MSNBC: NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre 'Afraid of Dark People'

Once again MSNBC has accused the National Rifle Association of being racists. Now host Alex Wagner claimed that NRA chief Wayne LaPierre employed coded racism in a recent op-ed he wrote.

The day after the President’s State of the Union speech, LaPierre posted an op-ed detailing the NRA’s response to Obama’s speech. In the op-ed, LaPierre said that gun ownership was not just “paranoia.”

Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals. These are perils we are sure to face–not just maybe. It’s not paranoia to buy a gun. It’s survival. It’s responsible behavior, and it’s time we encourage law-abiding Americans to do just that.

This paragraph is what set Wagner off. “There’s also a lot of racial–racism imbedded in that full statement. He goes on to impugn Latin America as these kind of dark nights with dark people in Brooklyn,” she said.

LaPaierre also pointed out that there was some looting that went on in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. “Looters ran wild in south Brooklyn,” he wrote in his op-ed.

This line caused panelist Joy Reid to claim LaPierre was afraid of “dark people.”

“He has this vision of brown and black people running around looting and burning and we have to get guns to shoot them,” Reid said.

Of course, LaPierre made no such statement.

A full transcript of the segment is posted at Newsbusters.