Wayne LaPIerre – TGM File Photo
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
In a speech to the annual Conservative Action Political Conference (CPAC), National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre sent a message to Democrat front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton that left no doubt there is a “bare knuckles political brawl” on the horizon.
“Mrs. Clinton, if you want to come after the NRA … bring it on,” LaPierre stated. “We aren’t going anywhere and we aren’t hard to find. Mrs. Clinton, we are the millions of honest, decent citizens all over this country. We love our nation. We cherish our freedom. November, we’re bringing the fight to you.”
LaPierre, who has been the NRA’s top gun for more than two decades, opened his remarks by remembering the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia before expressing dread that his replacement could be named by President Barack Obama. And he then observed that if Clinton becomes the next president, she could nominate two or more other justices.
That could throw the high court into a leftward tilt that could threaten the 2008 Heller and 2010 McDonald rulings on the Second Amendment.
Through the use of video clips, LaPierre showed deceits by anti-gunners dating back 20 years. He singled out anti-gun Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and former President Bill Clinton, the latter whom LaPierre called out on his acceptance of a certain degree of violent crime in order to push his political agenda.
LaPierre also recalled his confrontation with CNN over a ‘faked” news story that tried to portray fully-automatic machineguns as the kinds of firearms that were banned under the Clinton legislation passed in 1994. He accused CNN of violating “all journalistic standards trying to save that ban on semiautomatic firearms by airing video of fully automatic machine guns that had nothing whatsoever to do with the legislation.”
Ultimately, according to a history of the squabble, CNN corrected itself, but LaPierre asserted that if he hadn’t been in the studio at the time the 2003 segment was aired, there would have been no challenge and no correction, leaving millions of Americans with the impression that the ban was about fully-automatic firearms.
“No wonder trust in the news media is at the lowest level in history,” LaPierre observed. “We, the American people, are fed up. We’ve had enough of agenda driven journalists who refuse to tell the truth.”
Speaking to a crowd of about 3,000 people, LaPierre recalled how he was “savaged” by the media after his 2012 speech in reaction to the Newtown tragedy. After he said the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, he was verbally pilloried by many pundits.
Yet, in the aftermath of that controversy, he noted that many school districts and local governments did exactly what NRA had recommended.
During his speech, which ran just over 29 minutes, LaPierre reminded the audience of his challenge to Obama to have a one-on-one debate about guns. So far, he said, the president has not responded, and LaPierre predicted he wouldn’t because Obama is not well-versed on firearms. Indeed, LaPierre said, the president’s total knowledge of guns “wouldn’t fill a thimble.”
The veteran gun rights advocate also blistered Obama over the death toll so far this year in Chicago, the president’s adopted home town and a city with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation.
“The truth that in his own hometown,” LaPierre observed, “over 400 Chicagoans have been shot already this year. Compared to this time a year ago, the homicide rate in Chicago has risen 100 percent … 100 percent! Does that sound like a number anybody can be proud of? Mr. President, you own Chicago. That’s your failure.”
As he closed his speech, LaPierre returned to the message that has resonated through many of his appearances, and a series of television commercials aired by NRA in recent months.
“We aren’t going anywhere and we aren’t hard to find,” he said. “We are the millions of honest, decent citizens all over this country. We love our nation. We cherish our freedom…
“Americans have declared that this election is not going to be about the politicians,” he added. “We’ve decided, ‘It’s going to be about me, my life and my freedom. This is my election. I’m taking my country back!’ This election must set our nation back on its rightful course where individual freedom is respected, justice is restored, laws are enforced, government gets off our backs and leaves us the hell alone, and elected officials start telling us the truth!’
When he asked the audience if they would “stand up for America,” he received a standing ovation.
