Ft Worth, Tx December 2019 – A gun-wielding man with a long history of arrests, violence and mental health issues was allowed to have a gun. He took it to the White Settlement church in Ft Worth, and opened fire. He murdered two people before an on-site, trained firearms expert in turn shot him dead. The open space of the church made it easy for the shooter to quickly be identified and shot.
This is a tragedy; the man should never have had a gun and two innocent people are dead. Yet the NRA is attempting falsely to claim this one isolated incident shows a ‘good guy with a gun’ stops gun violence.
Disappointingly even some left-leaning press such as The Guardian are repeating the NRA line. In its piece ‘Texas Shooting details supercharge NRA’s good guy with a gun defense’ it ignores the times when good guys kill or wound other good guys, and it ignores the NRA’s Russian money scandal, its forever-compromised position and its former spokespeople’s calls for journalists and Democrats to be killed (Loesch and Nugent made these calls). This tragedy in no way ‘supercharges’ the NRA’s twisted logic.
We will remind the NRA of a few of the many people killed by ‘good guys with guns’ who should still be alive today.
ACTION:
Please contact The NRA through one of the channels below and give them the following message, personalized to your liking:
It is absolutely disgusting and twisted that the NRA wants to use the deaths of two churchgoers to falsely claim ‘a good guy with a gun’ stops gun violence.
Two people are dead, yet the NRA wants to score points. What it doesn’t want is you to think on the scores of people killed or injured by ‘good guys with guns’ – an insane phrase invented by discredited Wayne LaPierre. The NRA is a Russian Asset according to a Senate sub-committee which highlighted NRA courtship of Russian spies, the NRA’s use of Russian millions to lobby, and its involvement in Russia’s interference with the 2016 elections. Why would anyone listen to the NRA?
For those who need a reminder of the realities:
- Good guy with a gun killed: Thanksgiving 2018, Emantic Bradford was shot and killed while acting as the ‘good guy with the gun’. He was protecting shoppers from a shooter when an off-duty police officer shot him dead.
- Good guy with a gun killed: November 2018, Jemel Roberson, a 26-year-old security guard who was black, was shot and killed by a white police officer. Mr Robinson was wearing a hat that said ‘Security’ when he was killed.
- Atatiana Jefferson, a pre-med student, was shot dead by a policeman while she was in her Texas home: the police had been called to do a simple welfare check, but it ended with a ‘good guy with a gun’ killing an unarmed, innocent woman.
- A teen fleeing an active shooter at a Colorado high school was shot and seriously injured when ‘good guy’ security guard shot him: the guard did not have permission to be armed, and seems to have shot at other guards too.
NRA, I call you out on your propaganda, especially as you ignore the deaths of innocent people when it suits you. The sooner you lose your tax-exempt status and are further investigated for your collusion with Russia and financial improprieties, the better off we will all be. It could not be any plainer: people are being killed because of your propaganda. We do not have a well-regulated militia – we have carnage because of your organisation and it has to stop.
Ft Worth proves that we need more controls on who can own guns, and it proves again that America has a serious gun crime epidemic which saw 41,000 people shot last year.
OR – a short message suitable for Twitter: Good guys with guns get killed: every time that happens, the NRA remains silent. Ft Worth only proved it is too easy for the violent or mentally ill to get guns. One Pulse for America sends condolences to those impacted.
(If you use Twitter, you will happily see many people already taking the NRA to task, including Ladd).
Phone: 800 672 3888
Email: https://contact.nra.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NRA/ (NB they block posts, may block comments too)
Twitter: Please respond to their tweet (pictured below) by clicking here https://twitter.com/NRA/status/1211424077837156353
Once you have made contact, fill out the three fields below and click the orange banner to report taking action!
A gunman open-fired at a White Settlement, Texas church, and within 3 seconds, a good guy with a gun stopped him. This was possible due to critical changes to Texas law in 2017. https://t.co/pE2gRPWh9b
— NRA (@NRA) December 29, 2019