In what could possibly be the worst organizational PR campaign since Westboro Baptist Church began picketing funerals, a coalition of pro-gun groups are planning to turn the Sandy Hook Massacre into a “Guns Save Lives” day, celebrating how awesome they think guns are. The planned celebration of guns is being spearheaded by Alan Gottlieb head of the Second Amendment Foundation who states:
?”We are going to use the day to get our views out. We don’t want (pro gun-control groups to) own that day. … We are gonna be there first.”
Well, what he lacks in sensitivity, he makes up for in self-centered audacity at least. Maybe, somebody should remind Mr. Gottlieb, that gun users already own that day in a tragic way. An armed man was responsible for murdering his mother and killing twenty young children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School on that fateful day.
Not only is the plan to dub the Sandy Hook anniversary “Guns Save Lives” day insensitive, but it also completely misses what should be one of the critical lessons learned from the tragedy. As The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence’s Communications Director Ladd Everitt notes:
“The Second Amendment Foundation has failed to learn the central lesson of the tragedy, because no one bought into the ‘Gun(s) Save Lives’ myth more than Nancy Lanza. Her home was a virtual arsenal, with guns and ammunition everywhere, including in Adam’s bedroom.?
Nancy Lanza had guns everywhere to protect her in case she needed one to save her life. Instead, one of her firearms was used against her, and after she was killed, her son then proceeded to embark upon a shooting spree with those guns, that were supposed to have been used to save her life.
The pro-gun people also seem to be off in their message here. For years, they have argued that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” since guns, being inanimate objects, are not able to kill people by themselves. However, the message “guns save lives” seems to endow guns with the quality to save lives. Guns,as inanimate objects, don’t kill people but they save lives? No, guns do not save lives, people save lives, and as Antoinette Tuff demonstrated when she prevented a potential massacre in Georgia, you do not need a gun to save lives.
Sure, firearms have legitimate uses and can be of value in some situations, but we need not glorify them on the anniversary of a tragedy that was perpetuated with guns. To do so is incredibly insensitive. Nobody would imagine hosting a Pressure Cooker Appreciation Day on the anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombing to remind people of the legal uses and benefits of pressure cookers. Yet, today’s American gun cultists, as exemplified by Alan Gottlieb’s Second Amendment Foundation, do not have the common decency to let the victims of Sandy Hook commemorate the tragic anniversary in peace, without politicizing it as just another opportunity to promote guns.
Edited/Published by: SB
