A day after the Parkland Shooting, the CEO of the National Rifle Association (NRA), Wayne LaPierre, has already turned this tragedy into a way to pit the american people against one another. In his statement, LaPierre began to slander democrats, claiming that they hate individual freedoms, hate the second amendment, and that they are trying to push their socialist agenda. However, what he failed to mention is that he represents a gun lobby that consistently ignores the bigger problem we have at hand: arming people with guns and assault weapons. Although many people disagree, there is no reason any civilian needs to have either a gun or assault weapon. The fact of the matter is this, guns have the ability to kill. Killing people is immoral and wrong whether you see them as a threat or not, you do not and should not have the right or ability to end someone’s life.

Although this may seem shocking to some, this is not out of character for LaPierre. He has previously spoken out against a ban on all assault rifles and universal background checks. He has also spoken out against a ban on semi-automatic weapons in recent years. However, LaPierre didn’t always have these viewpoints. In 1999, after the Columbine shooting, he didn’t support any guns in schools with the rare exception of law enforcement. However, almost twenty years later he has changed his viewpoints to support even arming teachers in order to protect students. Instead of facing the problem of gun violence and attempting to eliminate it, LaPierre and Donald Trump have supported arming more people with a deadly weapon.