Shooting from the Lip

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By Leo G. Alvarez

At the very least Charles Cotton, Board member of the National Rifle Association can be said to be “insensitive”. Others will call his remarks as calloused. One thing is for sure, his timing was, well, off.

He posted comments on TexasCHLForum.com a discussion forum on gun rights, about the Reverend Clementa Pinckney who was a South Carolina State Legislator and was killed in the Church shooting. On the next day after the shooting he posted that Pinckney had voted against concealed carry in South Carolina, and went on to say, “The Pastor of this church, who was killed, is a State Legislator in S.C. …Eight of his church member who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handgun in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.”

This page has now been pulled from the site. The NRA has disassociated itself from Cotton saying, “…individual board members do not speak for the NRA and do not have the authority to speak for the NRA.”

The term “Gun Nut” comes to mind. But before you post a response to this article consider this; Someone “pulled” his remarks from the Forum’s site, and the NRA disassociated itself from him. And let’s agree on one thing right now…some people are so deep into their philosophies that they just think everyone who does not agree with them is a threat.

Even the NRA felt embarrassed by his remarks.

My father was a hunter, and at age 6 I became a member of the NRA. I was in the military and in law enforcement so I am not a stranger to the feel and potential of firearms. I have shot military as well as “sporting” guns, which is the way the NRA sees even assault weapons in the hands of civilians. In my youth I hunted and shot animals. I know what a gun can do.

As a Coroner’s Investigator and later as a Law Enforcement Crime Scene Investigator I saw up close and personal what “sporting” guns can do to the human body. It’s not pretty, and it can be fatal.

All of us can relate to the pain and agony that can be caused by the written and spoken word. Once it is published and once it is said, it cannot be re-called.

As children we were taught, and we used to sing, “…sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” I used to believe that and that the only people who could hurt you with words are those you love.

But wisdom says otherwise. Wisdom acknowledges that words can cause irreparable damage under certain circumstances.

Mr. Cotton may very well “stand by his guns” as the idiom says, and in this case his remarks. But I believe he would have earned respect had he said, “…I extend my sympathies and condolences to all the victims of this shooting and particularly to the Reverend Pinckney who did not always share my views.”

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Leo Alvarez is retired from Oxnard PD and is President of the Children’s Wall of Tears™ www.thecwot.org

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