The mainstream media, which have never been very friendly to gun owners and pro-gun groups, were on the wrong end of the barrel yesterday at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in St. Louis.
Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action, fired the first shots at the media during his opening remarks on Friday.
Cox asked the media to look around the room to see those who “fight for your first amendment freedom, no matter how much you mock, ridicule or try to destroy our second amendment freedom,” and told them to thank them when they leave.
He finished up his attack on the media by telling them that the people in attendance and tens of millions more just like them “will decide the outcome of this years’ elections, not you,” alluding to the media’s overwhelming tendency to favor liberal Democrats over conservative Republicans.
Cox was followed by NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, who was equally as harsh in his criticism of the media.
LaPierre said that the media and the political class can lie about the NRA members all they want “but that won’t stop us.”
He also said that the NRA will never back away from defending the rights of all law abiding gun owners and if the media don’t like it “they can take go straight to Concord bridge, and they can take a flying leap.”
There has never been any love lost between the media and the NRA, but after the media’s overt support for Obama in 2008, the organization wants to put the media on notice that this election will be different and that the organization and its members are willing to fight them every step of the way.
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