Many of us missed the NRAs 2006 Annual Meeting held in Milwaukee in late May, so we didnt get to hear Wayne R. LaPierres keynote address at the convention. The NRAs executive vice president always has salient points to make on gun ownership, so heres a recap of some of his remarks on Tuesday, May 23:
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… New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg [held a meeting] of big-city mayors in New York City to talk about big-city crime and thats the problem. Theyre all talk and no action. Mike Bloomberg, if you really want to stop violent crime, you dont need to spend taxpayers money to throw parties for mayors and hold seminars and schedule photo ops … and act like violent crime is some new problem with some secret solution. Its real simple. If you want to get crime off your streets, get criminals off your streets!
… Tell your prosecuting attorneys that from now on, no plea bargains, no reduced charges, no dropped cases. A drug dealer caught with a gun goes to jail. A violent felon caught with a gun goes to jail. Discharge a gun in commission of a felony, go to jail. Smuggle a gun, go to jail. If you do that, if you stop talking and start acting, your violent crime rate will drop 30-40-50% in one year.
… Ever since last September, NRA members have been asking me, “What really happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina? Is it true they took away peoples guns?” … In the aftermath of Katrina, and for the first time in American history, New Orleans and other government officials ordered law enforcement officers to go door-to-door to confiscate firearms from law-abiding citizens at gunpoint.
… Ive got something very personal to say to … Mike Wallace, and the Katie Courics, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and every other anti-gun journalist and media conglomerate who buried this story.
For twenty-five long years youve been telling us: “The government is not gonna knock on doors to take peoples guns. Come on Wayne. Youre just trying to scare people. Nobodys ever going to do that. Thatll never happen!” Well it did happen, and for the next twenty-five years well be telling you: Remember New Orleans!
… The NRA is supporting new state and federal legislation that makes it a crime to forcibly disarm law-abiding citizens! And violation should result in arrest and hard prison time for whoever gave the order!
… If you are in a position of public authority, and you use it to disarm law-abiding citizens, youre not going to get your hand slapped, or pay a fine, or get scolded by some judge a few months down the line. Youre going to be arrested on the spot and youre going to jail!
When Chuck Schumer says theyll never confiscate your guns, look him straight in the face and say: Remember New Orleans! And never, never, never forget!
