National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre is responding to the declaration by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voting to unanimously declare the group a terrorist organization with the release of a new video showing members of the NRA to be many hardworking Americans with a variety of backgrounds.
The video, provided exclusively to Breitbart News ahead of its public release, shows LaPierre speaking at the NRA’s 2019 Annual Meeting in Indianapolis to a crowd of thousands of NRA members who are ordinary hardworking Americans.
The less-than-two-minute video opens with a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors bashing the NRA as a “domestic terror organization,” which the city officials voted on Tuesday to do.
“I shake my head and I go ‘what the heck is going wrong in our country?’” LaPierre says in the speech shown in the video.
LaPierre continues, “Let’s give them a real clear view on who we all are: How many police officers do we have here today? Please stand up. Anyone who works in health care in any way, anyone who works in education, if you work in manufacturing, construction, if you work in a trade–maybe a plumber–and how about stay-at-home moms? If you own your own business? Firefighters out there, if you’re in the military or a vet, if you obey the law, stand up and be recognized as Americans. I want all the media to look around this room right now and see us for the American people that we truly are. We are law-abiding Americans who believe liberty is a blessing. We love our country. I promise you we’re never going to stop fighting for your right and folks just like you all over America that have the right to defend themselves. So, we’re not going to give up or apologize that in a dangerous world, the Second Amendment is often all we have. Every one of these Americans are what we’re about.”
WATCH: NRA CEO WAYNE LAPIERRE’S VIDEO RESPONSE TO SAN FRANCISCO:
The NRA has fiercely criticized the San Francisco decision, tweeting out videos and statements ripping the leftist California city for its extreme measures:
The NRA is including a hashtag, #IAmTheNRA, in several of them too:
As Breitbart News reported earlier on Wednesday, the resolution as passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors reads in part:
WHEREAS, Reported hate crimes have increased by double digits since 2015, and
WHEREAS, There are over 393,000,000 guns in the United States, which exceeds the country’s current total population, and
WHEREAS, Our elected representatives, including the President, have taken an oath swearing to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
…
WHEREAS, The United States Constitution specifically delineates that the country was founded to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and promote the general welfare …
WHEREAS, The National Rifle Association musters its considerable wealth and organizational strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence, and …
WHEREAS, The National Rifle Association through its advocacy has armed those individuals who would and have committed acts of terrorism; and
WHEREAS, All countries have violent and hateful people, but only in America do we give them ready access to assault weapons and large-capacity magazines thanks, in large part, to the National Rifle Association’s influence; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the City and County of San Francisco intends to declare the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization; and, be it
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the City and County of San Francisco should take every reasonable step to assess the financial and contractual relationships our vendors and contractors have with this domestic terrorist organization; and, be it
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the City and County of San Francisco should take every reasonable step to limit those entities who do business with the City and County of San Francisco from doing business with this domestic terrorist organization; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the City and County of San Francisco should encourage all other jurisdictions, including other cities, states, and the federal government, to adopt similar positions.
The NRA responded with a pair of statements ripping San Francisco for its “ludicrous stunt.”
“This ludicrous stunt by the Board of Supervisors is an effort to distract from the real problems facing San Francisco, such as rampant homelessness, drug abuse and skyrocketing petty crime, to name a few. The NRA will continue working to protect the constitutional rights of all freedom-loving Americans,” the NRA said in one statement.
“This is a reckless assault on a law-abiding organization, its members, and the freedoms they all stand for. We remain undeterred – guided by our values and belief in those who want to find real solutions to violence,” the NRA added in another.