Zack Beauchamp and Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress take NRA President Wayne LaPierre to task for writing an op-ed about American safety. And you can tell by the Sarlacc-like photo they used of him that they don’t like him very much.
According to Beauchamp and Millhiser, LaPierre outlines “a series of wildly implausible scenarios in which (among other things) the police will cease to exist because of the deficit and al-Qaeda will provoke the government into stealing your guns.” Beauchamp and Millhiser list nine of the most “insane” quotes out of the op-ed.
1. Violent Latino Gangs Are Out To Get You: “Latin American drug gangs have invaded every city of significant size in the United States. 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.”
Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the United States, second in the world to Mexico City:
And, according to the FBI, “Gangs are expanding, evolving and posing an increasing threat to US communities nationwide…. [g]angs are responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions and up to 90 percent in several others”.
So what’s not factual about what LaPierre said?
2. And They’re Streaming Over The Border: “The president flagrantly defies the 2006 federal law ordering the construction of a secure border fence along the entire Mexican border. So the border today remains porous not only to people seeking jobs in the U.S., but to criminals whose jobs are murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping.”
Obama has claimed that the fence is “now basically complete”, a claim rated “Mostly False” by Politifact.
So yes—our border is still open, especially for criminals to cross.
3. And So Is Al-Qaeda: “Ominously, the border also remains open to agents of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Numerous intelligence sources have confirmed that foreign terrorists have identified the southern U.S. border as their path of entry into the country.”
According to the New York Times, “New intelligence information strongly suggests that Al Qaeda has considered infiltrating the United States through the Mexican border, top government officials told Congress”.
Gee—this LaPierre guy just keeps getting the facts right.
4. And Obama Will Use Them As An Excuse To Take Your Guns: “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.”
In a gun control speech, the President noted “that it’s been just over 100 days since the shooting rampage that killed 20 first-graders and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and reignited the national debate over access to guns.”
In the same speech, the President also brought up the Aurora shooting.
In Aurora, the killer obtained the weapons legally, passing a background check.
In Newtown, the killer’s mother obtained the guns legally, which the killer stole after shooting her.
So why is the President pushing for gun control when it wouldn’t have prevented Aurora, Newtown, or Boston?
Oh wait, that’s right. Because his base is anti-gun.
5. If You Want Gun Safety, You Want Civilization To Collapse: “After Hurricane Sandy, 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.”
South Brooklyn was faced with looting and fights after Hurricane Sandy.
I will bet that plenty of hipsters tried squeezing on their metal gun necklaces while saying “bang” in fruitless efforts to protect their Urban-Outfitters-themed lofts.
6. Thanks To Obama, There Will Soon Be No Cops: “Meanwhile, President Obama is leading this country to financial ruin, borrowing over a trillion dollars a year for phony “stimulus” spending and other payoffs for his political cronies. Nobody knows if or when the fiscal collapse will come, but if the country is broke, there likely won’t be enough money to pay for police protection. And the American people know it.”
Obama promised during the campaign to fully fund the COPS program, which increases funding for local law enforcement, a promise rated as “broken” by PolitiFact.
Hmm…it’s almost as if Obama said that just to get votes or something…
7. But The NRA Is Totally Not Paranoid: “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.”
Let’s look in this last year: we’ve had hurricanes (NYC) tornadoes (Oklahoma) riots (Detroit) terrorists (Boston) gangs (Phoenix) and lone criminals (Aurora, Newtown).
How is this paranoia again?
8. It’s Just That The Collapse Of Civilization Is Right Around The Corner: “We, the American people, clearly see the daunting forces we will undoubtedly face: terrorists, crime, drug gangs, the possibility of Euro-style debt riots, civil unrest or natural disaster.”
In other words: these things have happened all within the last year and are likely to happen again.
9. And We Shall Overcome: “We [the NRA] are the largest civil rights organization in the world.”
With over a million members supporting Amendment Two of the Bill of Rights, they’re pretty hard to ignore.
So no, being concerned about American security using facts to support your argument doesn’t make you “insane”, it makes you reasonable.
