Gun Dealer: Wayne LaPierre Is on the 'Wrong Side'

Lifetime NRA member calls out group's honcho
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 6, 2013 1:06 PM CDT
Updated May 6, 2013 1:53 PM CDT
Gun Dealer: Wayne LaPierre Is on the 'Wrong Side'
National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre gestures as he speaks at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., Friday, March 15, 2013.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Lifetime NRA member Mike Weisser has strong words for Wayne LaPierre and the "culture war" he claims he's fighting: "If there is a war going on, you represent the wrong side," Weisser writes for the Huffington Post. LaPierre's concern about expanded background checks has nothing to do with Second Amendment rights and everything to do with money, argues Weisser, and he should know—he's a gun dealer. In Weisser's eyes, LaPierre's goal is to keep the barrier to entry as low as possible in terms of ownership. "More guns means more profits for the gun companies, and that's who you really represent."

Weisser has had enough with the talk "about defending liberty." What he'd like to see protected instead are America's kids. He points to Sandy Hook and the children killed in tragic accidents recently and writes, "There's something immoral about denying any connection between the deaths of children and the explosion in gun sales that you claim show how much we love our freedom. I'd rather have those kids alive, even if it costs me more than a few bucks in gun sales." By blocking expanded background checks, the NRA is "protecting illegal and 'irresponsible' gun owners," writes Weisser, "because an irresponsible gun owners' money is just as good for gun companies." Click for Weisser's full column. (More Wayne LaPierre stories.)

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