2012 will be remembered as a year of tragic shootings in the US. The murder of Trayvon Martin saw national mobilization against racial profiling and the NRA and ALEC-backed "Stand Your Ground" gun laws, with the Million Hoodie Marches and Skittles becoming potent memes. Mass shootings in Colorado, Wisconsin and Connecticut appalled the nation, and CODEPINK infiltrated NRA press conference to tell the world they are killing our kids.
NRA says: Stand your Ground
NRA "Stand your ground" is the bill police used to excuse the murder of Trayvon Martin, and it's no surprise that the FL lobby effort leads back to the NRA.
In a Washington post op-ed, writer E.J. Dionne Jr. quotes Mayor Bloomberg of New York City, “In reality, “the NRA’s leaders weren’t interested in public safety. They were interested in promoting a culture where people take the law into their own hands and face no consequences for it. Let’s call that by its real name: vigilantism.”
Million Hoodies March
NRA: Blood on your hands
The tragic mass shooting of school children in Newtown, CT has invigorated gun control conversations. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace reflects on her action at the NRA post-Newtown press conference. She held a banner that said, "NRA Blood on Your Hands" - and it made major headlines.
An hour after the national moment of silence for victims in Newton, the NRA proposes armed school guards. "The only think that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," says Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President and CEO of the NRA.
Nightline follows the story, including the way they NRA intimidates politicians.