NRA's response to Inaugural B.S.
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 2:21 am
Wayne LaPierre
January 22 2013
Thank you for that kind introduction. And thank you for your warm
welcome.
Yesterday in his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama
quoted the Declaration of Independence and he talked about
"unalienable rights." I would argue that his words make a mockery
of both.
I'd like to talk to you about one line near the end of Barack Obama's
speech where he said, quote "We cannot mistake absolutism for
principle." Let me quote the president again: "We cannot mistake
absolutism for principle."
So what is this "absolutism" the president attacks? And what are the
so-called "principles" that he wants us to settle for instead?
Obama wants to turn the idea of "absolutism" into a dirty word, just
another word for "extremism." He wants you to accept the idea of
"principles" as he sees fit to define them. It's a way of redefining
words so that common sense is turned upside-down and nobody
knows the difference.
2
Think about it. As families, when we're broke and all our credit cards
are maxed out, we're forced to tighten our belts.
But when the government is broke and our bond rating is tumbling and
the president wants more new social programs, borrowing more
money is supposed to be "principled." And anybody who questions that
is a no-good "absolutist” — Obama code for extremist.
We as gun owners face the same kind of false ultimatum. We're told
that to stop insane killers, we must accept less freedom — less than
the criminal class and political class keep for themselves.
We're told that limits on magazine capacity or bans on 100-year-old
firearms technology — bans that only affect lawful people — will
somehow make us safer.
We're told that wanting the same technology that the criminals and
our leaders keep for themselves is a form of "absolutism" and that
accepting less freedom and protection for ourselves is the only
"principled" way to live.
Think about what that means. Barack Obama is saying that the only
"principled" way to make children safe is to make lawful citizens less
safe and violent criminals more safe.
Criminals couldn't care less about Barack Obama's so-called
"principles"! They don’t have principles — that’s why they’re criminals.
3
Obama wants you to believe that putting the federal government in
the middle of every firearm transaction — except those between
criminals — will somehow make us safer.
That means forcing law-abiding people to fork over excessive fees to
exercise their rights. Forcing parents to fill out forms to leave a family
heirloom to a loved one — standing in line and filling out a bunch of
bureaucratic paperwork, just so a grandfather can give a grandson a
Christmas gift. He wants to put every private, personal transaction
under the thumb of the federal government, and he wants to keep all
those names in a massive federal registry.
There are only two reasons for that federal list of gun owners —
to tax them or take them. And to anyone who says that’s excessive,
Barack Obama says you’re an “absolutist.”
He doesn't understand you. He doesn't agree with the freedoms you
cherish. If the only way he can force you to give 'em up is through
scorn and ridicule, he's more than willing to do it — even as he claims
the moral high ground.
He said it yesterday! In the very same sentence that Obama talked
about "absolutism" versus "principle," he also scolded his critics for
"name-calling," as he called it.
He's more than willing to demonize his opponents, silence his critics
and slur the NRA — in the words of Senator Charles Schumer, as an
"extremist fringe group." And look at how he demonizes Republicans
in Congress.
4
When Barack Obama says, "we cannot mistake absolutism for
principle," what he's saying is that precision and clarity and exactness
in language and law should be abandoned in favor of his nebulous,
undefined "principles."
I’ve got news for the president. Absolutes do exist. Words do have
specific meaning, in language and in law. It’s the basis of all
civilization. It's why our laws are written down: So the "letter of the
law" carries the force of the law.
That’s why our Bill of Rights was written into law, to ensure the
fundamental freedoms of a minority could never be denied by a
majority. Those are the principles we call unalienable rights.
Without those absolutes, without those protections, democracy decays
into nothing more than two wolves and one lamb voting on what to eat
for lunch. I urge our president to use caution when attacking clearly
defined "absolutes" in favor of his "principles."
Mister President, just because you wish words meant something
other than what they mean, you don’t have the right to define them
any way you want. Because when words can mean anything, they
mean nothing.
When "absolutes" are abandoned for "principles," the U.S. Constitution
becomes a blank slate for anyone's graffiti and our rights and
freedoms are defaced.
5
Words do have meaning, Mister President. And those meanings are
absolute, especially when it comes to our Bill of Rights.
Don't take it from me. Take it from former Democratic U.S. Senator
and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. Fifty years ago, after he
had been appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, liberal Justice Hugo Black said, and I quote: "There are
'absolutes' in our Bill of Rights, and they were put there on purpose by
men who knew what words meant and meant their prohibitions to be
'absolutes.'" End quote.
Let me read that again. "There are 'absolutes' in our Bill of Rights, and
they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant
and meant their prohibitions to be 'absolutes.'"
Justice Black understood the danger of self-appointed arbiters of what
"freedom" really means — like President Barack Obama — who want to
redefine freedom, whittle away freedom and infringe upon the
freedoms that we the people reserve to ourselves.
They're God-given freedoms. They belong to us as our birthright. No
government ever gave them to us and no government can ever take
them away.
Mister President, you may not like that. You may wish it were some
other way. But you can’t argue that it isn't true.
In that, the American people are, and will always remain, utterly
absolute! We are not people to be trivialized, marginalized or
6
demonized as unreasonable. We're not children who need to be
parented or misguided "bitter clingers" to guns and religion.
We get up every day, we work hard to pay our taxes, we cherish our
families and we care about their safety. We believe in living honorably,
and living within our means.
We believe we deserve, and have every right to, the same level of
freedom that our government leaders keep for themselves, and the
same capabilities and same technologies that criminals use to prey
upon us and our families. That means we believe in our right to defend
ourselves and our families with semi-automatic technology.
We believe that if neither the criminal nor the political class is limited
by magazine capacity, we shouldn't be limited in our capacity either.
We believe in our country. We believe in our Bill of Rights. And we
believe in our Second Amendment, all of our Second Amendment.
Because we believe in the freedom and safety that it, and it alone,
guarantees absolutely.
Mister President, you might think that calling us "absolutists" is a
clever way of "name-calling" without using names. But if that is
"absolutist," then we are as "absolutist" as the Founding Fathers and
framers of the Constitution ... and we're proud of it!
Thank you very much
January 22 2013
Thank you for that kind introduction. And thank you for your warm
welcome.
Yesterday in his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama
quoted the Declaration of Independence and he talked about
"unalienable rights." I would argue that his words make a mockery
of both.
I'd like to talk to you about one line near the end of Barack Obama's
speech where he said, quote "We cannot mistake absolutism for
principle." Let me quote the president again: "We cannot mistake
absolutism for principle."
So what is this "absolutism" the president attacks? And what are the
so-called "principles" that he wants us to settle for instead?
Obama wants to turn the idea of "absolutism" into a dirty word, just
another word for "extremism." He wants you to accept the idea of
"principles" as he sees fit to define them. It's a way of redefining
words so that common sense is turned upside-down and nobody
knows the difference.
2
Think about it. As families, when we're broke and all our credit cards
are maxed out, we're forced to tighten our belts.
But when the government is broke and our bond rating is tumbling and
the president wants more new social programs, borrowing more
money is supposed to be "principled." And anybody who questions that
is a no-good "absolutist” — Obama code for extremist.
We as gun owners face the same kind of false ultimatum. We're told
that to stop insane killers, we must accept less freedom — less than
the criminal class and political class keep for themselves.
We're told that limits on magazine capacity or bans on 100-year-old
firearms technology — bans that only affect lawful people — will
somehow make us safer.
We're told that wanting the same technology that the criminals and
our leaders keep for themselves is a form of "absolutism" and that
accepting less freedom and protection for ourselves is the only
"principled" way to live.
Think about what that means. Barack Obama is saying that the only
"principled" way to make children safe is to make lawful citizens less
safe and violent criminals more safe.
Criminals couldn't care less about Barack Obama's so-called
"principles"! They don’t have principles — that’s why they’re criminals.
3
Obama wants you to believe that putting the federal government in
the middle of every firearm transaction — except those between
criminals — will somehow make us safer.
That means forcing law-abiding people to fork over excessive fees to
exercise their rights. Forcing parents to fill out forms to leave a family
heirloom to a loved one — standing in line and filling out a bunch of
bureaucratic paperwork, just so a grandfather can give a grandson a
Christmas gift. He wants to put every private, personal transaction
under the thumb of the federal government, and he wants to keep all
those names in a massive federal registry.
There are only two reasons for that federal list of gun owners —
to tax them or take them. And to anyone who says that’s excessive,
Barack Obama says you’re an “absolutist.”
He doesn't understand you. He doesn't agree with the freedoms you
cherish. If the only way he can force you to give 'em up is through
scorn and ridicule, he's more than willing to do it — even as he claims
the moral high ground.
He said it yesterday! In the very same sentence that Obama talked
about "absolutism" versus "principle," he also scolded his critics for
"name-calling," as he called it.
He's more than willing to demonize his opponents, silence his critics
and slur the NRA — in the words of Senator Charles Schumer, as an
"extremist fringe group." And look at how he demonizes Republicans
in Congress.
4
When Barack Obama says, "we cannot mistake absolutism for
principle," what he's saying is that precision and clarity and exactness
in language and law should be abandoned in favor of his nebulous,
undefined "principles."
I’ve got news for the president. Absolutes do exist. Words do have
specific meaning, in language and in law. It’s the basis of all
civilization. It's why our laws are written down: So the "letter of the
law" carries the force of the law.
That’s why our Bill of Rights was written into law, to ensure the
fundamental freedoms of a minority could never be denied by a
majority. Those are the principles we call unalienable rights.
Without those absolutes, without those protections, democracy decays
into nothing more than two wolves and one lamb voting on what to eat
for lunch. I urge our president to use caution when attacking clearly
defined "absolutes" in favor of his "principles."
Mister President, just because you wish words meant something
other than what they mean, you don’t have the right to define them
any way you want. Because when words can mean anything, they
mean nothing.
When "absolutes" are abandoned for "principles," the U.S. Constitution
becomes a blank slate for anyone's graffiti and our rights and
freedoms are defaced.
5
Words do have meaning, Mister President. And those meanings are
absolute, especially when it comes to our Bill of Rights.
Don't take it from me. Take it from former Democratic U.S. Senator
and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. Fifty years ago, after he
had been appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, liberal Justice Hugo Black said, and I quote: "There are
'absolutes' in our Bill of Rights, and they were put there on purpose by
men who knew what words meant and meant their prohibitions to be
'absolutes.'" End quote.
Let me read that again. "There are 'absolutes' in our Bill of Rights, and
they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant
and meant their prohibitions to be 'absolutes.'"
Justice Black understood the danger of self-appointed arbiters of what
"freedom" really means — like President Barack Obama — who want to
redefine freedom, whittle away freedom and infringe upon the
freedoms that we the people reserve to ourselves.
They're God-given freedoms. They belong to us as our birthright. No
government ever gave them to us and no government can ever take
them away.
Mister President, you may not like that. You may wish it were some
other way. But you can’t argue that it isn't true.
In that, the American people are, and will always remain, utterly
absolute! We are not people to be trivialized, marginalized or
6
demonized as unreasonable. We're not children who need to be
parented or misguided "bitter clingers" to guns and religion.
We get up every day, we work hard to pay our taxes, we cherish our
families and we care about their safety. We believe in living honorably,
and living within our means.
We believe we deserve, and have every right to, the same level of
freedom that our government leaders keep for themselves, and the
same capabilities and same technologies that criminals use to prey
upon us and our families. That means we believe in our right to defend
ourselves and our families with semi-automatic technology.
We believe that if neither the criminal nor the political class is limited
by magazine capacity, we shouldn't be limited in our capacity either.
We believe in our country. We believe in our Bill of Rights. And we
believe in our Second Amendment, all of our Second Amendment.
Because we believe in the freedom and safety that it, and it alone,
guarantees absolutely.
Mister President, you might think that calling us "absolutists" is a
clever way of "name-calling" without using names. But if that is
"absolutist," then we are as "absolutist" as the Founding Fathers and
framers of the Constitution ... and we're proud of it!
Thank you very much