“Like many tenuous protectively-named political initiatives (cf., the “Defense of Marriage Act”) the National School Shield Program would, if implemented, probably engender the diametric opposite of what its name suggests,” Vanity Fair‘s Julie Weiner pronounces in National Rifle Association’s “School Shield Program” Is Amazing April Fools’ Joke. Wait. “Probably”? Yup. ‘Cause the NRA is revealing details of its post-Newtown program to improve school safety tomorrow. It appears Ms. Weiner and/or her headline writer couldn’t be bothered to read the bill before passing judgement on it. To wit . . .
But how exactly is the N.R.A. ensuring schools are less safe? If you assumed “shield” was a euphemism for “gun,” then [fires three celebratory shots in the air, accidentally injures neighbor] congratulations! CNN reports that within the organization’s legislative proposal, “[l]aw enforcement officials will find training recommendations to prepare the armed guards who the organization believes should be available to schools. State and local officials will find guidelines on how to alter their ordinances to permit the armed guards.” No one will find anything that is remotely productive or persuasive or plausible.
No one that Ms. Weiner and her fellow champagne socialists clink glass with, she means. In fact, why would they even bother looking at it?
As one of TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia pointed out recently, it’s the disarmament industry’s intellectual dishonesty that really rankles. Well, that and everything else, obviously.