Same Ole Wayne
If you listen to the Whiskey Congress podcast enough you will know that I am not a fan of the National Rifle Association. You may or may not know that I am former member of the NRA. I refused to renew my membership following the cowardly and foolish response from the NRA’s leadership (notably Wayne LaPierre) following the tragic killing of 26 human beings at Sandy Hook Elementary School (20 of whom were 7 years old or younger). This is where Mr. LaPierre famously stated that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”. Taking those words at face value it is clear to me that he considers his audience to be easily controlled and generally uninterested in assessing reality. He doubled down on this strategy recently following the murder of 17 high school students and teachers in Parkland, Florida. The overly simple, highly illogical quote of the day from good ole Wayne…elites “hate individual freedom”. Unfortunately as a society we have become so polarized and tribal, that a simple catch phrase or concept seems to be all it takes to steer a large crowd. At Whiskey Congress we ask our listeners to think logically rather than blindly follow agenda driven figureheads…which is another reason I am not a fan of the National Rifle Association.
Wayne LaPierre, the head of the NRA, broke his silence a week after the Florida school shooting with an unrepentant defence of gun rights and an aggressive attack on political elites who “hate individual freedom”.
LaPierre used his address to the conservative conference CPAC to hit out at anti-gun campaigners, who, led by young survivors of the shooting, have attempted to make political headway in the last week.
“They fantasise about more laws stopping what other laws have failed to stop,” the National Rifle Association executive vice-president said. “So many existing laws were ignored.”
He added: “They don’t care if their laws work or not. They just want to get more laws to get more control over people. But the NRA, the NRA does care.”
LaPierre also hit out at the “breathless national media” which he said was “eager to smear the NRA in the midst of genuine grief”.
Elites want to “eliminate our firearms freedoms and eradicate all the individual freedoms”, he said. “They hate the NRA, they hate the second amendment, they hate individual freedom.”
It had been unclear whether LaPierre would appear at the conservative conference outside Washington and his name was initially kept off the agenda to protect him from media scrutiny. The NRA often prefers to stay out of the media spotlight in the wake of a major shooting.
Pushing the same agenda on school security as Donald Trump, he claimed schools were “wide open targets”.
“Evil walks among us and God help us if we don’t protect our schools,” he said.
