As NRA spokescreature Wayne Lapierre was blaming parents video games on the deaths of the Newtown children, and calling for a police state, with armed guards at all schools, Code Pink disrupted the talk repeatedly. Code pinkers Tighe Barry and then Medea Benjamin brilliantly exploited a very high visibility media opportunity. They unfurled signs and shouted "NRA kills children as Wayne Lapierre was speaking to a press conference viewed by millions.
photos by rob kall from MSNBC video.
Lapierre calls for hiring police, firemen, etc. so an armed guard is posted at every school in America. He describes it as a "program" that the NRA will provide training for.
Two days before the NRA press conference, I asked Wendell Potter, author of DEADLY SPIN and former PR person for CIGNA, a few questions:
Just curious what your take is on how the NRA has been preparing for making their response to the Newtown Tragedy.
What goals will they have.
What kind of people will they hire?
They've said they're going to offer ways to prevent this from happening again.
Wendell responded:
" They will hire a PR firm like Edelman or APCO to develop talking points to make people think they're now good guys. They'll say something like they have always supported efforts to reduce violence and senseless killing. So the messaging will be like that. That will be their public stance. But they will be working behind the scenes to shape or kill legislation. Count on it. "
It looks like they've gone even further, parasitizing this tragedy to push for militarization of schools, making the US more of a police state than it already is.
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