NRA's Wayne LaPierre, Lindsey Graham play the 'racial scare' card in gun control debate
OPINION - NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre unleashed an incendiary manifesto on Thursday, describing America -- and Brooklyn, New York in particular -- as a virtual hellscape...
National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre unleashed an incendiary manifesto on Thursday, describing America — and Brooklyn, New York in particular — as a virtual hellscape of marauding Hispanic gangs, looters and terrorists, all poised to menace anyone who hasn’t gotten themselves a semi-automatic … or two, or three.
“Latin American drug gangs have invaded every city of significant size in the United States,” LaPierre wrote in an op-ed entitled “Stand and Fight,” which was posted to the conservative Daily Caller website. “Phoenix is already one of the kidnapping capitals of the world, and though the states on the U.S./Mexico border may be the first places in the nation to suffer from cartel violence, by no means are they the last.”
He went on to accuse President Barack Obama of failing to protect the U.S. southern border, and claimed that “when the next terrorist attack comes, the Obama administration won’t accept responsibility. Instead, it will do what it does every time: blame a scapegoat and count on Obama’s “mainstream” media enablers to go along.”
“A heinous act of mass murder—either by terrorists or by some psychotic who should have been locked up long ago—will be the pretext to unleash a tsunami of gun control.”
LaPierre launched into a frightening description of what sounds like post-Apocalyptic New York after Hurricane Sandy last month, alleging that in the aftermath of the storm, flooding and subsequent blackout that darkened much of New York City, “we saw the hellish world that the gun prohibitionists see as their utopia. Looters ran wild in south Brooklyn. There was no food, water or electricity. And if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark, or you might not get home at all.”
“Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals. These are perils we are sure to face—not just maybe. It’s not paranoia to buy a gun. It’s survival. It’s responsible behavior, and it’s time we encourage law-abiding Americans to do just that.”
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, a conservative former Republican congressman from Florida, called LaPierre’s manifesto “racially tinged,” paranoid, and “straight out of The Book of Eli.'”
“Yeah, it’s responsible to own a gun. It’s responsible to protect your family. It’s responsible to have a handgun in your house. It’s responsible to have a shotgun. It’s responsible to have a hunting rifle,” Scarborough said on Morning Joe on Thursday. “But Wayne LaPierre is suggesting if you are against Americans being able to own assault weapons with 30-round high-capacity magazines, that somehow you’re going to — and he said ‘Hispanic drug gangs are coming to America,’ and those terrible people in Brooklyn, don’t go out after dark. I mean, this is so laced with racial overtones that the Republican Party, if they were smart, their leaders today would condemn it, but they’re not smart. They’re scared. And you know if they keep running scared, they’re going to lose more votes. They’re going to get hammered in future elections if they allow this clown to continue to lead them around by their nose. They’re shameful. They need to be leaders.”
Obama campaign strategist David Plouffe responded to the manifesto via Twitter on Wednesday, writing, “Hard to believe this is real. Every GOPer should read and decide if this delusional person will call the shots.”
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