At the Conservative Political Action Conference, the National Rifle Association’s Executive Vice President, Wayne LaPierre, addressed the crowd with the typical red meat, highlighting the pernicious agenda of Washington elites and distortions in the media. LaPierre had a message for the media as well.
“Your First Amendment right is not a license to kill the Second Amendment with lies,” he said.
He also touched upon how women in America are consistently being pigeonholed as a class of victims by Hollywood elites and the anti-gun/pro-gun control wing of liberal America. LaPierre asked what have they done to empower women?
He then went on to say how the NRA teaches women how to defend themselves with or without firearms. Moreover, it signals that the nation’s oldest civil rights organization knows that women will play a major role in the future of the gun manufacturing industry. More women are lining up for concealed carry permits and boosting rates of ownership; they’re the fastest growing demographic of new gun owners.
LaPierre also voiced his support for national reciprocity for concealed carry permit holders, noting that as states recognize carry rights, crime rates have dropped.
Yet, the most important part of his address was featured towards the end regarding the defense of the Bill of Rights. The first ten amendments in our Constitution should be defended with equal fervor, whereas liberals tend to put them on a graduated scale.
“One right depends on another; they’re all cut from the same cloth of what it means to be free people,” he said. “That’s why the NRA fights for free speech, assembly, and the right to privacy because we believe in protecting the entire Bill of Rights. It’s all connected.”
Lastly, LaPierre made it very clear that you don’t need to be a gun owner to become a member of the National Rifle Association. They’re 5 million strong, and await new members to fill the ranks every day.
Even if you don’t own a gun, or don’t care about the right to do so; if you care about your freedoms in any of its forms, you belong in the National Rifle Association. Just look at history. By the last decade, by every measure, the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms has gotten stronger than ever. Even as our other freedoms have been progressively diminished. The credit for rescuing firearm freedoms goes to the five million members of the National Rifle Association.
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