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NRA Plans Own Media Empire to Avoid Censorship of Campaign 'Reform'
Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Friday, Jan. 23, 2004
ARLINGTON, Va. – The head of the National Rifle Association has thrown down the gauntlet to the enemies of free speech who wrote the McCain-Feingold campaign finance "reform" law: We will not shut up.
Repeatedly bringing attendees at an annual gathering of conservatives to their feet, NRA’s legendary CEO, Wayne LaPierre, said his members would soon launch a 24-hour news service where "we will say anything we want to say about any politician, right up to Election Day."
This is aimed at getting around the Wellstone provision of McCain-Feingold, which bans outside groups from advertising for or against any candidate 30 days before the primary and 60 days before a general election. The new law, LaPierre told his audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference, is "a bald-faced insult to the constitutional freedoms of common Americans."
Further, declared LaPierre, "I'm here to guarantee you on their behalf that it will not stand."
In addition to its 24-hour news service — "definitely" in plenty of time for the November elections, the NRA CEO assured NewsMax.com in a separate interview – the gun rights group continues to pursue purchase of radio and TV stations of its own. It says that if Viacom, Disney and GE can say whatever they want anytime they want just because they own broadcast stations, then NRA can have the same privilege if it also owns TV and radio outlets.
Other options being considered, he said, include a "hot-air balloon or anchoring a ship in international waters to keep our First Amendment freedom."
Because the framers of the Constitution — "God bless them" – anticipated something like this, his members, as "a last resort," LaPierre told NewsMax, could invoke the Constitution's Article Five, which authorizes the people to convene a constitutional convention "and seize freedom again."
'No Law'
The "Beltway breed of bellyaching robber baron politicians" who fashioned this "smelly deal," charged LaPierre, ignored something known to every third-grader: The First Amendment, which reads "Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech."
Just 10 words, but yet it took the Supreme Court "only" 300 pages to "rationalize its way around" that centuries-old provision that has stood the test of time.
"The freedom-haters in Congress and a slim majority of the Supreme Court twisted the First Amendment from protecting the people to protecting the process."
As the gun rights icon sees it, "It's now a crime to criticize Congress when it needs it most. We’re back to the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798."
First, NRA vows to form an "unprecedented" coalition of grassroots Americans and groups "who may have nothing in common except the right and duty of free speech on behalf of their memberships."
At that point, he predicts, the drive will be on to test the limits of the anti-free-speech law, introducing repeal of the Wellstone "gag" provision.
"And if that doesn't work, we will begin pursuing the two-thirds of states [34] it takes to petition for a constitutional convention."
LaPierre is certain that "when we got to number 33, like they did in 1912, Congress will buckle" and repeal the odious law.
"This class of political elites will do what they've always done when the people threaten their power."
Beyond that, he promised his audience, which repeatedly interrupted him with wild cheers, "We know how to blister the Beltway if we must, leaving freedom-hating politicians and media elites with spinning heads and locked jaws."
While denying you your right of free speech, he said, the media conglomorates have free rein. You shut up while they talk to their hearts' content. General Electric, which owns NBC; Disney, which owns ABC; and Viacom, which owns CBS, are "into everything" from mining to oil to jet engines to nuclear plants to multiple media outlets.
"They contribute millions to politicians and lobbyists," but "you [the ordinary citizen] are frozen out, and the U.S. Supreme Court gave them limitless liquid nitrogen to keep you in sub-zero citizenship."
LaPierre sees the day when, one way or another, grassroots Americans will rise up and say to the politicians, "How dare you!" The American people, he is convinced, will not tolerate an elite establishment that "did nothing less than declare the Founding Fathers and Framers fools."
Is it just me, or is the NRA starting to wake up again after being asleep at the switch for so long?
