President Barack Obama will wait until a second term frees him from political concerns to gut Second Amendment rights, NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre tells Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.
Speaking Saturday at the NRA’s 140th annual meeting in Pittsburgh, LaPierre also called for the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder over a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms sting that sold weapons to figures associated with the Mexico drug trade.
“Operation Fast and Furious may have gotten one or perhaps two federal agents killed, and countless other innocent victims have been murdered with the illegal guns that our own government allowed into Mexico all to advance a political agenda,” he said, adding that Holder has claimed he didn't OK the sting..
“He’s the attorney general of the United States of America – the highest law enforcement officer in our land,” LaPierre said. “Who’s in charge? If he didn’t know, then who’s minding the store? If Holder didn’t know, Holder has got to go.
“Mr. President, it’s time to come clean: stop the stonewalling, and stop the lies because the lying is getting people killed every day. Our government has been willing to let people die to advance their assault on the Second Amendment. Our southern border proves it.”
In his interview with Newsmax.TV, LaPierre noted that before running for president, Obama was in favor of all types of gun control, but his first term was not a convenient time for a big fight on the Second Amendment. However, should he get re-elected, “it's Katy, bar the door."
“He has already though, while giving lip-service to the Second Amendment, put Justice (Sonia) Sotomayor on the Supreme Court along with Elena Kagan that will spend the next 25 years trying to gut this freedom in this country,” he said. “So this 2012 election could break the back of the Second Amendment if we don't go out and defend freedom and get to the polls."
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LaPierre said Second Amendment freedoms need to be defended every day or be lost. He said the greatest threat was posed by “elites and politicians that live with all kinds of security and yet they want to deny the American public the right to protect themselves.
“We have 25,000 violent crimes a week in this country,” he said. “The 911 calls are horrible and the government is not protecting those people. … The only thing those law abiding people have is the Second Amendment and the right to own a firearm to protect themselves.”
He said that armed, law-abiding citizens is the only thing that keeps us safe and maintained the only “time government stops crime is if it’s lucky or coincidence.”
LaPierre predicted the 2012 presidential election would be decided in the big gun and hunting states of West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Colorado, and New Mexico.
“And the truth is gun owners and hunters control the swing vote in every one of those states. I don’t think they’re going to let this election be fogged over like the last one. My gosh, President Obama leafleted the heartland of the country last time saying he would always defend the Second Amendment.
… Now we have Sotomayor and Elena Kagan on the Supreme Court and one more nomination could tip this vote the other way and destroy this freedom in this country.”
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