Remember that flawed solution of the NRA to end school violence by putting more guns in schools? They found a way to profit, AND to sell more guns. By now, we should have expected that, nothing less, nothing better from the NRA.
from Mother Jones:
NRA Private Security Advocate Works for Private Security Company
Asa Hutchinson wants an armed guard in every school. That could be good news for his former lobbying clients at Securitas Inc.
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| Private security firm Securitastouts the effectiveness of Segway guards in educational settings. |
But there's something the LaPierre didn't mention: Hutchinson sits on the board of directors of Pinkerton Government Services, a subsidiary of one of the nation's largest private security contractors, Securitas. And if the NRA's—and Hutchinson's—proposals are enacted into law, Securitas, a firm Hutchinson once lobbied for in Washington, could stand to score big.
Hutchinson's private security connections were first reported by Sally Jo Sorensen of the progressive blog Bluestem Prairie. As Sorensen noted, Securitas paid Hutchinson and the firm he worked for, Venable LLC, $200,000 for lobbying services in 2006. (Hutchinson also lobbied on behalf of Point Blank Body Armor in 2007 and 2008.)
Over the last three weeks, Hutchinson has made an evolving case for LaPierre's agenda in a series of interviews and op-eds. After first suggesting that it might be possible to staff schools with armed volunteers, he offered a pricier proposal in an op-ed for the Arkansas Democrat–Gazette on Friday: "A part of this solution will be the increased presence of trained, armed and professional security officers in schools."
Schools shouldn't accept just anyone to keep watch, Hutchinson argued. "[N]ot every school can afford the costs, and not all armed officers are equally trained," he explained. "That is why it is so critical to create an effective federal, state and local sharing of costs, and, most importantly, to assure a high standard of training and certification. The training of armed personnel to protect our children should not be less than those who are trained to protect our airlines or even the president."
Hutchinson did not disclose his connections to the private security industry, but told Mother Jones his role with Pinkerton was in a regulatory advisory role. "I am not aware that PGS provides any school security services," he said in an email. "I have no connection to Securitas as I am a proxy board member under Department of Defense guidelines to assure that there is no foreign influence or control over PGS. There are some very specific legislative and regulatory requirements in reference to my work as a proxy board member."
Hutchinson is right about PGS. Bob Maydoney, a company spokesman, says the firm does not provide security for schools. Instead, Pinkerton Government Services specializes in security programs for government agencies and their contractors, offering, among other things, armed and unarmed security guards, EMTs, firefighters, and bicycle patrols.
But Pinkerton does have a Florida-based program, the Pinkerton Training School, developed "for the purpose of training security minded individuals and help them prepare to enter the field of professional security." Chris Reed, a spokesman for the academy, said the program is a necessary step for armed guards of all stripes. "Before you get that license you have to take a 40-hour class," he said. "We offer that class. And if we hear of any openings, we let them know."
A more likely candidate for a school safety contract, though, is Pinkerton's mother company, Securitas. According to Lynne Glovka, the firm provides security guards at "several hundred schools across the nation.” On its website, the company cites the need to prepare for "lockdown" situations.
"From weather emergencies and lockdown situations to bullying and violent assaults, educational institutions face a myriad of unique security threats," the company explains in a brochure. "And as school officials across the country well know, high-profile incidents can happen anytime, anywhere."
Glovka, who noted that armed security guards make up just a fraction of the firm's 90,000 employees in the United States, could not definitively say whether Securitas would be able to fill the kinds of positions outlined by Hutchinson: "There are lots of hypotheticals involved—state licensing requirements, contractual issues, etc."
Private security is a $66 billion industry in the United States. After LaPierre's December address, The Atlantic's Matt O'Brien estimated that putting armed guards in the 76,000 public schools that currently lack them would cost about $4 billion. Hutchinson offered a lower figure, between $2-$3 billion. Either way, that's a lot of cops—or a potential boon for private security providers and those who train them.
This isn't Hutchinson’s only connection to a private security firm. His consulting firm, the Hutchinson Group, has also done work for Xe Services, the reincarnation of the infamous private security firm, Blackwater.
Potential conflict of interest aside, there's also little evidence that armed guards are an effective deterrent to school shooters. Columbine High School had an armed guard in 1999 when two shooters murdered 12 students and a teacher. Virginia Tech had the equivalent to a SWAT team on campus in 2007, when a gunman killed 32 students and injured 17 others. The NRA has also run into opposition from unlikely allies like the American Federation of Teachers and NRA-endorsed Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).
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Wayne La Pierre claimed that mental illness was the problem with that shooting. We don't in fact know that to be true; Adam Lanza's mother had left her son alone numerous times while she took vacations, and had just returned from one a day or two before he killed her. There is nothing about Asperger's Syndrome, from which he apparently suffered, that is associated with violent behavior. In point of fact, most instances, mass shooters are NOT mentally ill, just angry, vengeful, hate filled sane people -- WITH GUNS.
Under the leadership of La Pierre and with the resources of the NRA, legislation was pushed through that made it easier to get guns, not harder, for people identified as dangerously, violently mentally ill. without any psychiatric review, from judges who typically handle small claims court and maybe traffic tickets. The NRA WANTED violent people who were mentally ill to get guns; it was good for the business of selling guns, not only directly to the violently mentally ill, but by scaring other potential gun buyers into buying weapons to protect themselves from all those armed dangerous crazy people who were getting more guns after the Virginia Tech massacre.
Wayne La Pierre blamed video games and other forms of entertainment for the mass shootings and the level of gun violence in this country, at the same time that both gun manufacturers and the NRA have partnered with those same companies to put in specific weapons to make them attractive to gun buyers, and maintained a museum that celebrated and glorified those very guns. They are the guilty parties in glorifying gun violence relating to specific guns as a marketing ploy to sell more guns.
The NRA claims they want to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous drug users; but the NRA made it possible for them to more easily buy guns by removing the names of convicted drug users or other reported drug users in the NICS data base after just one year, regardless of the level of drug use, drug crime, drug-related violence with guns involved. That would be the few names submitted; the NRA has obstructed at the state level the submission of the names of prohibited persons to the background check data base.
The NRA claims they want to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals; but in reality the NRA has made it far far easier than it has ever been for violent criminals to have their rights to buy and own guns restored. There have been a very high rate of new violence with guns by this category of gun owners. But when people are afraid of violent criminals, especially armed violent criminals, it not only sells those guns to the criminals directly, it creates the very scenario designed to get people to be afraid, and therefore to buy more guns.
Buy more guns buy more guns buy more guns. In every action they take, that is the ONLY interest of the NRA,
The NRA doesn't give a tinkers damn if elementary school children are killed; they already have so much blood on their hands that more or less is meaningless to them. The NRA only cares about selling more guns, promoting more fear, and making money for themselves and the gun industry they represent.
And damn the conservatives who are their pawns, who serve those same special interests, who share the shame and the blame with that same blood on their hands. The guilt cannot be washed off with soap and water; it stains the skin, it stains their souls, it taints their politics. They deserve one thing, and one thing only - our emphatic and determined opposition to everything they try to do.
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