NRA Exec's 'Callous Rant' May Backfire

Here's a sampling of the reaction to today's speech by NRA exec Wayne LaPierre, who blamed video games, movies, and the media for creating a culture of violence and called for armed guards in every school:

• New York Daily News: "For all that advocates of sensible gun-safety measures have said in the past seven days, nothing did more to discredit the merchants of weapons of death than their own chief advocate’s callous rant." LaPierre "just shot himself in the foot."
• Erika Johnsen, Hot Air: The armed-guard idea is probably too expensive, but "I am completely on board with the sentiment that this immediate reaction against all types of guns is ridiculous, and the very idea of merely declaring schools to be 'gun-free zones' as the best method of protecting our children is utter folly."
• Matt Gertz, Media Matters: Columbine had an armed guard.
• Rachel Maddow, via tweet: "The NRA has rickrolled the whole country into watching just another standard Wayne LaPierre stump speech saying we need more guns."

• Matthew Yglesias, Slate: Putting an armed officer in every school would cost at least $5.4 billion a year, based on an average salary of $55,000.
• Mashable notes that NRA-related hashtags sprang up quickly and rounds up some notable ones here.
• The conservative Daily Caller says that the NRA may not like reporters, but the feeling is mutual based on tweets from journalists during the speech. Examples here.
• The NRA set up a website for its "National School Shield" here.

(More Wayne LaPierre stories.)