NRA chief Wayne LaPierre blames ‘family, school security and the FBI’ for Florida massacre – then ramps up calls for armed guards saying we need to ‘harden’ the nation’s classrooms
One of the first speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday was the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre
LaPierre was expected to appear at CPAC, though his speech was left off the public schedule for fear that he would attract protesters
The NRA head, who was compensated $5.1 million for the position in 2015, called for armed guards at schools
He blasted Democrats and the mainstream media, suggesting the groups were politicizing the massacre to take guns away
His warm-up act was NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, who appeared Wednesday night at a CNN town hall with Florida shooting victims
By NIKKI SCHWAB
DAILYMAIL.COM
22 February 2018
Amid a new national debate over gun rights, the leader of America’s largest pro-Second Amendment group made an unscheduled speech Thursday at a giant convention of grassroots conservatives, arguing that the level of armed security applied to celebrities and banks should extend to schools.
The National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre opened up the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday blaming ‘school security, the failure of family, the failure of America’s mental health system, and even the unbelievable failure of the FBI, ‘ for last week’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 dead.
‘It’s It’s a bizarre fact that in this country our jewelry stores, all over this country, are more important than our children,’ he fumed from onstage. ‘Our banks, our airports, our NBA games, our NFL games, our office buildings, our movie stars, our politicians, they’re all more protected than our children at school.’
‘Does that make any sense to anybody?’ he asked the crowd. ‘Do we really love our money and our celebrities more than we love our children?’
While an appearance by LaPierre was expected during the three-day conference, held just outside of Washington, D.C., at Maryland’s National Harbor, he was left off the schedule in light of the recent school shooting, with organizers worried that his speech would attract protesters.
But it was clear when NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch was introduced as the first big-name speaker, that LaPierre’s appearance would soon follow.
‘We were all horrified by another terrible tragedy at an American school,’ LaPierre began. ‘Each and every member of the National Rifle Association mourns the loss of the innocent.’
He then delivered a 30-plus minute diatribe against the Democrats and the media to the crowd.
‘The opportunists wasted not one second to exploit tragedy for political gain,’ he said, suggesting the ‘breathless national media’ was eager to ‘smear’ the NRA.
Democrats, LaPierre warned, ‘hate the NRA. They hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom.’
‘For them it’s not a safety issue, it’s a political issue,’ he continued. ‘Their goal is to eliminate the Second Amendment and our firearms freedoms, so they can eradicate all individual freedoms.’
‘Their solution is to make you, all of you, less free,’ LaPierre said.
The NRA CEO spent a big chunk of his speech warning off socialism, suggesting that the modern-day Democratic Party was completely now in the Bernie Sanders’ mold.
LaPierre said it’s ‘terrifying’ that ‘new European-style socialists’ have taken over the Democratic Party.
‘Obama promised a fundamental transformation of our country, and you know what, it began with his own national party,’ the NRA leaders aid. ‘A party that is now infested with saboteurs, who don’t believe in capitalism, don’t believe in the Constitution, don’t believe in our freedom and don’t believe in America as we know it.’
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