red states rule
05-05-2013, 06:23 AM
Could 2014 be like 2010?
In speech after speech at the National Rifle Association (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_rifle_association/index.html?inline=nyt-org)’s annual convention here this weekend, its top leaders and political allies blasted President Obama and other gun control advocates, warned against “all-out, historic attacks” on the constitutional right to possess firearms, and issued a rallying cry to members to become a political force in next year’s midterm elections and the 2016 presidential race.
“We are in the midst of a once-in-a-generation fight for everything we care about,” Wayne R. LaPierre, the association’s executive vice president and principal spokesman, told a cheering throng of members at the convention center here on Saturday. “We have a chance to secure our freedom for a generation, or to lose it forever.”
“We must remain vigilant, ever resolute, and steadfastly growing and preparing for the even more critical battles that loom before us,” he said.
Praising the N.R.A.’s membership for helping defeat a bipartisan Senate proposal to expand background checks for gun buyers last month, Mr. LaPierre said that the Senate fight had helped swell the association’s membership to a record five million people.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, the convention theme was “Stand and Fight,” and much of the fight was directed toward Mr. Obama, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and those Mr. LaPierre described as their supporters in the “media elite” who were “conspiring right now, regrouping, planning, organizing” to exploit “the next horrific crime.”
The Senate bill “wouldn’t have prevented Newtown, couldn’t have prevented Tucson or Aurora and won’t prevent the next tragedy,” he said.
Later on, he added the Boston Marathon (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/b/boston_marathon/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) bombings to bolster his position.“How many Bostonians wished they had a gun two weeks ago?” Mr. LaPierre said. “How many other Americans now ponder that life-or-death question?”
Mr. LaPierre and James W. Porter II, who was expected to be named president by the board of directors on Monday, succeeding David Keene, both urged N.R.A. members to become active in the 2014 midterm elections — which Mr. Porter described as more important than last year’s presidential election — and then the 2016 presidential race.
“We do that and Obama can be stopped,” Mr. Porter said.
The lineup of speakers at Friday’s Leadership Forum looked like the early field for the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, featuring Senator Ted Cruz and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate, as well as video appearances by Representative Paul Ryan and Gov. Scott Walker, both of Wisconsin.
Ms. Palin, wearing a black T-shirt that said “Women Hunt,” criticized gun control proposals that “won’t even work for their stated intended purposes.” Mr. Cruz warned that any infringement on the Bill of Rights would undermine the entire Constitution. And just about every speaker poked fun at the N.R.A.’s favorite cast of enemies: Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, and Mr. Bloomberg, whom Mr. LaPierre described as the “national nanny.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/us/we-will-never-surrender-our-guns-never-lapierre-tells-nra-members.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
In speech after speech at the National Rifle Association (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_rifle_association/index.html?inline=nyt-org)’s annual convention here this weekend, its top leaders and political allies blasted President Obama and other gun control advocates, warned against “all-out, historic attacks” on the constitutional right to possess firearms, and issued a rallying cry to members to become a political force in next year’s midterm elections and the 2016 presidential race.
“We are in the midst of a once-in-a-generation fight for everything we care about,” Wayne R. LaPierre, the association’s executive vice president and principal spokesman, told a cheering throng of members at the convention center here on Saturday. “We have a chance to secure our freedom for a generation, or to lose it forever.”
“We must remain vigilant, ever resolute, and steadfastly growing and preparing for the even more critical battles that loom before us,” he said.
Praising the N.R.A.’s membership for helping defeat a bipartisan Senate proposal to expand background checks for gun buyers last month, Mr. LaPierre said that the Senate fight had helped swell the association’s membership to a record five million people.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, the convention theme was “Stand and Fight,” and much of the fight was directed toward Mr. Obama, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and those Mr. LaPierre described as their supporters in the “media elite” who were “conspiring right now, regrouping, planning, organizing” to exploit “the next horrific crime.”
The Senate bill “wouldn’t have prevented Newtown, couldn’t have prevented Tucson or Aurora and won’t prevent the next tragedy,” he said.
Later on, he added the Boston Marathon (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/b/boston_marathon/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) bombings to bolster his position.“How many Bostonians wished they had a gun two weeks ago?” Mr. LaPierre said. “How many other Americans now ponder that life-or-death question?”
Mr. LaPierre and James W. Porter II, who was expected to be named president by the board of directors on Monday, succeeding David Keene, both urged N.R.A. members to become active in the 2014 midterm elections — which Mr. Porter described as more important than last year’s presidential election — and then the 2016 presidential race.
“We do that and Obama can be stopped,” Mr. Porter said.
The lineup of speakers at Friday’s Leadership Forum looked like the early field for the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, featuring Senator Ted Cruz and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate, as well as video appearances by Representative Paul Ryan and Gov. Scott Walker, both of Wisconsin.
Ms. Palin, wearing a black T-shirt that said “Women Hunt,” criticized gun control proposals that “won’t even work for their stated intended purposes.” Mr. Cruz warned that any infringement on the Bill of Rights would undermine the entire Constitution. And just about every speaker poked fun at the N.R.A.’s favorite cast of enemies: Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, and Mr. Bloomberg, whom Mr. LaPierre described as the “national nanny.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/us/we-will-never-surrender-our-guns-never-lapierre-tells-nra-members.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0