The National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre bad-mouthed Brooklyn and now local lawmakers are calling him out for it. LaPierre inaccurately painted Brooklyn as some kind of Thunderdome in the wake of super storm Sandy:
No wonder Americans are buying guns in record numbers right now, while they still can and before their choice about which firearm is right for their family is taken away forever.
After Hurricane Sandy, we saw the hellish world that the gun prohibitionists see as their utopia. Looters ran wild in south Brooklyn. There was no food, water or electricity. And if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark, or you might not get home at all.
We’re not sure which Brooklyn LaPierre is imagining here. The LATimes posted a great piece comparing crime rates in the week right after Sandy hit. The NYPD claims major crimes were either flat or even dropped after the storm knocked out the power. Brooklyn was actually the opposite of a “hellish world” where people wished they could have guns.
In reality, thousands of Brooklynites demonstrated patience, a sense of community and a powerful work ethic as they waited in long lines to board buses to get to work right after the storm. There were no fights and nobody needed a gun. Thousands of people waited peacefully to get to work.
Brooklynites peacefully waited in long lines when gasoline supplies ran short.
Volunteers donated food and water for people in need all over Brooklyn. No one needed a gun.
Restaurants opened their doors to feed families. Again, no one needed to loot anything. Neighbors helped neighbors. Wayne LaPierre proves once again the vast philosophical divide between real people and the fear-driven doomsday “prepper” types who underestimate their fellow Americans in a time of crisis.
President Obama toured some of the worst storm damage in New Jersey and just one month later, his comments about the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary are a perfect counterpoint to LaPierre’s fear-mongering:
“It comes as a shock at a certain point where you realize no matter how much you love these kids, you can’t do it by yourself, that this job of keeping our children safe and teaching them well is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, the help of a community and the help of a nation.
And in that way we come to realize that we bear responsibility for every child, because we’re counting on everybody else to help look after ours, that we’re all parents, that they are all our children.”
Wayne LaPierre may have to defend his bizarre comments about Brooklyn to the lawmakers who live there. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (NY-8) wrote a letter to LaPierre calling his comments “brazenly unsubstantiated,” “baseless,” and “careless.” Congressman Jeffries wants LaPierre to publicly apologize.
Brooklyn’s Borough President Marty Markowitz is going a step further. Markowitz wants LaPierre to come to Brooklyn for a visit. Markowitz told the NY Daily News:
“He’s [LaPierre’s] never been here. Before he shoots his mouth off — and I pray that’s all he’d shoot — he’d better come see the place.”
Markowitz added: “I’d like to take him to Luna Park, to the Sling Shot. It’s the only weapon I want him near.”
Jen Brockman