Wayne LaPierre

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Wayne LaPierre (2011)

Wayne R. LaPierre (born November 8, 1949 in Schenectady , New York ) is an American gun lobbyist and political activist. He was best known for serving as vice chairman and executive director of the National Rifle Association .

Life and work

LaPierre was born in Schenectady, New York, and grew up in Roanoke, Virginia , when he was 5 years old . He holds a bachelor's degree in education and political science from Siena College and a master's degree in American Government and Politics from Boston College . In 1977, LaPierre began working for the National Rifle Association (NRA), the most influential and affiliated organization serving the interests of gun owners in the United States. After serving as Executive Director of the NRA in ILA since 1986, he was promoted to Managing Director and Deputy President of that organization in 1991, two roles that he has carried out to the present (2012). As Executive Vice President of the NRA, he heads the NRA's seventy-six-member board of directors. According to media reports, LaPierre receives around one million US dollars annually for his work.

As a leading member of the NRA, LaPierre publicly promotes liberal gun laws and in particular for adherence to the second amendment , which guarantees every US citizen the right to private gun possession. In elections - such as the presidential, gubernatorial or senate elections - he accordingly speaks regularly in public appearances and in press releases to the general public, as well as in special, pastoral-like e-mails and letters to the inner circle of NRA members for the party / candidate who comes closest to his / her position in the NRA. In the 2004 presidential election, for example, he campaigned against the Democratic candidate John Kerry , citing that he had voted in his capacity as Senator in the past for bills that sought more restrictive gun rights. In the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, he spoke out against the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton , citing what he saw as the anti-weapon policies of her husband Bill Clinton's administration in the 1990s.

During the 2011/2012 presidential campaign, LaPierre repeatedly attacked incumbent Barack Obama , who he accused of being an opponent of the right to firearms. LaPierre pointed out that Obama did not tighten gun laws in his first term in office. B. as a speaker at the C-Pac conference 2012 - with reference to an alleged "secret agenda" Obamas back: He would only wait until his re-election and then, in a possible second term, if he to no longer have to stand up for a vote and no longer have to take into account the consent of gun owners, to implement laws or other measures that would gradually erode the right to own firearms. In particular, left-wing commentators and comedians like Jon Stewart used these remarks as an opportunity to ridicule LaPierre as paranoid or guided by crude conspiracy theories.

In addition, LaPierre has distinguished himself as the author of various books in which he promotes his positions and gives advice on the responsible handling and technical handling and maintenance of weapons. He also appears weekly as the presenter of the national television program Crime Strike .

LaPierre also has good relations with US President Donald Trump.

criticism

As the official public representative and “face” of the NRA, LaPierre was and is a controversial figure.

LaPierre is often accused of scare tactics. Among other things, LaPierre is accused of fueling concerns that the Democrats wanted to introduce a national weapons register, which he sees as a preliminary stage to an extensive gun ban and as a means of stealing firearms from the American people . Wayne LaPierre sees the constitutional right to own and bear arms as a "birthright" given "by God to all Americans."

After LaPierre had denigrated members of the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as “jack-booted thugs”, a reference to SA thugs in the Third Reich , as well as through other Nazi comparisons, in 1995 , Former US President George HW Bush resigned from the NRA in protest of LaPierre's statements.

Political commentator Lawrence O'Donnell, for example, attacked LaPierre in his program The Last Word on the MSNBC television program since 2011 in the sharpest way, arguing that LaPierre and people like him were lobbying in the first place to create the conditions that needed it enable many murderers who resort to firearms to kill other people. In the broadcast of July 24, 2012, O'Donnell explicitly characterized LaPierre as a blood-drenched lobbyist . In his justification he stated:

“It is possible that some mass murderers [without easy access to automatic weapons] would have found some other means of killing innocent people in a row. But we will never know for sure. And that's because Wayne [LaPierre] made it so devilishly easy to kill young children with guns. That Wayne made it so easy as hell to kill fathers and mothers with guns; Killing sons and daughters with firearms; Killing sisters and brothers with firearms. Firearms are the tool of choice for the average American mass murderer. What we never know is how many mass murderers could have successfully carried out their plans if Wayne hadn't gotten these people to have such an awful easy way of getting at bullets? How many of our mass murderers would try to make bombs if they couldn't get hold of bullets? And then how many of these would accidentally blow themselves up while trying to build a bomb and never harm any other soul? A considerable number, to be sure. How much trouble are our American mass murderers willing to go to in order to be able to act? Well, we'll never know - because Wayne LaPierre makes it so terribly, terribly easy for these people. "

LaPierre's position on American gun law as spokesman for the National Rifle Association after the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 21, 2012, sparked strong criticism in the United States. In it, he blames films and games for violence:

“And here's another dirty little truth that the media is doing its best to hide: There's a callous, corrupt, and corrupting shadow industry in this country that sells and sows violence against its own people. Through nasty, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here's one: it's called Kindergarten Killers. It's been online for 10 years. How is it that my research department was able to find it and none of you could or would? Then there are the blood-soaked slasher films like "American Psycho" and "Natural Born Killers" that are broadcast like propaganda films in endless replays on "Splatterdays" and every day there are thousands of music videos that portray life as a joke and murder as a way to portray life. And then they have the nerve to call it "entertainment". But is that what it really is? Isn't fantasizing about getting the kick out of killing people the dirtiest form of pornography? "

- Wayne LaPierre : NRA executive director, December 21, 2012 NRA press conference

Michael Bloomberg noted a "shameful evasion" and criticized: "A paranoid vision of an even more dangerous and violent America, where everyone is armed and no place is safe."

After the Parkland School Massacre (17 dead), LaPierre did not appear publicly for eight days. Then he gave a speech at the CPAC conference . He did not respond to calls for stricter US gun laws. He propagated put armed security in every school and made a sweeping blow against the mainstream media, against the Democratic Party and against the FBI.

Publications

  • Guns, Crime, and Freedom , 1994.
  • Shooting straight. Telling the Truth About Guns in America , 2002.
  • Guns, Freedom, and Terrorism , 2003.
  • The Global War on Your Guns , 2006.

Web links

Commons : Wayne LaPierre  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ A b Sarah Janssen: The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2016 . Simon and Schuster, 2015, ISBN 978-1-60057-200-5 ( google.fr [accessed April 26, 2019]).
  2. ↑ NRA leader has Schenectady roots | The Daily Gazette. Retrieved April 26, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Who is the NRA Leadership? - Wayne LaPierre (Executive Vice President and CEO) ( English ) Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. Archived from the original on December 20, 2012. Retrieved December 20, 2012: “meetthenra.org” Between 2008 and 2010, LaPierre received compensation between $ 948,858 and $ 1,263,101.
  4. ^ NRA executive Wayne LaPierre blasts Obama, Clinton in visit to Kingsport. Retrieved April 26, 2019 .
  5. ^ Hillary Clinton's push on gun control marks a shift in presidential politics. In: The Washington Post. July 9, 2015, accessed April 26, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b c spiegel.de February 23, 2018: Der Scharfmacher
  7. ↑ Lois Beckett: How NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre became Trump's left-hand man . In: The Guardian . February 13, 2017, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed April 26, 2019]).
  8. ↑ a b Kevin Hagen: NRA chief Wayne LaPierre: The sharp maker . In: Spiegel Online . February 23, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed April 26, 2019]).
  9. ^ David A. Graham: Wayne LaPierre's Cynical Exploitation of Outrage. February 22, 2018, Retrieved April 26, 2019 (American English).
  10. ^ Elspeth Reeve: Two Decades of Paranoid Pronouncements by the NRA's Wayne LaPierre. January 30, 2013. Retrieved April 26, 2019 (American English).
  11. ^ Letter of Resignation Sent By Bush to Rifle Association . In: The New York Times . May 11, 1995, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed April 26, 2019]).
  12. ↑ In the original the monologue is: “Maybe some of our mass-murderers would have found another way to kill a lot of people. But we will never know. Because Wayne has just made it so easy, so very easy, to kill babies with bullets. To kill fathers and mothers with bullets. To kill sons and daughters with bullets. To kill sisters and brothers with bullets. Bullets are the American mass murderers first choice. And what we'll never know is how many of them would be successful mass-murders today, if Wayne LaPierre didn't make sure they could easily get bullets, unlimited supplies of bullets? How many of our mass-murders would switch to making bombs if they couldn't get bullets? And how many of them would blow themselves up by mistake while making bombs and never hurt anyone else? Surely a few of them. Just how determined are American mass-murders? We'll never know because Wayne LaPierre makes it so, so easy for mass-murderers. "
  13. ↑ NRA Press Conference December 21, 2012. (PDF; 99 kB) In: nra.org. December 21, 2012, archived from the original on December 29, 2012 ; accessed on December 27, 2012 (English).
  14. ^ Wilhelm Zsolt: Gun lobby: Violent games are "the dirtiest form of pornography". In: derstandard.at . December 27, 2012, accessed on December 27, 2012 (German).
  15. ↑ Criticism of proposals from the US gun lobby: "Irresponsible", "Sick", "Crazy" ( Memento from December 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Tagesschau.de, December 22, 2012. Accessed December 22, 2012
  16. ↑ time.com: NRA's Wayne LaPierre at CPAC: Gun Control Advocates Are Exploiting the Florida School Shooting Tragedy
personal data
SURNAME LaPierre, Wayne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES LaPierre, Wayne R.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American gun lobbyist and political activist
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Schenectady , New York