This morning the NRA’s chief propagandist Wayne LaPierre said that the best way to stop nutters like Adam Lanza would be to put armed guards in schools. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” LaPierre said. The only way to stop monsters like La Pierre is to ignore them and follow the lead of other countries that have passed sensible gun-control laws.

A 12.20 N.Y. Times editorial pointed out the following: (a) “The N.R.A. presents itself as a grass-roots organization, but it has become increasingly clear in recent years that it represents gun makers. Its chief aim has been to help their businesses by increasing the spread of firearms throughout American society”; (b) “The clearest beneficiary [of the N.R.A.’s political-legislative effort] has been the gun industry — sales of firearms and ammunition have grown 5.7 percent a year since 2007, to nearly $12 billion this year, according to IBISWorld, a market research firm”; (c) “The industry has, in turn, been a big supporter of the N.R.A. It has contributed between $14.7 million and $38.9 million to an N.R.A.-corporate-giving campaign since 2005, according to a report published last year by the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit group that advocates greater gun control”; (d) “Officials from the N.R.A. have repeatedly said their main goal is to protect the Second Amendment rights of rank-and-file members who like to hunt or want guns for protection. But that claim is at odds with surveys that show a majority of N.R.A. members and a majority of American gun owners often support restrictions on gun sales and ownership that the N.R.A. has bitterly fought.”