BY RICHARD L. FRICKER

Although sad, something must be said about the way the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre wandered around the national media like a drunk at a car wreck blaming the bartender. It is as if the poor man had not a conscious idea of what happened in Newtown, CT. Or that there is public outrage at his organization’s ceaseless efforts to allow any type of ammunition, any change in nomenclature, any design – literally anything with the word “firearm” attached to it – to be allowed in public to prey on the bodies of the unknowing.

LaPierre is the guy at the bar telling the same punch line over and over and over again. And like the guy at the bar, does not understand everyone heard him the first time and is tiring of the repetition, that’s why they’re moving away.

One of the first things the NRA’s man misses is that most schools who can afford so have police or resource officers.

The second thing the NRA’s man fails to grasp is that these shootings, unlike the pretend world of movies and campaign fundraisers, happen fast. Ask anyone who has been in, near or the victim of a gunfight – there is not a lot of time for planning or posturing.

The NRA’s man talks as if he’s never been near the hostile discharge of firearms.

And then there is his own feeble attempt to turn the tables on the media, saying we are all protected by armed guards. Funny, we perhaps hire a driver that speaks the language in a foreign country, but armed guards, seldom, very seldom … we are after all, non-combatants.

Guns, we don’t need no stinking guns. We also get killed a lot in war zones, or Wichita, KS, where a photographer was killed years ago before he could get out of his car by a sniper, using one of LaPierre’s legal guns.

Retreating into the pub just once more, LaPierre is the guy that assumes everyone has been drinking for as long as he has, and as much. He hasn’t seen the wave of customers come and go, just as the NRA and their man LaPierre haven’t seen the change of generations and public attitude.

Politicians should begin considering dropping the NRA from their contributor lists. They may well find more respectable to list marijuana growers as donors than firearms people, certainly less dangerous.

In short, the NRA – and LaPierre, in particular – is behind the times. But the very nature of the beast will not allow it to bend or change. This inflexibility is going to cause a lot of problems for America.

The NRA has convinced millions of people by use of half-truths and the myth that someone is coming to get the firearm to which they are so richly entitled. One needs only think of the logistics involved to understand how sophomoric that sounds to a rational mind.

But, by promoting racial fear, class warfare, fear of the “other,” the NRA has managed to maintain a healthy membership roll and even healthier budget with which to purchase politicians who fear their perceived clout.

It is time for politicians and the American people to reclaim their Second Amendment rights. It is time to tell LaPierre and his unruly gang our rights are not for sale. It is time for politicians to say, “We can make our own laws, thank you very much, Mr. LaPierre.”

It is time to get the NRA and Wayne LaPierre into a self-help program.

– Richard L. Fricker lives in Tulsa, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer. His latest book, The Last Day of the War, is available at https://www.createspace.com/3804081 or at www.richardfricker.com.