This feature appears in the May ’16 issue of NRA America’s 1st Freedom, one of the official journals of the National Rifle Association.
It’s great to be here; thank you so much. I mean that, because we care about America. No matter where you come from, or how you made it to this place, we all gather here just as patriots have always gathered—united in our love of country and perseverance of our great freedoms.
This is the year we make a true and honest and real difference between more freedom or less, between a greater nation or not. Justice [Antonin] Scalia made that kind of difference.
With eloquence, Justice Scalia defended the fundamental freedom guaranteed to every single law-abiding American—a very real and personal liberty given to each one of us, at birth, by our Creator.
Justice Scalia was a monumental jurist and a hero of American freedom. He was also an avid sportsman and shooter, and a darn good wing shot. He was a true friend to America’s 100 million gun owners and the 5 million men and women of the NRA. We miss him and mourn him.
The thought of President [Barack] Obama replacing Justice Scalia is harrowing, but the thought of the next president putting perhaps two or more justices on the bench should scare the hell out of all of us … and here’s someone already planning for that day.
Video excerpt, Hillary Clinton: “I tell you what, I do have a litmus test. I have a bunch of litmus tests.”
Hillary Rodham Clinton couldn’t pass a polygraph, but she’s already got a litmus test. And she flunks both!
We can’t all sit on the Supreme Court and make the kind of difference Justice Scalia made. But if we follow his simple advice, we can make an incredible difference—even change the course of our entire country in this next election.
Here it is, in Scalia’s own words: “The only article in faith that plays any part in my judging is the commandment ‘Thou Shalt Not Lie.’” The thought of President Obama replacing Justice Scalia is harrowing, but the thought of the next president putting perhaps two or more justices on the bench should scare the hell out of all of us.
“Thou Shalt Not Lie.”
At a time when all of us are bombarded with media agenda, their web of spin and political conniving, the very best, most effective and surest way to defend freedom is found in those four little words: Thou Shalt Not Lie.
I talk to people all over America and they’re fed up. Good, honest folks worry themselves sick for the future of their families and their country—while we watch self-serving political and media elites rig and game the system for their own personal wealth and power.
We’re disgusted with the lies. We’re enraged, so outraged that it’s game over for the liars.
This election year proves the rage of the American people to be real and powerful. Candidates, strategists and pundits are learning that telling it like it is brings success. Straight talk brings reward.
Heck, I learned that in kindergarten. Truth counts. Truth matters. Truth endures.
History proves that if you give the American people the straight truth, they will choose honest freedom every time. That is why, for decades, the NRA has been the guiding light for American gun owners and those who treasure our constitutional freedom. The Second Amendment guarantees all of our freedoms. We are unafraid of honest debate and unapologetic in going toe-to-toe with anyone who gets between us and those freedoms.
Yet while so many of our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms have been diminished over the last seven years, Second Amendment freedom has been expanded and NRA membership and favorability among the public has grown to record levels.
Why? Because when it comes to telling the truth and fighting for our fundamental freedoms, no one fights harder, longer or stronger than the NRA. We speak the hard truth no one else will, and when it comes to speaking out and defending our rights, the NRA will never—and I mean never—back down!
We’ve been exposing the liars about our freedom for decades, telling the truth that most Americans know in their hearts to be right.
Back in the early ’90s, the Clintons pushed one anti-gun scheme after another—restrictions that only affected law-abiding Americans—so I debated then-Congressman Charles Schumer on national television. Way back then, I described our broken mental health system and argued those records should be included in a background check.
Watch this old video and see if you catch Schumer’s deceit.
Video excerpt, Wayne LaPierre: “Are you in favor of computerizing the mental health records of people into a national computer bank?” Then-Rep. Charles Schumer: “You bet.”
Folks, that was more than 20 years ago. The congressman shook my hand, went back to his office … and did nothing. To this day, Schumer and Obama and Hillary Clinton have still done nothing. Nothing to ensure that the records of the adjudicated mentally ill are part of the national instant check.
But they’ve sure tried to restrict the rights of law-abiding Americans by imposing laws they have no intention of enforcing against the bad guys. The NRA has fought back, and beat them back, with the truth.
President Bill Clinton attacked lawful gun owners. He claimed the NRA was to blame for violent crime. We told the truth about crime and the politics of the Clinton White House. That the president—who let federal prosecutions of gun crimes drop to near historic lows—seemed willing to tolerate a certain level of violence to further his political agenda.
The media went nuts, pressuring me to back down and apologize. Please watch.
Video excerpt, Wayne LaPierre on “Meet the Press”: “I stand by my comments that if this administration would enforce the federal law, they’d save lives. And they’re not doing it, while they call for a lot more laws.”
We fought back with the truth about Clinton’s lack of enforcement of federal gun laws. Guess what happened that year? NRA membership soared—our popularity greater than that of the president and both chambers of Congress.
Most of all, gun owners in Arkansas and Florida and West Virginia and Tennessee—all over this country—went to the polls and voted their freedom first. Al Gore went away and George W. Bush went to the White House!
Honest debate matters. That’s a lesson the national news media never learns, especially when it comes to the truth about firearms. Honest debate matters. That’s a lesson the national news media never learns, especially when it comes to the truth about firearms.
In 2003, the old failed Clinton gun ban was about to expire. CNN violated all journalistic standards trying to save that ban on semi-automatic firearms by airing video of fully automatic machine guns that had nothing whatsoever to do with the legislation.
I just happened to be in the studio when they aired that video. Take a look.
Video excerpt, Wayne LaPierre on CNN: “Let me say this at the start. I’m glad you ran that story. Because apparently the only difference between The New York Times and CNN is that when a reporter for
The New York Times fakes a story he’s fired, and at CNN he’s not.”
CNN finally admitted I was right and ran a correction, but millions of viewers were deceived. If I hadn’t caught them red-handed—like a bank robber running away with dye exploding on them—they would have continued to hold up the lie as truth.
No wonder trust in the news media is at the lowest level in history. We, the American people, are fed up. We’ve had enough of agenda-driven journalists who refuse to tell the truth.
Truth prevails, especially during our nation’s most troubling times. When a deranged monster murdered 26 young children and teachers in Newtown, NRA members mourned with the nation.
And we were attacked again, blamed again, for tragedy that had nothing to do with lawful gun ownership. So I stood before the nation and spoke the simple truth that ignited a firestorm among the media and political elites. Please watch.
Video excerpt, Wayne LaPierre: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
I simply and honestly proposed that our schools, our children, should be protected at least as much as our jewelry stores or banks or stadiums or Oscars. The national news media savaged me.
What parent wouldn’t feel safer dropping their kids off at school with a police car parked out front?
The political and media elites set their hair on fire. Screaming and screeching, they called me just about every evil, nasty name in the book.
But in state legislatures and school districts all over the country, the American people began implementing what I proposed—placing trained, armed security in their schools. They didn’t wait for the president or Congress to act. They took matters into their own hands to protect their children.
As a result, millions of our children go to school today, no longer the sitting ducks of the worst and most dangerous of all lies—gun-free zones. The news media, protected by their own armed security, will never admit it but, today, millions of children are safer for one reason—the NRA.
The overwhelming majority of Americans agree with the simple truth that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, the politicians and the media be damned!
A couple of months ago, President Obama participated in a so-called town hall—denigrating lawful gun owners, attacking the NRA and attempting to advance his own political agenda.
At one point, a young woman who had been brutally raped mustered the courage to stand and tell the president her story and express her belief in owning a gun for protection. The president lectured her … implied that she really wasn’t trained enough and capable enough of defending herself with a firearm.
Mr. President, no woman should be left to face evil with empty hands! To all of America’s women—you aren’t free if you aren’t free to defend yourself. If the president, Hillary Clinton or anyone else denies you that right, then they don’t care about you at all.
The president went to that town hall to call out the NRA … and the NRA answered right back. Take a look.
Video excerpt, Wayne LaPierre: “I’ll tell you what: I’ll meet you for a one-on-one, one-hour debate, with a mutually agreed upon moderator on any network that will take it. No pre-screened questions. And no gasbag answers.” President Obama will never debate me on guns. His knowledge of that issue couldn’t fill a thimble and he knows it. I would clean his clock and he knows it.
The White House has yet to respond, and they’re just down the street. Is President Obama afraid of the truth?
The truth that during his presidency, federal prosecutions of gun crimes have dropped dramatically. The truth that in his own hometown, over 400 Chicagoans have been shot already this year. Compared to this time a year ago, the homicide rate in Chicago has risen 100 percent … 100 percent!
Does that sound like a number anybody can be proud of? Mr. President, you own Chicago. That’s your failure.
The Obamas and Clintons and all the rest of them just never seem to get the most basic of truths. You know, I hung that sign on our building way back in 1993 when the Clintons ran the White House, and it’s sad to say that 23 years later, it’s déjà vu all over again—same old Clintons and same old message: “It’s the criminals, stupid!”
President Obama brags about what he accomplishes with a pen and a phone, but he refuses to pick up either and order his U.S. attorneys to flip Chicago upside down and prosecute every drug dealer with a gun, gang member with a gun and violent criminal with a gun to the fullest extent of existing federal gun laws.
That would make Chicago safer. That would save lives. But he won’t do that.
That doesn’t fit his political agenda to attack the NRA, propel Hillary Clinton into the White House and destroy the Second Amendment and our personal freedom forever.
That’s dishonest. That’s corrupt. And we Americans see right through all the Obama-Clinton schemes because we know a liar when we see one. We know a political coward when we see one.
President Obama will never debate me on guns. His knowledge of that issue couldn’t fill a thimble and he knows it. I would clean his clock and he knows it.
So he’ll keep hiding behind his podium in rigged appearances—like all the other truth-dodging politicians—and lecture us about what’s wrong with our rights while, day by day, we grow more and more disgusted, enraged and determined to throw ’em all out.
Then there’s Hillary Rodham Clinton. She’s been clear about one thing: She hates the Second Amendment. She hates us and is coming after every bit of our freedom.
Video excerpt, Hillary Clinton: “I will stand up to the gun lobby and we will fight to get common-sense gun safety measures!”
Mrs. Clinton, if you want to come after the NRA—if you want a fight over the God-given rights of America’s 100 million gun owners—if you want to turn this election into a bare-knuckled brawl for the survival of our constitutional freedom … bring it on.
We aren’t going anywhere and we aren’t hard to find. Mrs. Clinton, we are the millions of honest, decent citizens all over this country. We love our nation. We cherish our freedom. November, we’re bringing the fight to you.
All of us have a common cause—our freedom and our future. We can and we must fight for it.
Americans have declared that this election is not going to be about the politicians. We’ve decided, “It’s going to be about me, my life and my freedom. This is my election. I’m taking my country back!”
This election must set our nation back on its rightful course where individual freedom is respected, justice is restored, laws are enforced, government gets off our backs and leaves us the hell alone, and elected officials start telling us the truth!
This is the time to rise up and every one of us make a difference. Will you stand up for America? Come on, will you rise up?
Will you fight as hard as you can to save your country? Will you stand up for truth and freedom?
Let us vow on this day—we will elect our next president. We will stand and fight with all we’ve got. We will save our freedom and take our country back!
Watch the entire speech here.
