Piers Morgan released last night a video showing NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre's speech at the NRA-ILA Leadership forum, criticizing him among other public figures of their stance on gun ownership.
Wayne LaPierre addresses supporters
"We know how they play the game. President Obama or Michael Bloomberg or some other official trots out on national television to scold and shame us, suggesting there is something wrong with law abiding people who want to own firearms, and then what happens? All the Piers Morgans, Lawrence O'Donnells, Rachel Maddows..they pound the message over and over again…"
The speech then cuts to Piers' direct response to LaPierre, supported by footage of a man shooting an assault rifle at police.
Piers Morgan responds
"That's right Mr LaPierre, I will continue to pound that message and continue to show shocking footage on this show until people like you realise the damage that guns are doing to Americans every day….This man used an assault rifle and a 40 bullet magazine, two things you don't think should be banned. Try telling that to those police officers…."
In recent weeks the debate about gun ownership has raged in America. After new legislation was rejected, President Obama addressed Americans with deep disappointment of the result.
"I’m going to speak plainly and honestly about what’s happened here because the American people are trying to figure out how can something have 90 percent support and yet not happen. We had a Democrat and a Republican -– both gun owners, both fierce defenders of our Second Amendment, with “A” grades from the NRA -- come together and worked together to write a common-sense compromise on background checks. And I want to thank Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey for their courage in doing that. That was not easy given their traditional strong support for Second Amendment rights.
As they said, nobody could honestly claim that the package they put together infringed on our Second Amendment rights. All it did was extend the same background check rules that already apply to guns purchased from a dealer to guns purchased at gun shows or over the Internet. So 60 percent of guns are already purchased through a background check system; this would have covered a lot of the guns that are currently outside that system.
Their legislation showed respect for gun owners, and it showed respect for the victims of gun violence. And Gabby Giffords, by the way, is both -- she’s a gun owner and a victim of gun violence. She is a Westerner and a moderate. And she supports these background checks.
In fact, even the NRA used to support expanded background checks. The current leader of the NRA used to support these background checks. So while this compromise didn’t contain everything I wanted or everything that these families wanted, it did represent progress. It represented moderation and common sense. That’s why 90 percent of the American people supported it."
- Full transcript via the White House
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