Fox News Network
SHOW: FOX HANNITY & COLMES (21:41)
May 12, 2003 Monday
Transcript # 051204cb.253
SECTION: News; Domestic
LENGTH: 1084 words
HEADLINE: Discussion
Guns for Self-Defense
GUESTS: Wayne LaPierre
BYLINE: Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes
BODY:
COLMES: Coming up next on HANNITY & COLMES, more fallout from last week's hazing incident in Illinois. Students have been suspended from school. What about the parents? We're going to debate that.
But first, joining us now is the vice president of the National Rifle Association, the author of the new book, "Guns, Freedom and Terrorism." Wayne LaPierre. Good to see new person. Thank you for very much being here.
WAYNE LAPIERRE, NRA VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Al.
COLMES: You know about this guy, Robert Ricker, was a top lawyer for the NRA. And it was a number of years ago and he was a chief spokesperson for the gun industry and he's now coming out and saying that, you know, he did his job then but he doesn't really believe that stuff, and that the industry is too lax, I mean, your group is too lax on allowing gun manufacturers to let distributors have guns to disseminate to the criminal population.
This is what this guy has said. He has now done a turn about on that. He said, now I can speak out; I'm no longer with the group. Is there any truth to what he's saying?
LAPIERRE: This is a guy that used to be with the organization 20 years ago. But let me talk about what he's saying.
He's saying that there's some scheme by firearms manufacturers to somehow get firearms to criminals. What I think he's ignoring is the current law. The law in the United States today is firearms are heavily regulated all the way from manufacture to purchaser.
From front to purchaser, you cannot buy a new firearm in the country without the dealer picking up the phone, calling the federal government. They do a background check and then the federal government gets back and says it's OK to dealers...
COLMES: But certain dealers in particular have been lax, and those people should be targeted. The NRA should be speaking out about how those particular dealers don't do a good enough job from stopping guns going to the wrong elements in our society?
LAPIERRE: Alan, how can they be lax if those dealers have called into the federal government. They have to go through the background check and the federal government has to call the dealer back and say we have A-OK'ed it, for you, Mr. Dealer, to deliver the firearm to John Smith or Mrs. Smith.
In other words, the dealer has to go through the federal government and get approval before he can deliver the firearm.
COLMES: All right. Let me ask you about the Bush administration supporting a renewal of the assault weapons. Not supporting of assault -- I'm sorry, they are supporting a renewal of assault weapons ban against the NRA's wishes. Are you surprised? Are you fighting the president?
LAPIERRE: Well, I disagree with him. This is something they said back in the campaign in 2000. We disagree with him. I doubt it's ever going to reach his desk. The NRA's going to do everything they can to make sure that bill never comes out of Congress.
It's a phony issue put forward by Bill Clinton, Diane Feinstein Charlie Schumer back in 1994. People that want to ban the Second Amendment altogether, don't want Americans to own firearms. And now they want to bring back this phony, hollow law. And it shouldn't be reenacted.
HANNITY: Let me congratulate you on book. It's a great read. And there's a lot of good stuff in here and a lot of good information in here.
It is interesting to me, Wayne, as we're in a war on terrorism, and we all were in shock and awe, to use the term, when we watched our military, you know, with the superior weaponry and technology, defeat an enemy so quickly. We did that on a large level. That's what our country did. That's how we defend freedom.
Why wouldn't an individual have the right to protect against -- protect their liberty and their freedom individually if somebody attacks them on the streets of America? If liberals have their way they wouldn't let us do that.
LAPIERRE: It's the most basic freedom you can have, to be able to protect yourself from some criminal that ought to be in jail but is out roaming the streets. And thank goodness 35 states in the United States now allow people to carry a firearm to protect themselves from some criminal.
HANNITY: Without having to prove your worthiness first?
LAPIERRE: Absolutely. A shell issue to the law abiding people. And crime has gone down in those states. It's a great success story. Unlike Britain, which banned guns from the honest people and crime has gone up by 50 percent.
HANNITY: You also explain how gun control groups are trying to use the courts. I have an article that came out today, a daily California jury found a firearms manufacturer partially liable as if somehow this gun sort of jumped up into the hand of the person that accidentally fired the weapon.
This is dangerous because if they can bankrupt the gun companies, then they've also secured a victory for themselves.
LAPIERRE: And that's what they are trying to do. They've lost this battle in the courts -- in the Congress. They've lost it in the state legislatures. Now they're trying to go through the back door and enact social policy through the courts and put these great names in American firearm manufacturing out of business.
HANNITY: All right, here's the big question. Do you think there will ever come a day in America where citizens will be prevented from having arms and what will be the consequences of that day?
LAPIERRE: Not as long as the NRA has anything to say about it. Law- abiding Americans from coast-to-coast all over this country; they value their freedoms and Bill of Rights.
HANNITY: Ask Alan what he's going to do if someone breaks into his house. I've been asking him for five years. He won't answer.
LAPIERRE: What are you going to do, Alan?
COLMES: You invite me as a guest on your radio show and all of those millions of people, I'll be happy to answer any question you ask. I've become a guest on my own show. Do you believe it?
LAPIERRE: You know, the worst call I've ever heard was a 911 call from a woman calling the police. Someone was breaking down her door. You knew they weren't going to get there on time. You knew she had time to reach a firearm, and yet, she didn't have one. They didn't get there in time.
COLMES: Thank you very much for being on here, Wayne. Good luck with that. Thanks for being with us.
Coming up next, what should happen to the teenagers responsible for last week's hazing incidents in Illinois? Could they face jail time? We'll debate that; it's coming up on HANNITY & COLMES.
