February 22, 2018

The Day After Teens Poured Their Hearts Out, NRA’s LaPierre Deflects, Rages and Filibusters.

The NRA is a key sponsor of the annual conservative conference, CPAC.

Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/Zuma

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In his first public comments since a gunman killed 17 people last week at a Florida high school, the leader of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, went on the offensive Thursday morning, doubling down on the organization’s most strident pro-gun talking points, while heaping criticism on gun reform advocates.

“They want to sweep right under the carpet the failure of school security, the failure of family, the failure of America’s mental health system and even the unbelievable failure of the FBI,” LaPierre, NRA Executive Vice President and CEO, said during his 35-minute long appearance at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, in National Harbor, Md.

The NRA is a key sponsor of the conference, and until now largely quiet about the Parkland, Fl., high school shooting.

“We share a goal of safe schools, safe neighborhoods, and a safe country,” LaPierre added. “As usual the opportunists waited not one second to exploit the tragedy.”

Rather than gun restrictions, he called for armed security at every school in the country—something President Trump echoed in an early morning series of tweets. “We drop our kids of at schools that are so-called ‘gun free zones,’ that are wide open targets for any crazy madman bent on evil,” he said.

He also called out leading Democrats by name, denouncing Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and others as “European-style socialists”.

If Democrats take over the House or Senate in this year’s midterm elections, or—”God forbid,” he warned—the White House, “the first to go will be the Second Amendment.”

“Their goal is to eliminate the second amendment and our firearms freedoms, so they can eradicate all individual freedoms,” he said.

The NRA’s appearance comes the morning after a tense town hall-style broadcast on CNN in which student survivors of the Parkland massacre issued withering criticism of NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch, and Florida Republican senator, Marco Rubio. 

“Can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA?” Cameron Kasky, a 17-year-old who survived the Parkland shooting, asked Rubio amid loud cheers. 

“The answer to the question is that people buy into my agenda, and I do support the second amendment,” Rubio said.

Watch LaPierre’s full speech below:

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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