up that candle.
“Did [the Sandy Hook spree killing] strengthen my resolve? The resolve’s always been there, but it crystalized it even more,” Landers said. “I’ve watched those parents go through those things. Nobody should have to kiss their child goodbye and send them off to school never to see them again. And if banning assault weapons, making sure that everybody who buys a gun has a background check, if banning all those will keep even one child safe, then it’s worth doing all we can do to make sure that happens. And that’s not saying that my brother can’t go duck hunting next fall. Entirely different.”
Right, ’cause the Second Amendment is about duck hunting. Just ask PTA members in, say, Texas.
The majority of the HuffPo piece consists of a Q & A “edited and condensed for clarity,” from which the sound bites were drawn (also edited for “clarity” no doubt). In that bit, Landers does a Biden-esque job of conflating hunting, gun confiscation and tragedy. She even admits that she doesn’t like to discuss the subject rationally. Can you say FUD?
I try not to get into arguments over things like that. Everybody has closely held views, and people say, “Don’t take my guns.” As an advocate, my intent is not to take your guns. My intent is to protect children. No child in this country should have to go through what happened at Sandy Hook.
Like the AMA, the PTA should stay the hell away from the issue of civilian disarmament. Perhaps a quiet word in their ear? If so, please send a copy to [email protected].
Uh…a little late to the party, lady.
The PTA is one of the biggest reasons the school system is so messed up in the U.S. The PTA and the gov. need to get out of the schools so our children can get a proper education.
The PTA should serve as a counterweight yo the teacher’s unions and the school board. Insread, they have been co-opted and are part of the problem.
Yep. Absolutely.
1,000%
What he said.
Except the “P” stands for PARENTS. It’s just the wrong parents, apparently.
why doesnt she advocate something that improves the high school graduation rate in the inner cities (some places its sub 50%). I think that would do a heck of a lot more for keeping children safe by keeping them outta gangs.
Because focusing on more immediate problems involving children would make sense. Also a school that creates educated indaviduals who can think and speak for themselves, doesnt exactly put people in the world who vote for dictators
Dwb, that’d be too much durn work.. Take for example, the Detroit Public Schools, under an emergency manager and consistently graduating students in the single digit percentages that are ready for anything beyond, sucking down air and creating waste. Sadly, I see it cause I work in the area, but send my child to private school.
If they gave credit for gun range experience, weightlifting, and learning a trade, then a lot more boys would graduate. But we’re boring the heck out of them by making them sit in worthless classes inside all day. (The lack of parents is critical, too, but that’s harder to fix.)
Someone that ignorant should not be allowed near children
So how about teachers stay away from the gun control debate. If a teacher was carrying, that shooting spree would have been stopped short.
So they’re supposed to teach our kids to be smart. A gun free zone. Got mowed down by a mad man with a gun. Lets make it worse and ban anyone to have a gun and make sure it happens again because the teachers or the rest of the facilty wont be carrying. So lets make sure we have to wait another 10-15min for the police to arrive while a madman kills more people.
“The problem with the gene pool is; theres no lifeguard, and the stupid people are breeding…”
“The problem with the gene pool is; theres no lifeguard, and the stupid people are breeding…”
So, so true.
I prefer to say that “someone forgot to put chlorine in the gene pool”
Turn it around on these fools: “If allowing all adults who so choose to be armed would save just one child’s life, we must allow the teachers, admins, janitors, etc. to be armed…if it would save just one life.” And frankly, arming them is, in fact, more likely to save more than one life. Since reason won’t work on these morons, use the same emotional appeals: “If just one teacher had been armed and could’ve saved just one life…” and “My intent is not to make everyone carry a gun. My intent is to protect children.” In your face, gun grabbers!
A teacher with a gun stands a VERY good chance of saving more than one life. Take that spineless jerkoff at Sandy Hook….if he entered a classroom and got, at the very least, shot at by an armed teacher he would have either moved on thus saving all the kids in that classroom or popped himself shortly after just like all the other spineless shooters do when met with resistance.
I don’t have kids but if I did and if at all possible they’d be home schooled and if not I’d want their teachers to not only be armed but share a lane with me at the range every month. I know teachers aren’t exactly swimming in money so the ammo and lane charges would be on my dime. That’s my idea of PTA.
And you’re my idea of a good citizen. I hope you do have kids. We need more parents who teach their kids at home and look out for the community’s welfare.
Your response to this kind of tragedy depends on what you’re used to doing. The education organizations want to educate into peace or out of using guns…the legislators want to make laws restricting guns and people who use them…the gun people want to keep and expand the right to keep and bear arms for good…
Thing is, only one of those responses has any real potential to actually save children.
“If it saves one child…”
These measures would not have saved even one of the children of past massacres. It is not azbout saving children.
Like everything else in the great state of Arkansas, she’s a little slow on the uptake. Anybody out there seen the new movie Star Wars yet? We all went to the premier last night.
Are teachers going to get BlasTech DL-44’s? Or maybe DLT-19’s?
But the power packs can’t hold a charge for more than 7 blasts.
Now that’s funny right there! You almost owed me a mouthful of beer but I manged to keep it under control.
If we can save one child by making millions of adults huff Zyklon-B and die, it would be worth it.
Stupid libtards.
Why bother most school organization are pro-fascist and want to kill the 1A also. Remember they ban kids from praying in schools ignore fascist scum like the pta.
1) Ban Facebook then lady. Facebook leads to bullying and bullying leads to suicides. So ban it, for if it saves but one life it’s worth it.
2) The whole “I’m not anti-2A, I grew up shootin’ ducks with my pappy!” card has replaced the “I’m not racist, I have a black friend!” card as the most damning defense used by said guilty parties.
Oh yeah, THIS is why I don’t want to have kids. Because eventually I surrender them over to 12+ years of a broken education system with nimrods like this one at the helm.
Lady, I don’t give a tin shit about your brother’s duck hunting. The fact that you would even mention that in the same sentence as a school shooting should be all the proof you need you’re way out of your damn depth here.
And this is one more reason why we educate our children ourselves. It’s better for everyone.
Landers is a “Fudd” – one of those disingenuous gun owners who believes that no respectable patriot should ever own one of those new-fangled “black plastic guns”. If the magazine holds more than 5 rounds, it’s semi-auto, and there’s no wood or fancy metal scrollwork on it, they don’t consider it a legitimate firearm. Because of their superiority complex, they will gladly put Glocks and ARs on the legislative chopping block at the drop of a hat. There’s a reason that some “sporting arms” groups support gun control – they don’t want poor people with their sub-$2000 firearms interrupting their dove season wank sessions.
thats funny you say that. everyone i know that is a typical fudd always talks about keeping “cheap guns off the street”.
This point is idiotic for a number of reasons, including the obvious importance of ALL human beings being able to defend themselves and not just the wealthy.
Go here for a list of directors you can email: http://www.pta.org/about/content.cfm?ItemNumber=948
I emailed the Executive Director ([email protected]) and the Deputy Executive Director for Government Affairs and Communications ([email protected]), and copied the Senior Education Policy Strategist ([email protected]) and the Director of Strategic Communications ([email protected]). Naturally, I also blind copied [email protected], as requested.
I could not locate the email of Betsy Landers, the woman who has been speaking about gun policy on behalf of the National PTA.
As many Southerners often say, “Bless her heart.” Which is code for she is to stupid to know any better and needs to go to Hell. Time to key up Harper Valley P.T.A.. Nuff said.
My response when told “Bless your heart” is “Fvck you, too!”
Winston Churchill is known for having provided clear warnings about the dangers of Nazi Germany many years before WW2 began. Churchill also gave warnings in the late ’40s or early ’50s about the rise of the women’s movement leading to the spreading of other liberal causes and values in society. He referred to the women’s movement as the tip of the spearhead.
I’m with you APTFan. Not only should the teachers be able to defend their young charges but there should be a couple of kids that could pick up the teacher’s pistol and finish the job at hand should she become disabled during the confrontation.
I write this hoping it will show up in the correct spot below APBTFan’s comments starting with: “A teacher with a gun stands a VERY good chance of saving more than one life.” However, I haven’t been seeing that happen lately with my posts.
My posts have been going wonky tonight too.
In the old days at least 2/3’s of the class could pick up the gun and use it. Hell, in the old days boys would keep their .22’s and .410’s in the back corner of the class so they could go squirrel or rabbit hunting on the way home. Nowadays? It’d be a miracle to have one kid that could use one. Kids nowadays are brought up to be cowering victims.
Yes. More precisely, boys are brought up to be girls. Christina Hoff Sommers wrote a good book on this, The War against Boys. Here’s a taste: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/05/the-war-against-boys/304659/.
She’s a Republican?
Yeah, right!
Republicans pander for votes just like democrats. Perhaps even more so right now. Look no further than the announcement yesterday that the national republican party wants to “rebrand”. Read that as “pander”, and I fully expect the national party to fail in its current state. The Tea Party will either take over or split.
So true! All the anti-second amendment legislation currently being pushed by republicans!!! Hell yes she is a republican! Just like most members of teachers unions.
Both parties will sell you & your rights up the river if it means securing more votes from the bleating masses crying, “somebody do something!” No matter if they have a D or an R in front of their name, it is prudent to assume they are an aspiring tyrant until proven otherwise. Bureaucratic power attracts those with pathological personalities.
Boy, ain’t that the truth.
That’s not going to stop anybody that has murder on their mind, they will get a gun some where.
PETA, PITA, PTA whats the difference, two are psychotic pains in the butt and 1 is a bread!
My wife & I were PTA members since our son started school in 1999. Every year, we both “joined” & paid the dues. Our daughter is still in high school, she’s got 2 years left. You may safely assume we will NOT be giving the PTA any more money.
Quote: “And if banning assault weapons, making sure that everybody who buys a gun has a background check, if banning all those will keep even one child safe, then it’s worth doing all we can do to make sure that happens.”
What an unfortunate and shameful position to take on gun control. What if, in your efforts to save that ONE CHILD, hundreds more are put in harm’s way because they and their parents were disarmed and prohibited to defend themselves?
This whole “national debate” is a disaster.
This is what happens when soccer moms rule the world.
This is what happens when women (soccer moms and otherwise) have any say in politics. You’ll notice that increases in the size & scope of bureaucratic power have become greater after the passage of the 19th Amendment.
Before anyone points out token conservative/libertarian females, let me just say this: “The exception does not invalidate the rule.”
My life is filled with conservative women, and their input is valuable. I strongly disagree with your idea that women in politics is the harbinger of entitlement programs, etc.
The 19th amendment seems like a “symptom” and not the cause –, I’d say it’s not women, per se, but rather the progressive mentality of “change” and inclusion and equality/”fairness” for all.
This is an old article but new information to me and my local school, located in Texas. I found out after I was elected to the board. I went online to do training and low and behold… I was dumbfounded. The PTA shouldn’t be involved in any politics, in my opinion, but certainly not something outside of the classroom. I immediately brought it to the attention of the President, who immediately brought it to the attention of the rest of the PTA board. We then spoke to the school board. Not one person knew the PTA was a lobbying group with polarizing political ideas and resolutions. We all assumed it was a group to help groups organize within the school for things like fundraisers and keep taxes in check. Whats most concerning is while I was a member of the PTA, my name was used a supporter when they lobbied in Washington and in the State Capital! My name used as a supporter for gun control and several other polarizing political ideas! GAG! Our school quickly decided it was time to cut ties with the PTA and now our school has a PTO, which is non political. I wonder how many people belong to the PTA and haven’t a clue what their money and name is being used for?