<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Yes, V-Peeps . . .</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">An op/ed in the Daily News to which I actually agree and it isn't written by the INKster (the liberal conscience of the Daily News).</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Now, put down those smelling salts and read on.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of the Opinion section of today's (December 22, 2012) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</div><div><iframe src="http://stats-newyork1.bloxcms.com/dnews.com/?title=How%20many%20need%20to%20die%20for%20the%20NRA%20to%20come%20around%3F%20-%20Moscow-Pullman%20Daily%20News%3A%20Opinion%3A%20our%20view%2C%20devin%20rokyta%2C%20nra%2C&referrer=http%3A//dnews.com/opinion/article_e1869ff2-7b95-51bb-b53a-1af9b4e95031.html&domain=dnews.com&uri=/opinion/article_e1869ff2-7b95-51bb-b53a-1af9b4e95031.html%3Fmode%3Dprint" width="0" height="0" frameborder="0" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 0px; height: 0px; "></iframe><h1 style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; "><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">How many need to die for the NRA to come around?</span></font></h1><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; "><strong style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By Devin Rokyta</strong></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After a week of silence following the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, the National Rifle Association finally unveiled its grand idea for making the nation's schools safer and preventing yet another massacre: put armed police officers at every school.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We guess this is a better - although completely unfeasible - idea than the other popular notion flowing from the "arm em all" crowd of allowing teachers to carry handguns on school grounds. The problem is, according to the Department of Education, there are 98,817 public schools in the United States and an additional 33,366 private schools. Unless the NRA plans on chipping in a few bucks we're unsure of where the salaries of these extra 130,000 police officers will come from.</span></p><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Logic, however, seems to matter little to the NRA as it continues to tightly cling to its guns.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Many expected the group to soften its stance after last week's slaughter of 20 children by a man using a semi-automatic firearm and at least be open to some gun reform. The NRA, instead, sent out Wayne LaPierre, the group's chief executive officer, to deliver a 25-minute speech in which he passed blame on to video games, movies and music videos. Summing up his delusional rant, guns are the solution, not the problem. Yes, all the world needs is more guns.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," LaPierre said.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Well, Mr. LaPierre, have you considered making it more difficult for the bad guy to get a gun in the first place?</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Whether the NRA likes it or not, gun reform appears to be on the horizon - and it's far overdue.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Behind shifting public opinion (a CNN/ORC poll taken this week found 52 percent of Americans favor major restrictions on guns or making all guns illegal), President Barck Obama is demanding "real action, right now," and even members of Congress who have been unwilling to broach gun-control measures are now saying they'll consider such reforms.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Obama is seeking to reinstate an assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, and to pass legislation stopping people from purchasing firearms from private sellers without background checks. Limiting high-capacity firearms magazines is also on the table.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Everybody seems ready for a meaningful and factual conversation on gun control - minus the NRA, of course. How many more children need to die before the NRA finally comes around?</span></p></div></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div> </div></div></div></div></body></html>