Speaking at the 56th Annual Weatherby Foundation International Hunting and Conservation Dinner on Jan. 22, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre responded to Obama's inaugural speech by pointing out that the 2nd Amendment protects God-given rights. Of these rights--the right to keep and bear arms and the right to self-defense--LaPierre said: "No government gave [them] to us and no government can take them away."
LaPierre made it clear that Obama doesn't like to hear this because it shows that the 2nd Amendment is not in flux but is fixed, and the rights it protects are beyond the reach of government.
He said this is why Obama talked of trading "absolutism" for "principle" in his inaugural speech--a ploy which LaPierre described as Obama's not-so-subtle attempt to convince us to move past what the words of the 2nd Amendment really mean so that gun grabbers can apply their own meanings to them.
Here, LaPierre bolstered his point by quoting Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black: "There are absolutes in our Bill of Rights. And they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant and meant their prohibitions to be absolute."
To this, LaPierre added a somber warning: "When absolutes are abandoned for principles, the Constitution becomes a blank slate for anyone's graffiti."
These are powerful statements, and they clearly demonstrate the NRA's unabashed commitment to "Stand and Fight" for the 2nd Amendment during Obama's second term. After all, as LaPierre said of the 2nd Amendment, "It, and it alone, guarantees our freedom and our safety."
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