Is there a special hell for Wayne LaPierre?
It’s Sunday. One can but hope.
Three months and a day after the Newtown massacre, Mr. LaPierre, dressed in his trademark business suit and starched white shirt, arrived with a security detail at a convention hall overlooking the Potomac for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, a gathering of thousands of activists sponsored, in part, by the N.R.A.
From the earliest days after the shooting, Mr. LaPierre had been working to counter any legislative impact: sowing concerns about background checks, which in the late 1990s he supported; introducing his “National School Shield” plan to arm teachers, administrators and other school personnel; and making sure his base felt protected as the national trauma sank in…
…“They call us crazy, but no one — no other organization in the world — has spent more millions over more decades to keep Americans safe,” Mr. LaPierre said, referring to the association’s gun safety efforts. …NYT
Except for those who have been mowed down by guns, every day, some place in America.
Disgust for LaPierre grew in late January when he appeared on Capitol Hill for a hearing. His arrival was described in the Washington Post.
Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s chief executive, arrived for his hearing on Capitol Hill in the organization’s trademark fashion: violently.
When he and his colleagues stepped off the elevator in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Wednesday morning and found TV cameras waiting in the hallway, LaPierre’s bodyguards swung into action. One of them, in blatant violation of congressional rules, bumped and body-checked journalists out of the way so they couldn’t film LaPierre or question him as he walked.
“You don’t have jurisdiction here!” a cameraman protested as an NRA goon pushed him against a wall. After the melee, congressional officials informed the NRA officials that, in the halls of Congress, they had to follow congressional procedures — which prohibit manhandling.
This must have come as a surprise to the gun lobbyists, whose swagger seems to suggest that they are, in fact, in control of Congress. In their world, nothing trumps the Second Amendment — not even the First Amendment. …Dana Milbank, WaPo
Time is not on LaPierre’s — or the NRA’s — side. Reality will catch up with them. Some day sooner rather than later we will probably marvel that effective gun control has taken hold and a broad deflation in the NRA’s funding is common knowledge. That’s often the way these hot fights end: with a whimper, not a bang. A whimper is just what we want to hear from LaPierre. Tomorrow or next week, please, not after two or three more mass slaughters.