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The NRA didn’t do itself any favors with its call for armed guards at every school in the nation in its belated response to the shooting rampage at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
The reaction of many Americans to this idea, including gun owners, hunters and sportsmen, is that it’s an unreasonable and unworkable non-solution to two American problems: guns that are too easy to acquire by people who are criminal or unstable, and mass shootings that occur all too often.
Notwithstanding the cost and logistics of turning every school into an armed camp is the fact that the NRA’s response rejects any notion that it is time for a meaningful discussion of gun regulation with topics such as expanded background checks for gun purchases, reinstatement of the ban on assault-weapon sales, limits on high-capacity magazines, interventions for mentally ill people and what to do about a culture that seems to glorify violence at every turn.
In a country that values and protects individual liberty it is impossible to completely control people bent on violence and mayhem, but it is important to seek out what can be done reasonably to make the next mass shooting spree less likely and less lethal.
But neither disarming the nation nor putting armed guards in every school is remotely possible. The NRA’s extreme position is not helpful or useful. Its leaders should take another look at the photos of the 20 first-graders and the six adults who died at the school and re-evaluate their blind opposition to any proposals they fear will impose limits on gun sales and ownership.
This most important conversation should not be put off until the memories of what happened in Newtown, Conn., have become dim. The NRA can decide to be a relevant part of it, or not.
This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
