DALLAS — Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president and CEO of the National Rifle Association, on Saturday mounted a forceful defense of his past predictions about guns and government control, saying he’s been proven right over and over again despite attempts by the media and opponents to caricature his views.
“In spite of what the national media [have] said about me, despite how many times they call the NRA a paranoid organization, history proves that time after time, they’ve been wrong and the NRA has been right all along,” Mr. LaPierre said at his group’s annual meeting of members at the 2018 NRA convention.
Mr. LaPierre played a series of past clips in which he talked about the problems of illegal guns and drugs coming across the southern border, ripped “gun-free zones,” lamented the high crime rate in cities like Chicago and warned that the government could come knocking on people’s doors to take their guns during times of crisis.
“Dystopian Wayne, they call me — over and over and over,” he said Saturday. “That’s the phrase they use to make fun of you and me.”
“They don’t get real America,” he said.
As one example, he pointed to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as proof that the government can and will seize private citizens’ guns during times of emergency or crisis.
“They went out on the mayor’s instructions and they knocked on doors and they seized the guns” of citizens trying to defend themselves, he said. “Remember New Orleans.”
In one clip from 2004, Mr. LaPierre told gun-rights activists to never let anyone tell them they’re part of a “fringe group,” and that their views are the majority views in the country.
He also played a series of clips spliced together of various times that he’s delivered his group’s message: “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
“Your NRA is stronger today … than at any other time in NRA history,” Mr. LaPierre said. “We have to keep going forward.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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