It only has to be properly sold.
Some stunningly serious selling occurred this week.
(BBC News) The US has observed a moment of silence for the 26 victims of the Connecticut school shooting, as a gun lobby group called for armed security at schools.
Bells in Newtown tolled 26 times, one week after 20 children and six adults died at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
In Washington, the National Rifle Association called for "good guys" to be armed for "absolute protection".
Adam Lanza, 20, carried out the attack at 09:30 EST (14:30 GMT) after killing his mother. He later shot himself dead.
Funerals for those killed have taken place throughout the week, and continue in Newtown on Friday.
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy has asked people throughout the state to join the moment of silence, and churches in many other states also rang their bells 26 times.
The governor, with his deputies, marked the moment on the steps of Edmond Town Hall in Newtown.
In Washington on Friday, influential National Rifle Association (NRA) broke a week-long silence with a robust defence of its pro-gun position.
Wayne LaPierre, chief executive of the NRA, criticised
politicians who had "exploited" the tragedy in Newtown for "political gain" and
took aim at laws designating schools as gun-free zones.
"They tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk," he said.
Mr LaPierre called for a national database of the mentally ill and blamed violent video games and films for portraying murder as a "way of life".
He spoke out against the media for demonising lawful gun owners, and for suggesting a ban on certain types of weapon would be effective.
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," Mr LaPierre told reporters.
Congress should authorise funding for armed security in every school in the country, he said, adding that an "extraordinary corps" of trained professionals could be drawn from active and retired police officers, security professionals and firefighters around the country.
Across the street the Episcopal church rang its bell 26 times. Further down
main street, the employees of the local bank stood on the porch in silence.
People stood stock still in the street and got drenched. The silence lasted for
10 minutes, which is how long it took Adam Lanza to kill 20 children and six
adults at Sandy Hook elementary school just one week ago.
Mr LaPierre was interrupted twice by anti-gun protesters
carrying banners and declaring that the NRA had "blood on its hands".Afterwards, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is an advocate for tighter gun control laws, said the NRA's response was "a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe".
The guns used in the shooting had been legally bought by the gunman's mother, Nancy Lanza.
The shooting has seen some pro-gun congressmen say the mass shooting has prompted them to change their views on whether guns should be regulated more strictly in the US.
Meanwhile California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has been an advocate for tighter gun laws, said she would introduce new legislation when Congress meets for the first time in the new year.
But there is no bipartisan consensus on the issue, with others backing the NRA line that teachers in schools should be armed in order to better defend students if a shooting occurs.
The complexities of this issue number more than the tiles on a gun case sized mosaic.
From individual freedom to Constitutional guarantees, from finding common ground for discussion to putting even a dent in the mindset of a culture having already raised generations who consider violence a perfectly acceptable form of entertainment, there are no easy solutions.
There are, at the same time, easy answers.
Provided, of course, that the appropriate questions are asked in the first place.
That, for the foreseeable, is not going to happen.
And that's because the NRA is very, very good at what they are in business to do.
Promote the sale of weapons.
Anyone naively expecting the NRA to end their week long "silence" on the Newtown shootings with a mea culpa tinted call for common sense, reasonable restriction and/or thoughtful discussion on how to find a common ground that would make our lives safer was tilting at a pretty big, and obvious, windmill.
Or shooting at it, as the case may be.
For the NRA to suggest anything that didn't might ultimately slow, as opposed to ramp up, the purchase of guns in the country would be tantamount to McDonald's issuing a statement that they were ready to sit down with Congress to help determine how best to halt the reckless flow of ground beef into the national bloodstream.
Fat chance.
Literally.
From the standpoint that marketing and product promotion are their primary function, the statement provided by Wayne LaPierre may , rightly, end up being the most exquistely brilliant piece of salesmanship offered up since Professor Harold Hill razzled and dazzled his way into unloading seventy six wind instruments.
In fact, it may end up leapfrogging the number one all time amazing pitch and sell ever experienced by mankind.
Little sale involving a naive couple of customers.
A snake of a salesman.
And an apple.
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