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Wayne LaPierre
Executive Vice President, National Rifle Association
My goal today is the same as your founder at this club, Edward F. Adams: I only propose to find the truth and turn it loose on the world. Today, I want to propose to you that we must work more thoughtfully to agree that the Second Amendment is the fulcrum of freedom in our nation, because freedom and the Second Amendment are mutually interdependent. They are the "chicken and the egg"; neither can exist without the other. They are as inseparable as you and your shadow.
In the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment says, "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." It's tempting to take this time today to turn loose the truth about a whole litany of fiction about the Second Amendment and the NRA. On our watch, in the last 20 years, we have tried to expose most of the lies being put out there, but if you pick up a newspaper or turn on your television, a lot of the media still perpetuate a lot of the myths. I could take this time also to lay out the indisputable historical record that proves the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms, not a collective right. The Second Amendment is about you; it's not about the National Guard. I could show how the so-called "assault weapons ban," that some in Congress want to extend for another decade, has had absolutely zero effect on crime, and that it didn't ban one single assault weapon. But the semi-automatic firearms that it did ban are not high powered, they are not rapid fire, they're not military killing machines, they don't spray bullets from the hip like a garden hose. Do those words sound familiar to anybody in this room? I could take this time to expose the truth about the nonexistent plastic gun, the nonexistent cop-killer bullet and the nonexistent gun show loophole. Or I could explain how ballistic fingerprinting isn't just stupid, it's an impossible idea. I could prove to you that national gun registration and gun owner licensing – like we do for cars and drivers, as they always say – is a really bad idea. I could show you how crime rates have dropped in every single one of the 37 states that have enacted right-to-carry a concealed firearm legislation – and all of those states have lower crime rates than the national averages.
I could show you why gun buy-backs are pointless, and why waiting periods are dangerous. And I could take this time to explain why a trigger lock is perfectly appropriate in some situations, but mandatory trigger lock laws create far more danger than they prevent. I'd love to tell you how the NRA Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program has been distributed to more than 17 million children nationwide, teaching them not to touch guns; and that gun accident rates among kids, in fact gun accident rates of all ages, have never been lower in the United States. I could take this time to prove with statistical certainty that lawful Americans use guns somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 million times a year to thwart crime. In fact, just the presence of a firearm 99 percent of the time is enough, and it's never fired. I could expose how the new gun-banners are really the same old gun-banners. If you listen closely you'll hear they've just rewritten the language of gun control. They're now talking about "gun safety" and "sane safeguards" and "common sense levels of control." Yeah, right. I could prove to you that guns don't cause crime, and that no anti-gun law instituted anywhere ever can take credit for a reduction in crime.
On the contrary, I could report what the media doesn't: that recent gun bans in England, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa have resulted in skyrocketing rates of murder, robbery, rape and home invasions. Today you are six times more likely to be the victim of armed robbery in London than in New York City.
But the broader question I want you to consider is this: If the NRA is so wrong, how come the vast majority of Americans think we're right? Year after year, independent national polls have consistently confirmed that the NRA represents the majority view of American citizens, whether they own guns or not. We have about 4 million members, but the exit polls in the last election show that between 23 and 27 million voters claimed to be members of or affiliated with the NRA. In fact, as of June last year, more Americans say the NRA speaks for them than the Republican Party, the Democratic Party or the AFL-CIO. If we're so wrong, how can this be?
Polarization
A guidepost of our communications is called forced-polarity. Forced-polarity means that if you define a position on an issue and you draw a line in the sand and you force people to pick sides, most people will stand on your side of the line. Listening to the media, you'd think polarization is a bad thing – but it can only happen in a democracy. Polarization has been the theme of our culture since our ancestors debated whether to declare independence from England. Patrick Henry invented polarity in his fiery appeal in 1775. He acknowledged that, "different men often see the same subject in different lights." But on a matter as momentous as our liberties, he declared there is "no time for ceremony…give me liberty or give me death!" When Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, a year later, he drew a line and forced people to take sides. If he hadn't, the majority view to remain a British colony might never have shifted to a majority view to declare independence. Polarization has always been the great crowbar that pries apart political gridlock. From slavery and suffrage and Prohibition, to isolationism and abortion, to states' rights and gun rights and gay rights, polarization is the power plant that changes policy.
So let's get polar. I'll draw some line and you take sides. (By the way, the numbers you are going to be hearing from me are from an independent poll conducted just this last December by Zogby International. They are not particular fans of the Second Amendment.) Let's start with gun control in general.
Do you want new, tougher gun control legislation to fight crime? Or do you think we need better enforcement of gun laws already on the books? Winner: Two-thirds of Americans say we have enough gun laws on the books and they want better enforcement of existing gun laws, not more gun-control legislation.
Do you think America's firearms industry should have immunity from being sued if a criminal uses their legal product in a crime? Winner: Almost three out of four Americans agree that America's firearms industry should be protected from such frivolous lawsuits.
Do you think a citizen should have the right to carry a concealed firearm if they pass a background check, take a training course and pay administrative fees? Winner: Almost 80 percent of Americans tell Zogby International that's a good law.
Do you think the NRA is right to be fighting gun control legislation at both the federal and state level? Winner: 64 percent of voters nationwide agree the NRA is right to fight gun control legislation at every level.
Do you think hunting wild animals for food or sport is an American tradition and essential to wildlife management? Or do you think hunting is a cruel sport and should be outlawed? Winner: More than 80 percent say hunting is a tradition and essential to wildlife management. Some states are being overrun with growing populations of deer, bear, coyotes and other animals. What do you think is the best option: The states should lengthen hunting seasons; the states should use non-lethal methods of control; people should learn to live with wildlife? Winner: An overwhelming majority of 61 percent of voters felt the best option is lengthening hunting seasons.
The United States Supreme Court ruled that organizations like the NRA can't spend money to criticize political candidates within 60 days of a general election. But the Supreme Court exempted media organizations, so they could promote candidates on TV and radio any time they wish. Do you agree or disagree that this gives a media-supported candidate an unfair advantage in the elections? Winner: 70 percent of the American public told Zogby it's unfair, affirming that voters think First Amendment rights were infringed in the Supreme Court ruling. These percentages hold up across the demographic board: military and non-military; churchgoers and non-churchgoers; gun owners and non-gun owners; Catholics and Protestants; urban and rural; Democrats, Republicans and Independents; and I could add, because it is in the Zogby research, red states and blue states. But what about your answers to those questions? You may not have always found yourself on the side of the majority. That's because more and more there seem to be two Americas. No longer do Americans agree on exactly what it means to be an American. As Patrick Henry said, we may see some subjects in different lights, but on a matter as momentous as freedom secured by the Second Amendment I agree with him, there is no time for ceremony. Thomas Jefferson didn't need polls. He defined our nation with truths he called "self-evident" – truths that remained self-evident for 213 years, until recently.
So let's forget the polls and let me tell you what I believe in my heart to be self-evident. Try it on, and if it feels self-evident, if it feels like the truth, maybe we're not so polarized after all. I believe that being free is better than not being free. Nowhere else on Earth or ever in human history has a people been more free than we. History instructs us with brutal certainty that a disarmed people will not remain a free people. A defenseless populace has never boded well for the peasant class, the working class or especially for journalists who don't toe the party line – our media often forget that fact. Our Founding Fathers believed that an armed citizenry is fundamental to freedom and the antidote to tyranny.
Today, gun-haters shrug and say, Well, yeah, but that was then and this is now. I'll be the first to agree with them. This is now, where the few remaining supposedly free countries in the world, like England, Australia and Canada have disarmed and left their citizens defenseless against violent criminals. This is now. That witness thousands perish in the twin towers, in the Pentagon; entire villages of Kurds gassed to death; unspeakable slaughter in the former Yugoslavia; unarmed innocents butchered in Libya, Uganda and Rwanda; and unthinkable killing fields in Iraq, Iran, the former Soviet Union, Central America, Somalia, China and North Vietnam. Our Founders took into account the unchanging nature of human freedom.
I believe the Second Amendment exists for a purpose far grander than the freedom to own arms; it exists because owning arms symbolizes freedom. I believe that dwelling within that wooden stock and forged steel is something that endows the most common person with the most uncommon birthright. When ordinary hands are free to own this extraordinary symbol of self-evident, God-given right that honors and affirms the full measure of dignity and liberty and opportunity every human deserves, that's getting close to what it means to be an American. It doesn't matter whether its purpose is to defend our shores or your front door. It doesn't matter whether a gun is a right of passage for a young man or a tool of survival for a young woman. It doesn't matter whether it brings meat to the table or trophies to the shelf. Without respect to age, gender, race or class, the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms affirms that you are free, that your life counts and that you trust those who follow to safeguard those freedoms just as you have. That's why even though it's No. 2 on the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment is America's first freedom. The Second Amendment is America's first freedom because it is the one right that protects all the others. Among the freedoms of speech, of the press, of religion, of assembly, of redress of grievances, it is first among equals. The right to keep and bear arms is the one right that permits rights to exist at all. It's a right that says every law-abiding person in this room may take up arms to defend yourself, to defend your lives, your family, your property and your country. In the entire Bill of Rights, only the Second Amendment creates the absolute capacity to live without fear and therefore to pursue happiness. Either you want that, and believe that, or you don't. If you do, we must work together to preserve our freedom and the Second Amendment intact, because they are mutually interdependent, one and the same, as inseparable as finger and thumb.
The line about the price of liberty being eternal vigilance is true, too. Freedom is never an achieved state; like electricity, we've got to keep generating it or the lights go out. This sacred concept is self-evident to the majority of Americans; they get it, and they intend to keep it. That's why the NRA isn't wrong and why the majority of Americans are right. That's why I chose not to spend our time together debunking the same old concocted schemes and scams of the gun-ban lobby. Far more crucial is our duty to grasp the vanishing blessings of freedom and never let go.
There would be no freedom in the world if it weren't for America. There would be no freedom in America if it weren't for the Second Amendment. There would be no Second Amendment if it weren't for the National Rifle Association. That's the truth we chose to turn loose on the world. I urge you to be true to your founder's words. Take what I've told you, investigate it, find the truth for yourself, understand it, make it your own. Then challenge those who distort it, no matter how powerful. Freedom needs you on its watch.
