Protect Kids, Not Guns

Shannon Limbach

SL668021@Ohio.Edu

Today I Marched

I went to a park today. I walked in silence among 300 strangers as I held a sign that read Protect Kids, Not Guns. We listened to speeches and grieved together as the names of the victims of the latest mass shootings were read aloud. 

                                   

When I was in elementary school, my greatest fear was not for myself but for the awkward kid who was consistently picked last for the recess kickball team. When it was my turn to be captain, I always picked him first. The traditional fire-drill was a once a month occurrence at the school and four times a year we had our regular California earthquake drill. We did not have active shooter drills. It was unheard of. 

1999

My daughter was two years old the day of the Columbine shooting. One of the high school students murdered that day was Lauren Townsend. Lauren was a valedictorian nominee. A member of the honor society. Captain of the volleyball team. 

9 News

I think about her often. She most likely would have her own little ones running around as grandma and grandpa doted on their grandchildren. But gun violence ended her life and so many others who were killed that day. 

My Daughter's Name is Lauren

I have never met the Townsend family but I made a secret promise to the them. I promised I would raise my daughter, Lauren, to be kind, spirited, academic, and a leader, just as their Lauren was before her life was tragically cut short. I feel so lucky. My daughter has grown into an accomplished young woman. 

My daughter's school years were much different than mine. Of course there was the traditional fire-drills and earthquake drills and now K-12 lockdown shooter drills. Once she entered middle school, there were self defense assemblies, which coincided with the lockdown shooter drills. The flyer sent home with the kids went as follows:

Step one: report any strange sound

Step two: If you hear active shooter alarm, barricade yourself in classroom, lock all doors

Step three: pile desks in front of entrance

Step four: hide

Step five: if shooter is in classroom, fight back if possible

Step six: if shooter is on other side of campus, escape by foot to nearest neighborhood

Step seven: don't wear bright colors to school, it makes you an easy target when running

 

NRA Public Relations  

The National Rifle Associations Convention was to take place a few days after the Columbine mass murders and only a few miles from the killings. Twenty years after that eventful day, National Public Radio received a recorded audio of a meeting that took place a day after Columbine with the NRA and their public relations firm. They huddled in distress, not over the loss of life, but for the negative press that would be coming their way. Columbine was a defining moment for the NRA. 

Over the next two decades, this unapologetic message would come to define the NRA's tone in the wake of mass shootings at American schools. After 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech in 2007  :  "This is a time for people to grieve, to mourn, and to heal. This is not a time for political discussions or public policy debates." After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School: "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." And after the 2018 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, the NRA's spokesperson said bluntly, "Many in legacy media love mass shootings."

The Perfect Spin

Corporate news is big business. The National Rifle Association is a 501 C4 tax exempt "non-profit" and a helluva big business. They have their own in-house public relations firm and a willing Congress to project the NRA talking points. In referencing the Financial Times article, The Invasion of Corporate News, The lines between journalism and PR are rapidly becoming blurred as business interest bypass traditional media to get their message across. The public relations tapes revealed by NPR showed an interesting connection to corporate news, messaging, and Congress. As noted in the NPR piece:  "We got a call from Congressman Tancredo, who is ... as good as they get, and he's nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof," says baker. La Pierre claims that Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla., had secretly asked him for talking points to use after the shooting. "I was talking to Nickles' office this morning, and what they told me is they're planning on sending them all to schools because what they wanted us to do was secretly provide them with talking pints." 

And here we go ......... the National Rifle Association public relations firms sends talking points to members of Congress. These pro-NRA members of Congress are interviewed and or quoted by every local and national paper, and it costs them nothing. 

A Master Class in Deception

October 1, 2017 - 58 Dead. An assault rifle was used to massacre 58 people enjoying a concert in Las Vegas. 500 people were injured. The NRA was praised for their "action on gun safety". 

In the article what The NRA can teach us about the art of public persuasion, "Whatever you think of the national Rifle Association you have to give them credit for some highly effective issue management. In the wake of the shooting rampage in Las Vegas, they could have dusted off their usual response after every previous mass shooting. But instead, the public relations at the NRA came up with an audacious new approach - they called for a review of the so-called bump stocks, which are devices retrofitted to turn a legal semi-automatic weapon into an illegal automatic killing machine. In issue management terms, the NRA's strategy was a classic case of "look over here" while maintaining its devotion to its core objectives."

"By seeming to give away something that is peripheral to the gun rights issue, the NRA implemented a perfect example of the tried and true "issue diversion tactic". In doing so, it positioned itself as part of the solution, rather than as a key part of they problem." 

BUMP STOCKS

Once again, the press ate it up faster than the slaughter of 58 people.

ABC News 

Sputnik

OC Register

The World Today

Life is Beautiful 

In late September 2017, my Lauren was in Las Vegas at the Life is Beautiful festival. The Vegas shooter booked a room overlooking the event. It was not clear if he aborted plans to carry out massacres at those sites.  

Today we marched.