INDIANAPOLIS – With journalists from across the country sitting in the audience, National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre blasted members of the national media during the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum on Friday. He argued “media dishonesty” and government misinformation have joined forces in America, and neither group has a right to tell citizens how to defend themselves.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - APRIL 25: NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre speaks during the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting Leadership Forum on April 25, 2014 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The NRA annual meeting runs from April 25-27. John Gress/Getty Images
LaPierre told NRA members that journalists refuse hold lawmakers accountable when they pass laws without even reading them. He also said the media fail to hold officials’ feet to the fire on issues like Benghazi and the IRS targeting scandal.
“The media elites whitewash it all.” LaPierre added. “‘Move on,’ they tell us. ‘There’s nothing to see here.’”
“The media’s intentional corruption of the truth is an abomination. And NRA members, we will never submit and surrender to the national media, I promise you that,” he said to applause, his voice increasing in volume.
The head of the NRA explained that Americans don’t trust government because government has “proven unworthy of our trust.” Further, one of the greatest freedoms in the world, he said, is the right to defend your life and that of your family — with “all the rifles, shotguns and handguns we want.”
When he asked the attendees if they trusted the government to protect them, the crowd responded with a resounding “No!” The crowd also loudly agreed with LaPierre’s assertion that the most efficient way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
He said the media will surely sneer at him and the NRA’s members this weekend at the group’s annual convention, but they still can’t “change the truth.”
“They can’t change the fact that all over America there are more than 100 million good guys and good gals… and a bunch of us are here right now,” he said.
LaPierre wrapped up his rousing speech by unveiling a new anti-Michael Bloomberg video that paints the former New York City mayor as a rich elitist who's trying to take on honest, hard-working gun owners. You can watch that video here.
