NRA's LaPierre: I'm not the crazy one
Wayne LaPierre, the CEO of the National Rifle Association and a pariah among gun control advocates, fought back today against the notion that his pro-gun positions are "crazy," taking the opportunity of a friendly crowd to double down on the gun lobby's controversial positions on how to reduce gun violence in America.
"As you can imagine, I don't get invited to many parties in this town, but that's okay... I didn't come here to be popular," LaPierre quipped. "They can call me crazy, or anything else they want, but the NRA's nearly five million members, and America's 100 million gun owners, will not back down, not ever."
LaPierre, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this morning, has been the public face of the NRA in the wake of the mass shooting last year in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 children and 6 adults were shot and killed in an elementary school. A vociferous opponent of any new gun laws, which the NRA contends wouldn't work, LaPierre argues America should instead place an armed guard in every school and better enforce the laws that already exist.
In his remarks, LaPierre dismissed the Obama administration's legislative efforts to curb gun violence as ineffective and an infringement on second amendment rights. He also mocked the "political advice" from "elites" in government who have proposed alternate, non-gun self-defense methods for women facing attacks.
"You keep your advice. We'll keep our guns," he said. "The one thing a violent rapist deserves to face is a good woman with a gun."
Throughout his speech, LaPierre remarked upon the fact that people have targeted him as "crazy," using the term repeatedly with a sense of incredulousness.
"They call us crazy?" he asked. "They call me crazy and yet the people doing the finger-pointing are saying things that are absolutely bizarre."
Following the Newtown shootings, a number of polls have indicated that the majority of Americans support tougher gun laws, and Democrats are currently working to pass series of gun safety measures through Congress - including bills that would ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazine ammunition clips, require universal background checks, and make gun trafficking a federal crime.
The prospects of gaining the necessary Republican support for such measures to make their way to the president's desk look bleak, however, given a longstanding Republican opposition to any laws tightening regulations on gun ownership.
The NRA, which donates millions of dollars to Republican political campaigns and has an active grassroots presence, is widely credited with helping to maintain this opposition.
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http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2013/03/robert-farago/carneys-point-new-jersey-showdown/#more-210689
Still think confiscation can't happen in America?
Ann Richards Former Texas Governor and Democrat
"Since assault weapons are not a major contributor to US gun homicide and the existing stock of guns is large, an assault weapon ban is unlikely to have an impact on gun violence. If coupled with a gun buyback and no exemptions then it could be effective."
Mandatory gun buybacks ARE confiscation, and allowing no exceptions means anyone who owns an AR-15 becomes a felon after the bill's passage. They ADMIT the AWB won't work without confiscation. Wake up people.
Drive by shootings are a much greater threat to the population that the possibility of government confiscation of arms from law abiding citizens. The former is an actual threat the latter is a delusional fantasy.
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Way off base on this. The former is speculation and the latter is proposed legislation.
There are several words/terms that describe US government taking the private property of US citzens, but isn't confiscation one of them?
Background checks with stiff penalites for noncompliance make it more difficutly for criminals to obtain weapons.
The whole premise of your argument is flawed. Legal regulation only affects those willing to accept and abide by it. Criminals do neither. Never have. Never will. You can ramble on all you want, but it doesn't matter.
Would have universal background checks stopped Sandy Hook or Aurora or Columbine????
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Oh, okay, so now we're up to what, 30 million people in this society that we know or ought to be "caused to know" are they who shouldn't be in possession of a firearm.
We sure as hell recognize there are right now about 70 or so million so-called law-abiding gun owners.
How did we get all the way up to a hundred million?
Must've been whipping through those background checks in a hurry, huh?
When I buy my nuclear warhead I'll be in the market for an I.C.B.M. I'm sure Wayne will help find a great deal on one. He probably knows every terrorist in the world given his background in terrorizing SANE Americans.
Al-Qaeda has nothing on LaPierre with his total denial of deaths by guns. For him, guns don't kill people the bullets do the killing. So in his twisted logic a 10 Megaton nuclear bomb doesn't kill it's the radiation and heat that do the killing!
But the normal citizens of the United States are through with these maniacs and their little toys that kill. It's time to instill some logic in the conservation on gun deaths in America.