Posted on 02/17/2018 5:42:34 PM PST by Kaslin
ince the Florida school shooting happened in an election year, liberals have been working valiantly to somehow tie the National Rifle Association to the tragedy. This isn’t a new phenomenon, but some of them seemed to think they’d struck gold when they found out about a marksmanship program operated at the school which the shooter previously belonged to. It turns out that the program received a grant to partially fund it from the NRA, leading to some hot take headlines which are melting down laptop and phone screens today. These include, “Nikolas Cruz was reportedly on an NRA-funded rifle team in high school” along with “The Florida gunman’s classmates just revealed the NRA paid for his marksmanship training.” Perhaps my favorite was, “Florida Shooter Competed On NRA Marksmanship Team.”
And the tweets… oh, boy, were there tweets.
The NRA donated $10,000 to help train the Parkland shooting suspect to use a rifle https://t.co/pilyHhWS0q pic.twitter.com/tk0ZLwsCnh
— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) February 17, 2018
That’s really amazing. What was the NRA doing hanging around at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School? Well… it turns out they weren’t. Those headlines are a bit more overblown than the way the Associated Press describes the situation, which is at least a bit more honest. The “rifle team” in question was actually a marksmanship program. And it wasn’t run by the NRA, but by the Army Junior ROTC. And the “rifles” were air-powered pellet guns. They did, however, receive a grant to operate the program and purchase equipment.
The troubled teen authorities say killed 17 people at a Florida high school excelled in an air-rifle marksmanship program supported by a grant from the National Rifle Association Foundation, part of a multimillion-dollar effort by the gun group to support youth shooting clubs and other programs.
Nikolas Cruz, 19, was wearing a maroon shirt with the logo from the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when he was arrested Wednesday shortly after the shooting. Former JROTC cadets told The Associated Press that Cruz was a member of the small varsity marksmanship team that trained together after class and traveled to other area schools to compete.
The honest description would have been to say that the Army was running a training program, but I suppose that doesn’t make for as good of a fundraising letter. Getting these programs off the ground isn’t cheap, however, so they accepted a grant from the NRA, just as hundreds of schools across thirty states do every year. The NRA also offers grants to local gun clubs, Boy Scout troops and churches. One of their educational outreach programs where they actually do go to schools is for safety training, where Eddie Eagle helps teach younger children to never touch guns without parental supervision and to “run away” from them to avoid danger.
At Marjory Stoneman Douglas they used the NRA funds to supplement the small amount of money the JROTC gets from the U.S. Army. They used the NRA grant to purchase things such as safety glasses and Kevlar curtains. And just to stress this again, they use air rifles, similar to the ones you see the Olympic athletes firing in the biathlon.
So this isn’t “an NRA program.” And the NRA didn’t “train the shooter.” But don’t let a little thing like facts stand in your way when you’re trying to do some fundraising.
These lies make me wish I had more money to donate to the NRA.
I am unaware of a mass shooter that is a member of the NRA
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I've not seen it.
It kind of goes against EVERYTHING the NRA stands for.
They are a relatively small organization in the grand scheme.
For instance, unions spend BILLIONS of dollars every election cycle supporting leftists.
Yet somehow, the NRA with its millions "controls" everything.
Frustrating. It will be hard to get the truth out. Right now everyone is thinking emotion. Maybe in a few months, the NRA can get out there on camera and explain the program.
Safety on, pump twice, load BB, safety off, aim, pull trigger. Repeat 30 times per minute. Yep, an assault BB gun
Best reply. Thanks. I’ll be stealing that one!
3rd worlders with backgrounds that may have included weapons training, soldiering, guerilla fighting, war, cartel membership, and gang membership have come and are coming in by the 10s of 1000s. These people may have already killed and at very young ages.
There is also Beslan. People would do well to research what determined people will do to a school to make a point. The 900 yard rule on school evacuations in the US came about as a result of Beslan.
The way this country is going, we would do well to adopt the Israeli model. The question is whom do we trust to guard our schools.
The discussion and arguments about who gets to own a gun are not the correct ones to have. The discussion is really about what keeps a school safe. Someone with a gun is actually a minor situation, however lethal.
Not that many years ago, pick ups with rifles and shotguns in the back windows of school parking lots were common, both for students and teachers. Not everyone in a school at any given time is completely tethered to sanity, especially in high school.
This case is a prime example. The school, students, teachers, sheriff, and FIB KNEW this guy. He’d already been found with ammo in a backpack and had been on his 3rd high school.
All here know that the idea that a SIGN will keep someone bent on destruction from perpetrating something heinous is wildly naïve, as well as dangerously and willfully blind. You get a bead on someone’s character and go with what you can do at that time. We can’t wear rose-colored glasses anymore, nor can we re-fight legislative battles that are actually from another century.
Feel free, friend.
One Team, One Fight.
The time frame of the fire drill and the students/faculty re-entry afterwards was the opportunity. Accountability and situational awareness was lost. Easy for me to arm chair knowing very little about the environment where the school evacuates but he blended in with backpack and arms. Should he have been seen? Who knows?
Partition it if possible.
My favorite comment on this thread.
Although Ritalin was invented by CIBA, (now Novartis).
I'm not sure what similar drugs are sold by those you named.
I’m sure Nikolas Cruz took the NRA course “How to shoot up a school.” Sarcasm, of course, but this is exactly how Liberals think.
That’s right.
Do you remember that Dem congresswoman who said tracers were “heat seeking bullets”?
If he was “trained by the NRA”, he must have slept through every class.
I hear you...when these things happen, I usually send a contribution online to the NRA-ILA (I believe the NRA-ILA is better than NRA for this) and to the Second Amendment Foundation). I cannot afford too much but every little bit helps.
Hey liberals, news flash: Most cops are trained by the NRA.
Delving deeply into the matter; NRA officials have pointed out numerous times how shooters are TRAINED by the Leftist drivel has been pounded into them during their formative stages.
Cruz learned his lawlessness by absorbing the messages of progressive politicians.
I had to buy mine outright at the sporting goods store!!
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