Can we start blaming driver education for car crashes involving teens? There is no evidence that any of the donation made in 2016 actually went to training Cruz. On the other hand, it did go to provide the kevlar mats that the JROTC students used to protect other students from Cruz.
Via Townhall:
Not surprisingly, liberal media quickly blamed the National Rifle Association for the deaths of 17 innocent people shot by Nikolas Cruz earlier this week in Parkland, Florida. But today, the left-wing website Think Progress and the New York Daily News ramped up their misguided condemnation by blaming the NRA specifically for supposedly teaching Cruz how to shoot the weapon. Their reasoning was that since the NRA donated $10,000 to a club at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that instructed proper firearm use, the gun lobby earned the blame for the shooter’s actions. The club in question was the high school’s Junior Reserve Officer’s Training program (JROTC). While the NRA did donate money to the group, both articles neglect key components of JROTC and the benefit it brings to communities and young Americans.
According to the group’s website, JROTC is a “congressionally mandated program that focuses on the youth-oriented mission “Motivating Young People to be Better Citizens”. It is one of the largest youth programs in the world with more than 310,000 high school students participating annually while enrolled in over 1,700 secondary educational programs and encompasses a myriad of teaching goals focused on leadership, teamwork, character education, personal responsibility, a sense of accomplishment, and service to the nation.”
However, Think Progress mentions none of that. The headlinealone suggests to readers the NRA was directly responsible for training the shooter; “The NRA donated $10,000 to help train the Parkland shooting suspect to use a rifle.”