NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre doubled down this morning on what was a rather stunning press conference Friday, defending his plan to put armed officers in every school in the U.S. on "Meet the Press."
"If it's crazy to call for armed officers in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," LaPierre told NBC's David Gregory.?"I think the American people think it's crazy not to do it. It's the one thing that would keep people safe."
The NRA spoke out for the first time on Friday in the aftermath of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children and seven others dead.?In the press conference, LaPierre blamed many things for the influx of mass shootings in the U.S. ? everything from gun-free school zones, the media, movies, violent video games, and even hurricanes.
On Sunday, he repeated many of the same themes. He repeated his call to put armed officers in every school, he urged Congress to create a database of mentally ill, and he called Sen. Dianne Feinstein's plan to re-introduce an assault weapons ban a "phony piece of legislation."
LaPierre refused to support any new measures of stricter gun control, telling Gregory that most of the existing laws on the books are rarely enforced.
"I know there's a media machine in this country that wants to blame guns every time something happens," "I know there's an anti-gun industry in this town." But of an assault weapons ban, he said, "We don't think it works, and we don't support it."
Watch the full interview below:
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(Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune) Governor Gary Herbert on Dec. 12, 2012 as he releases his budget recommendations at Granite Technical Institute in Salt Lake City.
Utah expected its federal high-risk pool ? subsidized health coverage for the sick and uninsurable ? to be an easy sell.
But it proved easier than state officials ever imagined.
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Examining exchange plans
In letters to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last week, several advocacy groups complained about the lack of clarity and transparency surrounding Utah?s plans for Avenue H. Among them: a physicians group, federally certified community health clinics, AARP Utah, Voices for Utah Children and the Utah Health Policy Project.
The Salt Lake Tribune obtained parts of Utah?s exchange blueprint through a records request. They make promises, say advocates, but don?t say how the state will live up to them.
?There?s so much in there that?s theoretical,? said Judi Hilman, executive director of the Utah Health Policy Project. ?If I were the feds, I would agree to a federally facilitated exchange or give Utah conditional approval subject to our meeting certain requirements and deadlines.?
See the embedded documents for details of Utah?s blueprint.
Links to other states? plans:
New York
New Mexico
Washington state
Minnesota
That?s because hospitals, looking to get paid for treating uninsured patients, did the heavy lifting. They filled out and submitted papers on behalf of patients and, in some cases, paid their monthly premiums, no strings attached.
"People who have a financial interest in making things work will find a way to do it, and do it quickly," said Utah Gov. Gary Herbert?s health adviser, Norm Thurston, citing the experience as proof that Utah?s hands-off, private-market approach to another Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirement ? health exchanges ? will work.
Exchanges, online insurance marketplaces, are designed to be a "no wrong door" portal to health coverage where consumers can compare plans, see if they?re eligible for federal subsidies to purchase them, or enroll in low-income programs such as Medicaid.
"The idea is you can enter this door and walk out with coverage," said Lincoln Nehring, a health policy analyst at Voices for Utah Children.
Utah already has a "shop" exchange for small businesses, Avenue H, which the governor has asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to declare as good enough for Obamacare.
Herbert promises to open it to individuals and larger employers and to enforce new insurance price controls and consumer protections. But he argues the customer outreach and hand-holding required to help people navigate insurance options are a waste of money and unrealistic.
His proposal is being viewed as a test case of just how much leeway the Obama administration is willing to give states in running their own exchanges.
HHS will not comment on the negotiations, but Thurston said sticking points are mostly on small, technical issues.
story continues below
It?s the details that worry consumer advocates, who are pushing for greater clarity on Utah?s plan and fear Herbert?s vision for Avenue H falls woefully short.
Of top concern, they say, is Utah?s poor track record in linking eligible Utahns with health safety nets.
The state ranked 50th in enrolling eligible children in Medicaid and the Children?s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 2010, said Nehring, noting that 80 percent of the state?s 102,400 children are eligible for these programs.
"Utah families are in particular need," he said, "of the ACA?s vision of an exchange that will connect [them] with all their health coverage options."
Under the ACA, those shopping on an exchange must first be screened to see if they?re entitled to Medicaid or CHIP. They are also screened for federal tax credits to apply toward the purchase of their coverage.
States are supposed to hire navigators to help people pick plans best suited to their needs. The rules say they have to provide interpretive services, aides for people with disabilities, and publish "culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach" materials.
But Herbert?s advisers argue these services are widely available in the community.
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Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NEWTOWN, Conn. -- Three miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School, a white Colonial-style building stands about 50 feet back from the road, an unassuming presence in a town that never got much attention until now. On a recent day, a security guard got out of a parked car at the end of the driveway and said he?d received instructions to turn away anyone who didn?t work in the building. It wasn't hard to see why his employers might have hired him. In what appears to be a bizarre coincidence, the people working inside were among the country's most adamant champions of the kinds of weapons and ammunition that Adam Lanza used to kill 26 children and adults just down the road last week.
The Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, or NSSF, is the nation's premier gun manufacturers trade association, and in recent years the group has concentrated on marketing military-style assault weapons of the kind used by Lanza, James Holmes and other mass murderers. In the last decade, as the national interest in hunting has declined, gun manufacturers have increasingly relied on the sale of high-powered rifles, capable of killing many people in seconds. Behind the scenes, the NSSF has done much of the work of pitching those products to politicians, the media and gun buyers.
Doug Painter, a former NSSF president, delivered a pitch characteristic of the NSSF?s folksy approach in a video released by the group in 2009, a year when many gun-owners were worried that the newly Democratic White House would try to take away their weapons.
Holding up the same kind of rifle that Adam Lanza would eventually use to commit mass murder, Painter asked the camera, ?Am I gonna trade in Ol? Betsy for one of these?? He answered himself, ?Maybe not. But there?s a more important point to consider. Anti-gun folks insist on labeling these rifles as ?bad guns,? as opposed to more traditional-looking ?good guns.? How can any inanimate object be considered ?good? or ?bad???
The ad was part of a broad, multi-year effort by the gun industry-backed NSSF "to put a happy face on these military weapons,? said Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the gun-control advocacy group the Violence Policy Center. "People would be shocked if they knew that the industry has taken guns that were designed for warfare and marketed them to civilians," said Sugarmann, who happens to be a native of Newtown, Conn.
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Since the Sandy Hook massacre, the NSSF has stated publicly that it will not respond to media requests, and attempts to reach Steve Sanetti, the president, were unsuccessful. Nor did anyone answer at two publicly listed numbers for Painter, the former president. In a statement posted on its website, the group acknowledged the NSSF's proximity to the school, saying, ?there are not many degrees of separation in small communities like Newtown, and so, not surprisingly, we had family, friends and acquaintances that were affected.?
The group later added another statement, claiming that it would ?welcome the opportunity? to eventually become part of a ?full national conversation? aimed at improving the ?protection of our children and our communities.?
As that conversation unfolds, Sanetti, the group?s president since 2008, is likely to emerge as a controversial figure. A former Army captain, Sanetti previously served as president of Sturm & Ruger, a Connecticut-based company that produced the assault weapon used in the Norway massacre of 2011. He helped direct "the successful coordinated response to municipal lawsuits that threatened the firearms industry in the late 1990s,? according to a 2008 press release from the firm.
"I think the world of him," said Russ Thurman, a gun magazine editor and a member of NSSF's board of governors, who has noted in the past that while Sanetti's "long-term involvement in the legal issues has not been pleasant or glamorous," it is "important.?
The NSSF?s efforts to rebrand military-style semi-automatic rifles, or ?AR-15 rifles? in industry speak, as consumer-friendly recreational products can be traced back to 2009, when the group launched a national media campaign designed to convince hunters of the benefits of the newer, more expensive assault weapons.
In a newsletter released at the time, Sanetti emphasized how important the guns were to the industry?s bottom line. "The best-selling rifles in America today are those based on the AR-15 platform," he said.
In 2010, the group began working to promote the AR-15 with Guns and Ammo, a major gun magazine that devoted a recent cover story to the best guns for surviving a zombie apocalypse. The group also held combination seminars and shooting sessions where members of the media were lectured on the differences between machine guns and semi-automatic rifles (machines guns are even more dangerous). And yet the group has rarely, if ever, attempted to advance the argument that these weapons are necessary, or even particularly useful. "Why are these guns so popular?" asks a lecturer in a video of one of the NSSF media seminars. "One word: They're fun!"
"These are fun fun guns to shoot," says an unidentified journalist in the same video. "As a mother of three I'd have no problem letting my kids, with the correct supervision and safety gear, you know, try one of these guns."
In order for gun manufacturers to keep growing, Sugarmann said, "they've got to do two things. First, find new markets, which is what they're doing with their womens' and childrens' programs. The other option is to find something new to sell the guys who already have guns. The answer for that is increasingly militarized weapons."
* * * * *
Statistically, it's difficult to discern how well these efforts are working. The gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association, has a long history of suppressing statistical reports on both gun registrations and gun violence, while simultaneously painting a rosy picture of industry growth.
What's clear is that the gun industry's growing dependence on AR-15s has made it more vulnerable to any legislation that might limit the sale of ARs or high-capacity magazines. And so in April of 2010, the NSSF launched its first-ever political action committee, called NSSFPAC.
In its first nine months, the PAC raised $10,000. In the next election cycle, in 2012, it raised ten times that, $102,000. NSSF also spent $500,000 in the first ten months of 2012 on lobbyists, a nearly five-fold increase over the 2008 total.
The increased presence on Capitol Hill appears to have paid dividends. In its 2011 report, the NSSF boasted that its annual members' lobbying trip to Washington, D.C. had an "immediate result," the introduction of legislation in both the House and Senate to exempt lead bullets from regulations of toxic substances. And indeed, on April 14, less than a week after the NSSF visited Congress, one member in each house, Montana's Sen. Jon Tester (D) and Florida's Rep. Jeff Miller (R), introduced the legislation.
Asked about the timing of the bill, a spokeswoman for Sen. Tester disputed the NSSF's characterization. Tester, she said, consults his own constituents on Second Amendment issues, and "was getting ready to introduce the bill long before NSSF's fly-in." Miller's office did not respond to questions from HuffPost about the bill.
The group has also helped lead a successful lobbying effort in Connecticut, working with the NRA and other organizations to help defeat a proposed ban on high-capacity ammunition clips -- magazines containing more than 10 bullets. Jake McGuigan, the NSSF's government-relations director, told lawmakers that the bill would take a heavy toll on the state?s $1.3 billion firearms industry.
Adding to the irony of NSSF's proximity to Sandy Hook Elementary, the weapons industry's history in Connecticut stretches back almost to the very founding of the country, earning the state a proud nickname: "the arsenal of democracy."
Eli Whitney began manufacturing pistols in Connecticut in 1797, and Samuel Colt, the inventor of the Colt 45 and one of the architects of the industrial revolution, was born in Hartford and started producing guns there in 1848. The Connecticut River, which stretches from northern New Hampshire to the Long Island Sound, made Connecticut an ideal setting for industry. For more than two centuries, the fate of the state's industrial plants, gun businesses and military bases have been closely intertwined. As NSSF and many other proponents of the latest and most dangerous weapons models are quick to point out, gun makers in America have long looked to the military for inspiration and funding; the Colt 45 was initially designed for soldiers, and the Civil War financed the construction of many stately homes along the Connecticut River.
Last year, Marlin Firearms, a well-regarded manufacturer that had been in business in Connecticut for a century, closed its plant, costing the state hundreds of jobs. Following the Newtown shooting, the NSSF is facing what may be a far more formidable challenge. Legislation to ban assault weapons has gained momentum in Congress, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has vowed to reintroduce the expired 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban on the Senate's first day back in 2013.
One recent evening outside Sandy Hook Elementary School, a local man who'd come by to pay his respects said he owned a semi-automatic rifle and some 30-round magazines -- the same kind of ammunition that Lanza used and that the NSSF promoted.
He said he'd never heard of the NSSF, but he agreed with their message: powerful, military-style guns are fun.
"But big deal," he added. "I wouldn't mind if they banned them at all."
Correction: An earlier version of this article mistakenly described the Connecticut River as starting in Springfield, Mass.
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Anyone left on your Christmas list just aching for a 65-inch Samsung 3D flat-screen television? Just your luck. The Vatican's duty-free department store has one on sale for ?2,899 ($3,840) ? a nifty savings over the ?3,799 ($5,032) it costs at Italy's main electronics chain Euronics.
Or how about some new luggage for the holidays? The Vatican shop stocks a variety of Samsonite Cordoba Duo carry-ons for ?123, a nice markdown from the ?135 on the Samsonite website. But if a last-minute shopping splurge is in order, the Vatican can also oblige: Take this leather-bound travelling trunk from Florence's "The Bridge" leatherworks, with its five drawers, plaid interior, six wooden hangars and shiny brass buckles.
At ?5,900, it comes with a matching leather golf club bag, just what every monsignor needs under his Christmas tree.
There's a little-known open secret in the Vatican gardens, a few paces behind St. Peter's Basilica and tucked inside the Vatican's old train station: a sprawling, three-story tax-free department store that rivals any airport duty free or military PX, stocking everything from Church's custom grade shoes (?483 a pair) to Baume et Mercier watches (ladies ?1,585, men's Capeland ?5,000).
There's a hitch, however. It's not open to the public, only to Vatican citizens, employees and their dependents, diplomats accredited to the Holy See and (unofficially) their lucky friends who, after stocking up on holiday must-haves, proceed to the checkout with their Vatican connection and the ID card that entitles them to shop there.
To be sure, Rome is no stranger to tax-free shopping. Embassies, nearby military bases and the U.N. food agencies all have commissaries for their employees, where imports of everything from American ice cream to French wine can be had minus the 21 percent sales tax included in list prices in Italy.
The Vatican has that and more, given that it's its own sovereign state ? the world's smallest ? operating in central Rome. At 44 hectares (110 acres), the Vatican city state is the physical home of the Holy See: the pope and governing structure and administration of the Catholic Church.
The Vatican Museum, with its main draw the Sistine Chapel, is the main profit-making enterprise of the Vatican city state, bringing in ?91.3 million in revenue last year alone. But other smaller entrepreneurial endeavors boost the Vatican's coffers as well, including the department store, the tax-free gas station, the stamp and coin collecting office, the Vatican pharmacy and its supermarket.
And in these days of austerity, their profits and bottom line are ever more important to the Vatican.
The Vatican is entitled to run such tax-free enterprises inside its walls based on the Lateran Treaty, the 1929 pact that regularized and regulates the Vatican's relations with Italy. But those regulations also limit the Vatican's customer base, lest all of Rome descend on the supermarket to stock up on Gordon's Gin (?8.50 a liter compared to the ?15 it can run in liquor stores) or Montecristo No. 3 Cuban cigars (box of 25 ?84 ($110.95) compared to $164.95 on www.bestcigarprices.com). About 4,700 people are employed by the Holy See and the Vatican city state; the Vatican's diplomatic corps ? the Holy See has relations with some 175 countries ? adds another chunk to the customer base.
Few people outside Rome know the department store exists ? there's no evidence of it on any Vatican website, no photos of its wares, no advertising outside the Vatican walls. Those who do know it exists seem to want to pretend it doesn't since the high-end luxury items on sale aren't necessarily in tune with either the sobriety or the salaries of the Vatican rank-and-file.
In fact, on a recent Thursday morning, nary a collar nor religious habit was in sight as ordinary lay folk milled around the spacious store during December's "extraordinary opening hours" ? extended to accommodate bargain-hunting Christmas shoppers who were rewarded with a wine tasting in the central atrium and piles of Brooks Brothers non-iron shirts and Burbury backpacks to choose from.
"More than the prices, it's the material," said Luciano, a bulky Roman who refused to give his last name as he shopped for an overcoat with his wife and an obliging Vatican friend waiting at checkout. "This one I don't like ? I look like a priest," he muttered as he put the navy blue trench coat back on a hangar.
Cardinal Edmund Szoka, the American who sought to bring some order into the Vatican's finances as head of the Vatican city state, is credited with having made the department store what it is today, moving it into the Vatican's underused train station, a miniature version of Washington's Union station with a sweeping double staircase and glass-front window that frames the dome of St. Peter's a few meters (yards) away.
Szoka said he moved it from the basement of the Vatican government building to the train station for more space, since the station wasn't used anymore for passengers and provided the perfect, airy open space that a shop of its kind would require.
"Our principal motivation in changing the train station building into a department store was mainly for the convenience of our employees, as well as for those who could come into the Vatican and shop there," he said in an email from his home in Michigan. "Naturally, we expected a profit, but that was not the primary motivation."
Szoka retired in 2006, well before the global economic crisis hit. The current leadership of the "Governorato" as the city state administration is called, recently asked all department heads to come up with cost-saving or profit-making initiatives to help the Vatican get through the tough times.
"Any good administrator wants to save what can be saved," said Monsignor Giuseppe Sciacca, the governorato's No. 2. "It seems obvious, necessary."
The Philatelic and Numismatic Office, for example, recently started selling a special limited-edition stamp to help pay for the ?14 million restoration of the Bernini colonnade in St. Peter's Square after corporate sponsorship dried up amid the recession.
Vatican Radio announced in July it would be saving "hundreds of thousands of euros" in energy costs by stopping short -and -medium-wave broadcasts to Europe and the Americas, using other technologies instead.
Perhaps even more than the department store, the Vatican supermarket is a much-sought after perk for Vatican employees, and a boost to the Vatican's bottom line. And at Christmastime, it is as jammed as the department store, with lines snaking through the store and cars taking up valuable parking spaces inside Vatican City as shoppers pile their carts high with panettone, the traditional Italian Christmas cake which is the di riguer gift for Italian holiday parties. Panettone can run ?25 a pop at Roman bakeries; in the Vatican supermarket, a high-end brand runs almost half that.
"The Nutella is just better here," said Maria Grazia Mancini, a Rome municipal worker who was doing a major pre-Christmas shop with her father, a Vatican employee. "The products here are for export ? the same brands but for export, so it's better quality."
While Sciacca is only too pleased to see the Vatican saving money where it can be saved and making it where it can be made, he was adamant that there are no plans to expand the customer base of the Vatican's little-known discount stores. Accords with Italy don't allow it.
"We shouldn't. And we can't," he said.
He spoke on the sidelines of the presentation of the Vatican's 2012 nativity scene, being unveiled Monday night and donated for the first time. The Vatican happily accepted the donated creche from the Italian region of Basilicata after its ?550,000 Christmas setup in 2009 was exposed earlier this year during the scandal over leaked Vatican documents.
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With the final retail push under way, L.L. Bean CEO Chris McCormick is playing Santa?s helper against a backdrop of conveyor belts and beeping front-end loaders as he boxes up slippers and shirts. But there?s little time to reflect on the holiday cheer those gifts will bring because he?s busy concentrating to make sure no shipments go astray.
At L.L. Bean, top executives are abandoning their desks to work in the shipping department and to answer customers? phone calls as part of an annual all-hands-on-deck approach to ensure last-minute purchases arrive at their destinations before Christmas.
This season, the deadline for orders with guaranteed Christmas delivery is the latest ever, with L.L. Bean offering free shipping as late as noon Friday.
?Consumers are going to buy when they want to buy. There?s no changing that, so we have to be ready,? McCormick, his sleeves rolled up, said during a break inside the busy 1-million-square-foot distribution center where nearly 200,000 orders are shipped daily in late December.
There?s never been a better time to be a procrastinator because retailers continue to offer later guaranteed delivery, and in some cases retailers are offering same-day delivery in select cities, said Al Sambar, a logistics and retail strategist at the consulting firm Kurt Salmon.
Thanks to improved shipping logistics, many online and catalog retailers established Christmas delivery deadlines on Thursday and Friday, with some like Amazon extending the deadline for one-day shipping until Saturday.
And shoppers can expect the trend to continue.
Retailers are increasingly focusing on speed. Following Amazon?s lead, other retailers are experimenting with regional warehouses to get the product closer to potential customers, said Raj Kumar, a retail partner at A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm.
Macy?s, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart are testing pilot programs in which stores themselves are utilized as shipping hubs as retailers push for next-day and same-day delivery, he said.
Unlike Amazon, L.L. Bean?s worldwide shipping hub is centralized, about a mile from the corporate headquarters, and features seemingly endless aisles of flannel shirts, L.L. Bean boots, camping supplies, and other items, along with a labyrinth of conveyors and chutes that transport them, and a fleet of trucks.
The company hired 4,700 seasonal workers to help with the holiday rush, doubling the workforce, and 500 administrative employees are expected to get into the act during crunch times.
Earlier this week, McCormick was boxing goods in the shipping department with the company?s financial controller, Kierston Van Soest. Nearby were the company?s chief financial officer and other executives. In Bean parlance, they?re dubbed ?day hikers,? since they?re on a temporary daily assignment.
Pulling items from a shopping cart, McCormick and Van Soest scanned the products with a bar code reader, printed shipping labels and order forms, and then boxed up the items, tossing in catalogs for good measure. On this day, popular items included headlamps, Wicked Good slippers and shirts.
In the past, McCormick worked on a product-sorting conveyor line, in the retail store stockroom, and in a recycling area, breaking down empty cardboard boxes. The worst job of all, he said, was one stint working in the part of the call center that deals with angry and frustrated customers, attempting to set things right.
?It?s hard because you?ve disappointed people and you don?t want to disappoint anybody, especially at this time of the year,? McCormick said. ?I wouldn?t want their job.?
The company does its best to keep customers happy. On that day, hundreds of shipments were being upgraded free of charge to UPS air to beat the first major winter storm in the Midwest.
DENVER ? Relatives of those killed at Columbine High School 15 years ago and inside the Aurora Century 16 Cinemas this summer joined three state lawmakers in an emotional plea Friday for new gun control legislation at the state level.
?There needs to be something done to stop the assault weapons and the mentally ill from owning guns,? said Theresa Hoover, the mother of A.J. Boik, who was shot and killed inside the movie theater this summer along with 11 others.
The three Democratic lawmakers leading Friday?s press conference, which took place just as the National Rifle Association finished its controversial press conference in Washington where the group called for more guns and armed patrols at every American school, promised that something will be done in the upcoming session.
Come January, when the 69th General Assembly begins its work at the Capitol, both the state House and Senate will be controlled by Democratic majorities, doing their work one floor above a Democratic governor who, just days before the Newton, Conn. shooting, told the Associated Press that ?the time is right? to talk about new gun control measures.
?I want the families to know that I feel your pain, and I also have your back,? said Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora. ?I?m going to be moving beyond a moment of silence into taking a plan of action.?
Fields, whose son was shot and killed by a gang member in 2005, was joined by Rep. Beth McCann, D-Denver, and Senate Majority Leader Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora.
?I think that there are so many common sense things that we can do,? Carroll said. ?There are going to be plenty of ways that we can fully respect people?s rights but just be smarter.?
Lawmakers have discussed a possible statewide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity clips, but no legislation has been introduced yet.
?We?ve got assault weapons out there that can take hundred of lives at one time and yet we are not controlling how they get into the hands of dangerous individuals,? said Bill Hoover, Boik?s grandfather.
?Let?s get some sense back in this society we?re insane the whole society has gone completely bonkers.?
With the final retail push under way, L.L. Bean CEO Chris McCormick is playing Santa?s helper against a backdrop of conveyor belts and beeping front-end loaders as he boxes up slippers and shirts. But there?s little time to reflect on the holiday cheer those gifts will bring because he?s busy concentrating to make sure no shipments go astray.