NRA Chief Singles Out Jewish Billionaires In ‘Socialism’ Rant
Off Target: Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association invoked Israel?s experience to bolster his argment that a more heavily armed society is safer. He only advertised his woeful lack of understanding about Israeli attitudes towards firearms. Image by getty images
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, told a conservative conference that three Jewish liberal philanthropists were funding a socialist takeover of the United States.
“Every time in every nation in which this political disease rises to power,” LaPierre told the CPAC conference on Thursday, describing socialism, “its citizens are repressed, their freedoms are destroyed, and their firearms are banned and confiscated, and it’s all backed in this country by the social engineering and the billions of people like George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer and more.”
Soros is a hedge fund trader who has been prominent in backing Democratic policies, but also is known for promoting free markets overseas, particularly in formerly communist countries. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, has taken a lead in recent years in promoting gun control, but also has a pro-business reputation cultivated through his eponymous news service.
LaPierre painted an apocalyptic picture of the challenges he said are facing conservatives.
“Their goal is to eliminate the Second Amendment and firearms freedom so they can eliminate all our freedoms,” he said of gun control activists.
“Saul Alinsky would be proud” of gun control activists, LaPierre said, referring to the Jewish community worker who authored a how-to book on social activism.
Despite being dead for decades, Alinsky remains a codeword for radicalism among some conservatives.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
