September, 2011.
President Obama has done nothing to restrict gun ownership, and has only strengthened gun rights by allowing them in national parks and on Amtrak trains. But if you believe the NRA's executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, President Obama's support of gun rights is only evidence that he actually wants to remove your gun rights. From LaPierre's speech at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida:
"They’ll say gun owners — they’ll say they left them alone…In public, the president will remind us that he’s put off calls from his party to renew the old Clinton ban, that he hasn’t pushed for new gun control laws…The president will offer the Second Amendment lip service and hit the campaign trail saying he’s actually been good for the Second Amendment. But it’s a big fat stinking lie!…It’s all part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment in our country…Before the president was even sworn into office, they met and they hatched a conspiracy of public deception to try to guarantee his re-election in 2012.
That's rich! Next time someone does you a favor and tries to see your side of an issue, be sure to accuse them of plotting against you on that issue. See what happens.
Here is what ThinkProgress.org had to say about LaPierre’s statement:
LaPierre’s iron-clad logic is that Obama’s failure to take any action against gun owners in his first term means he is conspiring to launch an all-out assault on their rights in his second term. Equally ridiculous is LaPierre’s suggestion that he somehow has secret knowledge that the president “makes fun of gun-owners” when he’s in private or had a conspiratorial meeting with advisers before he took office where he plotted the Second Amendment’s downfall.
“Our freedom is at risk at this election like never before,” LaPierre claimed at the beginning of his speech, using the same fear-mongering the NRA has depended on since Obama took office to enhance their own membership and financial contributions.
It’s unclear, however, why anyone should believe the NRA’s paranoia. By LaPierre’s logic, Obama also has a secret plan to launch a manned mission to Uranus, convert the nation to Pastafarianism, and wipe out the pink flamingo. After all, Obama has done exactly as much to accomplish these three goals as he has done to undermine gun owners’ rights.
PolitiFact.com rated LaPierre’s statements as “mostly false.”
Just another wacko pro-gun conspiracy theory!
Just another wacko pro-gun conspiracy theory!
