NRA Lobbying post Sandy Hook

       There is going to be a lot of pressure inflicted upon the NRA after 20 children and six adults were shot in a mass shooting that occurred in Newtown, Connecticut. The NRA waited a month before returning to Capital Hill with intentions to lobby against any new gun laws that Congress was proposing. Sandy Hook Elementary School stimulated a large increase in the public support for stricter gun control laws. The tragedy caused Senators that were traditionally pro-gun to back broader background checks of firearm purchases. If there wasn't enough for the NRA lobbyists to deal with, a Wisconsin representative, Bob Welch, who was considered a lobbyist for pro-gun laws, spoke at an NRA meeting. He made remarks that were offensive towards the 26 families that were effected in the shooting when he said,

"We have a strong agenda coming up for next year [2013], but of course a lot of thats going to be delayed as the 'Connecticut effect' has to go through the process." 

       Welch's comment on the "Connecticut effect" was relying on the assumption that people will slowly forget about gun control laws as time goes on and other new overshadows the recent shooting. Assuming that people will actually forget shooting, it is at that point that the NRA will lobby against the new gun laws being established. They are pretty much waiting for all the heat to cool down a little bit so that they aren't going up against a nation. Welch referred to the shooting as a bump in the road for making gun laws restrictive. This comment began getting a lot of scrutiny, so much so that Senator Richard Blumenthal called for the NRA to "repudiate and reject" Bob Welch's statement. This is something that President David Keene was asked about and he replied by saying he isn't going to apologize for something he did not do. The NRA later released a statement assuring that Welch was not a NRA lobbyist.

       After that set back, LaPierre was faced with a lot of questions but held strong to his beliefs and continued his path on lobbying. Since there was a week a silence from the NRA's side after the shooting, people were hoping for a proposition that would appeal to both sides. Instead, LaPierre attacked the makers of violent videogames. This was a defense tactic to try and take all the blame off the NRA. He also scrutinized the media for doing a poor job on publicizing both sides of the battle. He felt that the media was "demonizing gun owners", making them out to be bad people. Such actions like creating a website that pin points the houses that gun owners reside at. This complaint about the media is not that erroneous because we have seen such behavior occur many times before. For example, when Hurricane Katrina came, the media barely covered the devastation, only reporting the alleged mass rapping's and criminal activity. All of which struck fear in to surrounding communities. Getting back to LaPierre, after he attacked the media and videogame makers, he turned his attention to a possible solution for massive gun shootings in school. He lobbied for something that he referred to as, "a good guy with a gun", in every school across the nation. This proposal came as a shock to all Democrats along with some Republicans, who seemed reluctant to back the new bill. This was however, the NRA's prime solution for school shootings though and are pushing to get it passed.

      The reason LaPierre took this approach rather then strengthen the current gun laws is because he doesn't believe that the current laws are working. He thinks that when people are turned down from purchasing a gun due to a background check, they should be prosecuted, instead of just being told no and letting them walk. He is referring to the criminals, drug dealer, and terror seekers who are not going to take no for an answer and instead obtain a gun illegally. Therefore, the only way to prepare for such people is to keep armed guards in the schools.

      Wayne LaPierre is not the only lobbyist fighting the new gun laws; David Keene is also on the fighting ground for the second amendment. He has helped organize oppositions against both bills that were passed in Colorado and Connecticut, as well as assembling large protests in Denver, CO and Hartford, CT. The laws that they were protesting were the bans on high capacity magazine and military style assault riffles. To go with the banning, they inflicted a stricter eligibility for buying ammunition and allocated for the funding of school safety.