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Old January 18, 2013, 01:02 PM   #51
tyme
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Join Date: October 13, 2001
Posts: 3,355
Quote:
The point of the NRA ad was not that all children deserve the same protection as the president. The point was the hypocrisy of those who push gun control for others while never having to be worried about their own security.
I think almost everyone with USSS protection would dispute your second point, that they don't worry about their own security. They get protection because their high profile renders them vulnerable to a different category of attacks, to which they are still not immune. It's only incidental that that security protects against most garden-variety criminal attacks.

I think one of the better arguments against panicked, emotional public policy reactions to school shootings is how rare the shootings are. By suggesting that school shootings are a reason for the average child or parent to be worried about school security, aren't you playing into the hand of the hyperemotional anti-gunners?

@bsstan, that's exactly the point the NPR commentators were making. This ad solidifies the NRA's base, and does nothing to win over people in the middle.

I agree that the liberal press doesn't get much criticism when they run emotion-laden, biased, stupid stories against guns in favor of gun bans, while the pro-gun groups get hammered if they're a fraction off-pitch. It's not fair, but it's reality.

I'm confused about what the NRA is trying to do. Obama just got re-elected, and we aren't even past the inauguration. What does the NRA think making people dislike Obama is going to do? Congress is 2 more years from their next election, and everyone will have forgotten this by then. Will this ad somehow convince fence-sitting Senators or Congresspeople to vote against Obama's proposals, which have nothing directly to do with school security?

Mentioning armed guards in schools, in passing, in an advertisement, and leaving listeners to imagine what that might entail, is bad, bad, bad. I think they needed to lay the groundwork, publish proposals, get people on the news talking about it so everyone forms a consensus about what kinds of school security might work and what won't, before using that issue as a lever in an attack ad like this.
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Last edited by tyme; January 18, 2013 at 01:26 PM.
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