At this point, when the name Wayne LaPierre comes up, it can be assumed that the NRA’s executive vice president (presumably “of hyperbole and paranoia”) is in high dudgeon about…something…even if he has to conjur an offense up out of thin air. Like that time last fall when he told the audience at a CPAC convention in Florida that the fact that President Obama hasn’t come after their guns and the Second Amendment is all the proof they need that Obama is coming after their guns and the Second Amendment. Because, you know, he’s stealthy like that…Never mind that LaPierre has been pushing his particular line of paranoia since the final days before the 2008 election, and been quite successful with it too. In the throes of the worst economy since the Great Depression, people were stockpiling ammunition for weapons they didn’t even own.

It’s been a headshaker to watch, let me tell you.

Now they have a whole new poutrage to throw one of their ought-to-be-trademarked hissy fits over…Now, it appears that we have come to the point that when the NRA is asked for comment by the press, the press is supposed to simply print the prepared statement and talking points that they emailed/posted to their website.

But it get’s better. With no sense of irony at all, the right-wing NewsBusters site introduces the Reuters article thusly:

The article, which was published on Reuters and headlined on Yahoo! News’ U.S. News section on December 15 unfolded like a press release:

The article is about an investigation that Mayor Bloomberg had conducted into online weapons sales. What the study found was blatant disregard for the law and a willingness to knowingly sell weapons to people who it is known are not law-abiding, rule-respecting, salt-of-the-earth people. You know — the folks the NRA claims they represent. And they are simultaneously whining that a) the Reuter’s piece reads like a press release and b) the Reuter’s piece didn’t just use an NRA press release as their comment. Wow. I don’t know which this is — a blissful ignorance of self awareness; or chutzpah.

The NRA has long been on the side of criminals and terrorists when it comes to access to firearms, in spite of the fact that the rank-and-file members oppose the leadership of the organization on that issue, so honestly, this is neither new nor surprising.

I’ve asked this before, in all seriousness, and I am still waiting for an answer…how are we supposed to have an honest debate with these people?



[This post is written as part of the Media Matters Gun Facts fellowship. The purpose of the fellowship is to further Media Matters’ mission to comprehensively monitor, analyze, and correct conservative misinformation in the U.S. media Some of the worst misinformation occurs around the issue of guns, gun violence, and extremism. The fellowship program is designed to fight this misinformation with facts.]