- National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne
LaPierre has a new rallying cry to spotlight the importance of every American's
right to keep and bear arms: "Remember New Orleans.
-
- "In a speech earlier this week to the New York chapter
of the Sportsmen's Association for Firearms Education, LaPierre painted
a compelling picture of New Orleans residents left defenseless by Hurricane
Katrina - as one-third of the city's police force deserted their posts
and abandoned the streets to roving bands of looters and thugs.
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- Here is a partial transcript of LaPierre's rousing address:
-
- "Picture your beloved hometown, the neighborhood
where you live. Hold that image in your head. Now imagine that a massive
natural disaster has transformed your beloved neighborhood into a putrid
soup of splinters, muck and corpses. A massive natural disaster has pounded
and ground your town into an ugly gravy of dead, toxic garbage. . . .
-
-
- "There's no power to run a single thing that makes
a sound. There's no water to bring in hydration or carry away waste. All
life is stagnant around you - and dying.
-
- "You can't call anyone. No one can call you. Phone
lines and cell towers are down. 911 is gone. Police, fire, ambulance -
the safety net of normal life - is completely gone. Think about what that
would feel like. There's no one but you.
-
- "The shadows of armed looters and thugs begin combing
the streets with hard eyes and hungry looks. They take what they want.
They rape who they want. They kill at will.
-
- Every exit is impassable, so leaving is impossible. But
staying is unimaginable. Life has been reduced to merely breathing, devoid
of the barest essentials. Your throat throbs for water. Your gut aches
for food. And both hungers are eclipsed by the inevitable fight for survival
against those who would take your home, your wife and your life.
-
- "It's a hellish nightmare of hopelessness, helpless
terror - bigger than your brain can almost imagine . . . .
-
- "You hear nothing but the buzz of mosquitoes, occasional
shouts for help - and gunshots and looting in the dark.
-
- "But you have a firearm.
-
- "At dawn, a few neighbors emerge from their houses.
Some of them also have guns. And you get together with them and you agree
to take a stand - just as good people have done since civilization was
formed.
-
- "Until civilization returns, you band together to
protect those who can't protect themselves. You realize suddenly that you're
part of the militia in the truest historic sense of the word.
-
- "You've got a lot of single mothers with kids on
your street. . . . Everyone's doors and windows are wide open - they've
been destroyed.
-
- "So you tell the single mothers: 'If you have any
trouble, just scream. We'll hear you. We'll be there.'"You spray paint
sheets of plywood with big red letters - 'We are home. We have guns. We
will shoot.'
-
- "And you know, because even the New York Times carried
a picture of it - that's exactly what they did in neighborhood after neighborhood
all over the Gulf states. Not in some foreign country - here in the U.S.A.
Roving gangs see your sign, they see your guns and what do they do? They
stay away.
-
- "Those guns and nothing else during that time gave
the hopeless hope . . . In the midst of all that misery you're struck at
that moment by the beauty and the salvation of second amendment freedom
in the United States of America . . .
-
- "The armed authorities finally arrive. The blame
a broken levee for your predicament. But then, something you couldn't imagine
happening, happens. They destroy the one thing that was standing there
between you and anarchy - the second amendment.
-
- "They start confiscating firearms from the law abiding.
Swat-style teams start swarming block-by-block as if on a war footing.
They're tense, they're jumpy and they're trained for urban warfare . .
.
-
- "Keep in mind, these military folks, these police
folks - they were on our side. They didn't want to carry out this order
that was given by the police chief of New Orleans . . . In fact, they were
outraged over what they'd been ordered to do.
-
- "A reporters asked one of them - 'You mean [you
might have to] shoot an American?' And the soldier said 'yes.'
-
- "But the Americans he was talking about shooting,
they weren't criminals. They were brave people who were simply left behind
when the hurricane hit in one of the most corrupt cities in the United
States of America.
-
- "New Orleans was the first city in American history
to disarm peaceable American citizens door-to-door at gunpoint. And I'll
tell you this as we sit here today - it must be the last . . .
-
- "With your help, the National Rifle Association
is going to make sure it never happens again. We're going to go state-by-state
and change every state law that has some type of emergency powers statute
that allows authorities to regulate or confiscate guns from law abiding
citizens when an emergency is declared . . .
-
- "The example of New Orleans is going to become to
worst fear of those who want to ban guns in the good old U.S.A. Never again
can the anti-gunners claim that honest citizens don't need firearms because
the police and the government are going to be there to protect you . .
.
-
- "And we've got a good slogan that you're going to
hear from one end of the country to the other. And that slogan is: Remember
New Orleans . . .
-
- "The next time anyone says to you: 'Are you just
afraid or paranoid?' Look them straight in the eye and say: Remember New
Orleans.
-
- "If they ask you, 'Why does anyone need to own a
gun?': Remember New Orleans.
-
- "If they say to you, "Why does anyone need
a high-capacity magazine?" Look them straight in the eye and say:
Remember New Orleans.
-
- "What's wrong with a 15 day waiting period? Remember
New Orleans.
-
- "What makes you think the government would ever
confiscate your gun? Remember New Orleans.
-
- "Is the second amendment relevant in the 21st Century?
Remember New Orleans.
-
- "That's our battle cry and let's never, ever let
them forget it."
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