Believe it or not, the CNN Townhall appearance where spokesperson Dana Loesch attacked a sheriff, sneered at grieving parents, and dismissed the concerns of students was the NRA on it’s best behavior. On Thursday, both Loesch and NRA vice-president Wayne LaPierre made their annual pilgrimage to CPAC where they could bask in the approval of those willing to join them in valuing guns over children.
That’s where Loesch unleashed a line she was surely aching to fire off at the CNN town hall.
"Many in legacy media love mass shootings. You guys love it," Dana Loesch said. "Now I'm not saying that you love the tragedy. But I am saying that you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold to you and many in the legacy media in the back (of the room)."
Yes. Everyone in the media is grateful for dead white kids. But in case the first reference to race zipped past the audience, Loesch made sure to grind it in.
"And notice I said 'crying white mothers' because there are thousands of grieving black mothers in Chicago every weekend, and you don't see town halls for them, do you?" Loesch asked. "Where's the CNN town hall for Chicago? Where's the CNN town hall for sanctuary cities?"
Actually, 24 people have been killed in Chicago in the last month, about half of them black. Exactly one of them was under 18. So Loesch’s estimate of “thousands” per week is only off by … thousands.
But Loesch was just the warm-up act. Next up at the CPAC let your racist-flag-fly marathon was LaPierre. Who was there to explain that the only option was to send America’s children into a bunker out of Hilter’s last days … because “freedom.”
Before she left the stage, Loesch explained how she had to run for her life to escape the ravening maw of surviving students and grief-stricken parents over at CNN.
In her Thursday speech, Loesch claimed she needed private security to leave the town hall because "there were people rushing the stage and screaming 'burn her.'"
While it is good to know that some witch hunts are apparently capable of finding a real live witch, this claim might be surprising to those watching on television as Loesch left without the pursuit of a torch-wielding horde.
When LaPierre took the stage, the first two thirds of his speech had almost no mention of guns. Instead, he dedicated himself to talking about how Obama had led a “European-style socialist takeover” of the Democratic Party, and how American colleges were producing a generation steeped in hatred for “capitalism and the Constitution.” This section of his speech included Shocking Statistics, such as Karl Marx being the “most assigned economist” at American universities. Which is … completely believable. Because American universities teach an obscure discipline known as “history.”
He also singled out Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as examples of how socialist, anti-gun radicals were leading the country toward an “America we don’t recognize.” Which is a pretty good accomplishment for few people in a party that doesn’t control either the White House or either branch of Congress. He finished this prolonged attack on the hateful, corrupt, socialist Democrats with a final shot.
"Socialism is a movement that loves a smear.”
When LaPierre finally got around to talking about schools, he first blamed the death of students at schools not on guns or shooters, but on liberals.
"What they want is more restrictions on the law-abiding. They want to sweep right under the carpet the failure of school security."
Yes. That’s certain the headline from Florida: “17 Students and teachers murdered by poor planning from liberals.”
To describe his idea of good school security, LaPierre repeatedly used a term that is familiar from news reports of the start of the Iraq War.
“America’s schools are wide open soft targets … Schools must be the most hardened targets in this country."
America actually allows schools to be open, warm environments that are welcoming to children. But that’s clearly a mistake. LaPierre went on to compare the “hardening” of schools unfavorably to banks. Which he apparently pictures as peopled by armed guards, though that image belongs more to movies than reality. He offered up the idea that the NRA should conduct school security training—a service that they’ve bragged about for years, but which in the real world apparently happened a grand total of once. LaPierre finished his call for putting America’s children behind machine gun pits and barbed wire with a heartfelt plea. Speaking of the shootings at Sandy Hook, he said ...
"I wish, I wish more had headed my words. The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun."
Yes, Wayne LaPierre really did suggest that if the teachers at Newtown had been armed, those kids wouldn't have died. If only America had listened to him.
And exactly what was LaPierre saying before Newtown?
LaPierre has gone from pushing gun-free schools, to pushing arming teachers and “hardening” schools. When something next happens in the concrete bunker of a hardened school, you can expect the NRA to move on to “arm the students.” Because nothing stops a bad guy with a gun like dozens of children shooting wildly at everything.
The only actually entertaining thing about LaPierre’s speech was that he paused more frequently to wait for applause than Donald Trump at the State of the Union. But even at CPAC, a lot of those pauses were filled with silence.