Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she is not intimated by the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre after he singled her and other liberal Democrats out in a speech Thursday smearing the tide of “socialism.”
Furthermore, in the Massachusetts senator’s tweet rager Thursday evening, she pledged to fight the NRA “at every turn” in advocating for stricter gun control measures and also plugged a fundraising link to her re-election campaign.
“Wayne LaPierre can call me whatever he wants. He doesn’t scare me,” Warren said hours after LaPierre’s speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. “You know what scares Wayne LaPierre? That people will lift their voices & demand action. That his name-calling & bullying won’t work anymore.”
“I’m going to fight the @NRA at every turn until we have sensible gun policies that keep our country safe. If Wayne LaPierre thinks we’re terrifying, he ain’t seen nothing yet. Chip in now to show the NRA we’re fighting back,” she added with a link to a fundraising page.
I’m going to fight the @NRA at every turn until we have sensible gun policies that keep our country safe. If Wayne LaPierre thinks we’re terrifying, he ain’t seen nothing yet. Chip in now to show the NRA we’re fighting back. https://t.co/rv6itRjuSA
— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) February 23, 2018
During his address at CPAC, LaPierre, who is the NRA’s executive vice president and CEO, condemned Warren and several of her liberal Democrat contemporaries, including Sen. Kamala Karris of California and Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota.
“How about Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Bill De Blasio, Andrew Cuomo, Cory Booker, Chris Murphy, and Keith Ellison?”, he asked the crowd, answered by boos, according to the Boston Globe. “They are not Democrats in the mold of John F. Kennedy or Tip O’Neill. They hide behind labels like ‘Democrat,’ ‘left-wing,’ and ‘progressive,’ to make their socialist agenda more palatable. And that is terrifying.”
“Socialism is a movement that loves a smear,” LaPierre said while making the case that other freedoms beyond gun rights are in danger, including the freedom of speech. “Real freedom requires the protection of all of our rights. And a Second Amendment isn’t worth its own words in a country where all individual freedoms are destroyed.”
The issue of gun rights has once again gripped the U.S. in the aftermath of last week’s deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
LaPierre, immediately following a fiery main-stage speech by NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, reiterated the NRA’s calls to arm schools and took aim at Democrats and the media for politicizing school shootings. “It’s not a safety issue. It’s a political issue,” LaPierre said.
In the past week, Democrats like Warren have once again ramped up calls for stricter “common-sense” gun control measures.
“The @NRA has been working round the clock since Parkland to stop common-sense gun reform. Including, it seems, bullying those of us who side with students over gun lobbyists. It’s disgusting, but it’s not going to shut us up,” Warren tweeted.
“We won’t stop fighting to ban assault weapons. We won’t stop fighting for background checks. We’re going to fight so kids can to go to school without worrying they might get shot & killed in their classroom,” she added, echoing the concerns of many students, including those who survived the Parkland shooting who have called on politicians to ensure their safety.
President Trump on Thursday pledged to take three steps to address gun violence and school safety, including background checks, a bump stock ban, and raising the age limit to buy rifles to 21.
