The National Rifle Association greeted President Obama’s call in Chicago Tuesday for more gun control by ripping his failure stop violence by enforcing current anti-gun laws in the crime-ridden Windy City and nationwide.
“The untold secret in Washington is that he has all the laws he needs to stop the bloodshed now. Under the existing federal gun laws, he could take every felon with a gun, drug dealer with a gun and criminal gangbanger with a gun off the streets tomorrow and lock them up for five years or more,” said NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre.
“But he won’t do it, his Justice Department won’t do it, and the media never asks why,” he added in a video statement.
In a tough statement, LaPierre rapped Obama, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, and other politicians for taking advantage of crime to push for more gun control instead of enforcing laws on the books.
“He waits for a crime that fits his agenda and blames the NRA. Mr. President, we will not accept blame for your failure,” said LaPierre, adding, “President Obama and Hillary Clinton and other politicians use the carnage to campaign for more gun laws they won’t and don’t enforce.”
Obama just said US is “enjoying historically low rates of violent crime.” What he didn’t say: Gun ownership is at record highs #IACP2015
— NRA (@NRA) October 27, 2015
The group that hosted Obama, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, this week endorsed universal background checks, but it’s unclear how that would stop criminals from selling guns. In his address, Obama also pushed for the background checks, but offered no other solutions to gun crime.
Obama’s call for more gun control came in a city with some of the strictest gun laws in the country — and the highest murder rate in the country.
LaPierre mocked the president’s home town.
“Nothing illustrates America’s breakdown like the way the president’s hometown celebrates its holidays. Memorial Day: 12 dead, 56 wounded. The Fourth of July: 10 dead, 53 wounded. Labor Day: 9 dead, 46 wounded. This kind of third world carnage has become absolutely normal,” he said.
LaPierre and other Second Amendment groups said that a major problem is short prison sentences for illegal gun possession. In Chicago for example, most convicted of gun crimes serve less than half their sentences.
He also indicated that the NRA is ready to step up its campaign against gun control proponents running for president and other offices, starting with state elections in Virginia next week, and nationally as the 2016 presidential election nears.
“No organization has been louder, clearer or more consistent on the urgent need to enforce the federal gun laws than the NRA. And in the face of mounting political and media pressure to demean, shame and silence us, we will fight,” he said.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
