Riverfront Times April 19, 2012 : Page 10
Straight Shootin? continued from page 9 boasts, referring to the ointment as his “miracle drug.” “I use rum as my drug,” deadpans his col-league, still clad in fencing armor. “It works.” T he big bummer about attending Friday’s political-speech bonanza — dubbed the “Celebration of American Values Leadership Forum” — is that it requires skipping both the “Dog Obedience 101” and “Advanced Sausage Processing” seminars. But the speeches are the cornerstone of the annual conference, and the Edward Jones Dome is dressed up for the occasion. Carpet covers the fi eld, and folding chairs face a giant stage and video screen. People shuffl ing into the space assume the hushed tones of those entering a cathedral. In case you missed the point that “pro-NRA” means “patriotic,” the words “Celebration of American Values” car-ousel around the stadium on a digital screen. After the dimming of lights, the pledge and the national anthem, NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox addresses the faithful. His drawl is relaxed, but his rhetorical guns are blazing. “Every day a new attack on our values rears its ugly head,” he warns those assembled, who now fi ll up the bulk of the fi eld-level chairs and some of the stadium seats. “Most of these [attacks] seem to come from the Obama ad-ministration.” Cox then shows a seventeen-year-old video in which current attorney general Eric Holder (at the time the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia) expresses his desire “to make a part of every [school] day some kind of anti-violence, anti-gun message…. We have to really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.” The crowd jeers. “Let that sink in for a second,” Cox con-tinues. “Let’s look at Webster’s defi nition of brainwash: ‘To force someone to give up their basic beliefs through indoctrination.’ [It’s] per-suasion by propaganda. Not truth, not facts, not reality. Propaganda.” And Cox proclaims his belief that Obama and his henchman, Eric Holder, are conspiring to disarm the nation. He doesn’t mention that the president has signed laws allowing guns into national parks and Amtrak trains. (According to an essay penned last Novem-ber by NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, Obama has hatched “a sinister plot…. behind closed doors, to launch a massive anti-gun onslaught when the time is right.”) “Let’s state this in very clear terms,” Cox announces. “President Obama needs to fi re Eric Holder, and in November, we need to fi re the president.” The crowd leaps to its feet and roars approval. And they’re just getting warmed up. Wait-ing their turn behind the dais is a bevy of GOP A-listers, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and the pre-sumptive 2012 Republican candidate for presi-dent, Mitt Romney. Of all those names, Romney has perhaps the most complicated relationship with the NRA. In his unsucessful 1994 run for the U.S. Senate against Ted Kennedy, he supported the federal assault-weapons ban, as well as the Brady Bill 10 RIVERFR ONT TIMES Left: Guitar god and NRA activist, Ted Nu-gent. Above: NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre. Below: Reps of DPMS Fire-arms. For more conference photos visit www .riverfronttimes.com/slideshow/index . JENNIFER SILVERBER G that required background checks on gun sales. As recently as 2007 Romney reiterated to the late Tim Russert on Meet the Press his support for a ban of “unusually lethal” guns, adding: “I don’t line up 100 percent with the NRA.” Nevertheless, the NRA — which can use its clout to make or break politicians of either party — seems to be heading toward a Romney endorsement. “He’s a life member of the NRA,” Cox says of Romney during his introduction. A casual listener may interpret that as “life-long mem-ber,” but would be mistaken: Romney only joined the NRA in 2007, before announcing his first candidacy for president. The term “life member” refers to the fact that he paid $1,000 to the organization and never again has to renew his dues. In a dark suit and tie, Romney at last glides through the curtain’s split to a standing ova-tion. In his 28-minute speech, he drills Obama but never gets specifi c on gun policy, promis-ing only to “stand up for the rights of hunters, sportsmen and those seeking to protect their homes and their families.” If Obama-bashing endears Romney to the NRA members, he declines to take a swing at another plump NRA piñata: the national news media. Leave that, though, for NRA leader Wayne LaPierre. “For decades, the media and the political elites have lied about us, demonized us and attempted to marginalize our Second Amend-ment,” says LaPierre during his time on the podium. “They’ve called us everything from riverfronttimes.com extremists to wingnuts to wackos…. [But] we’ve stared those anti-gun elitists straight in the eye, and we’ve stared ’em down year after year!” What LaPierre omits is that these are, in fact, triumphant times for the 141-year-old nonprofi t. In short, they’re winning the bat-tle of ideas. Most Americans have soured on stricter gun-control laws and would prefer bet-ter enforcement of those already on the books, according to Gallup polls from last October. Further, surveys show most Americans now believe in a person’s Second Amendment right to own a weapon for self-defense. Perhaps in a nod to this public consensus, the Supreme Court has issued a pair of rulings since 2007 confi rm-ing that right, thereby upending the blanket gun bans of Washington, D.C., and Chicago. But LaPierre isn’t leaving anything to chance. His job is to fi re up the base, and at the close of his speech, he hits all the right spots. The distortions of elites, he says, “won’t stop us, because we are standing up today for who we really are. We are Americans. We are patri-ots. We love our country. And in this election, to defend freedom, we are — by God — all in!” ome people just like blasting a big gun. The bestseller over at the Barrett booth is its new M107A1 .50-caliber rifl e with a 29-inch barrel and ten-round magazine. Erin Kennedy, the company’s spokes-woman, says Barrett will sell the weapon to the military and law enforcement. But for now demand springs from hobbyists, long-range sporting shooters and former soldiers. “We’re on back order,” she says. “It’s in-“FOR DECADES, THE MEDIA AND THE POLITICAL ELITES HAVE LIED ABOUT US, DEMONIZED US, AND ATTEMPTED TO MARGINALIZE OUR SECOND AMENDMENT.” credible.” Meanwhile, over at Daniel Defense’s dis-play, AR-15 style assault rifl es — 100 percent American made — reign supreme. A rep for the company says about half the customers want to shoot for recreation, but the other half have self-defense in mind. “It has to do with uncertainty and economic conditions,” the spokesman says. “It’s about boosting personal safety. Having an assault rifl e is a cheap life-insurance policy.” That may be true, unless you covet some-thing like the titanium .308-caliber assault rifl e at the NEMO Arms booth, which retails for $95,904. Vice president Adyn Sonju says her Montana-based company built only one model, simply to show the industry it could sculpt a gun from the unruly metal. Outside of the exhibit hall and up on the second fl oor, hundreds of people have queued up for a Glenn Beck book-signing. One of them is an off-duty Chicago policeman. He says he’s lost faith in the criminal-justice system and thinks a law like “stand your ground” for Il-linois would help matters. Further ahead in line, the mayor of a small town in Illinois says he continued on page 13 S APRIL 1 9-25, 2 012
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