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The National Rifle Association and its executive vice president Wayne LaPierre drew intense scrutiny in the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida mass shooting on 14 February 2018 that killed seventeen people, mostly high school students. On 22 February 2018, LaPierre spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), delivering remarks in which he posited that effective, trained, armed security at schools could be a strong preventive measure against school shootings: LaPierre broached the topic at around the seven-minute mark of his speech, at one point saying: In response, a quote attributed to LaPierre in 1999 spread on social media, suggesting that his position on guns in schools had shifted from zero tolerance to the NRA's School Shield program (a federally funded but nebulous initiative to arm school staff): The meme suggests that prior to the School Shield initiative, LaPierre framed the NRA's position on guns in schools differently: We believe in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America’s schools. Period. The quoted material is a bit misleading, however. It is taken from a speech given by LaPierre at CPAC in 1999, just after the Columbine massacre. What LaPierre said, in its proper context, was: Without the commentary immediately following LaPierre's explanation of the NRA's stance on guns in schools, the excerpt's meaning was not clear. Following the Columbine massacre, LaPierre said that lax consequences for guns in schools, rather than adhering to a zero tolerance policy, was responsible at least in part for a massacre that was at that time a shockingly unusual occurrence. In 2018, the NRA more forcefully advocated for armed school security, but the statement in full from 1999 called for trained security personnel as among those who ought to be armed in schools.
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