Lyin' LaPierre

I have said it before on this blog, and I’ll say it again: fuck the NRA.

On the morning of Thursday, February 22, barely a week after the bloodbath at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, Wayne LaPierre spoke to the Conservative Political Action Conference at a location that neither of the press reports I saw identified.

The NRA’s executive vice president and CEO went straight to fear mongering and smear, warning his listeners that their second amendment rights were at risk. He labeled Democratic leaders calling for revising the nation’s gun laws a “tidal wave of new European socialist.” He singled out Sens. Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren, among others.

“As usual, the opportunists wasted not one second to exploit tragedy for political gain,” LaPierre lied. “Their solution is to make you, all of you, less free.”

I happen to admire some of the people that LaPierre lied about, Sen. Harris in particular. So I am rather angry as I write this.

LaPierre spewed so much bullshit I don’t even know where to begin. He is the opportunist exploiting this tragedy. (The Washington Post said he and the NRA went “on the offensive.”)

I am especially incensed at his socialist smear. They’ll make you (us) “less free,” he lied.

Except for a brief flirtation with the Greens some years back, I have never belonged to any political party. But I have been reading a lot about socialism lately, and coming to understand that at bedrock, that is what I am – albeit an intuitive one. I am not now nor have I ever been a member of. But if I joined any political party, that would be the one.

LaPierre, in his slander, tried to place socialism on the same level as child molestation – an unspeakable horror. Whether he knows what it really means is beside the point. He probably does, but as a lying sack of shit and an opportunist himself, he’s exploiting fear – in the wake of an appalling tragedy that might not have happened if a sick individual had not had easy access to a military-grade weapon of mass destruction.

For the record, socialism, at its most fundamental level, is about equal opportunity. Contrast that to capitalism, which celebrates the accumulation of excessive wealth at the expense of others. I’ve been reading an interesting book lately called The “S” Word, by John Nichols, which demonstrates convincingly that socialism has made significant contributions to the United States over the years (the eight hour workday, for example) and is as American as, well, apple pie.

But LaPierre, that deceitful zealot, shamelessly misrepresents it.

On top of that, he calls out for more blood. “To stop a bad guy with a gun,” he said at the end of his C-PAC speech, “it takes a good guy with a gun.” This is the same bullshit line he used in the aftermath of the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School five years ago.

Shortly before Wayne LaPierre delivered his speech, pig-ignorant Trump tweeted: “Wayne [et al] who work so hard at the @NRA are Great People and Great American Patriots. They love our Country and will do the right thing.”

By the way, I realize this blog post lacks focus. I guess the point is:

Fuck the NRA.