This outlandish claim, made by President Clinton during an interview with Katie Couric on Thursday's edition of NBC's Today, makes clear whom Clinton blames for the recent shootings in Michigan and Pennsylvania. This blatant attack on NRA was part of the President's response to a question speculating what NRA's concerns would be over so-called "smart" guns. He took the opportunity to lay the blame for criminal activity squarely at the feet of the National Rifle Association. And just so no one would be confused as to whether the President really blamed these horrific acts on NRA -- an organization that has been pleading with the Clinton-Gore Administration to enforce existing firearms laws against violent criminals, and that trains upwards of 750,000 Americans in gun safety every year -- Clinton stated later in the interview, "[W]e have a higher percentage of people in jail than all the other advanced countries, and they have a lower gun death rate. Why is that? That's because they don't have an NRA in their country...." Clinton threw out his latest list of gun control schemes -- gun owner licensing, mandatory storage, so-called "smart" guns, and outlawing gun shows -- during the interview as his proposed solutions to tragedies such as these. Not surprisingly, though, what wasn't addressed was just how any of these proposals would have specifically prevented what happened in Michigan or Pennsylvania. Clinton is shamelessly playing to emotions, not responsibly dealing with reality, especially when he claims without equivocation that a trigger lock sales mandate would have prevented the death of Kayla Rolland, the young girl killed in Michigan. The reality is that a precious child's life has been senselessly taken by another child who was raised in a home where he was surrounded by crack pipes and stolen guns, not responsible adults.
While Clinton announced his plans to demand that Republican leaders of Congress pass the Juvenile Justice bill that is pending in conference committee, let us recall that the Juvenile Justice bill's firearm provisions were defeated because of the anti-gun Democratic leadership rallying its members against House versions of these provisions. This fact was conveniently ignored by Clinton, but was mentioned by NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre this morning when he appeared on Today to respond to Clinton's outrageous slurs. LaPierre reminded Couric that some of the provisions that were included in the final version of the House Juvenile Justice bill that were voted down included:
Please contact your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121 and your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121, and urge them to vote "NO" on any Juvenile Justice bill that contains the Senate's version of the Lautenberg amendment or other anti-gun provisions. Remind your lawmakers that there are more than enough laws already on the books to punish criminals who carry or use guns illegally. Urge them to call for enforcing these laws -- NOT punishing law-abiding citizens who obey the law and use firearms responsibly -- and remind them it is impossible for Congress to mandate parental responsibility. (To obtain a list of existing state and federal firearms laws that may have been broken in the recent tragedy in Michigan go to NRA-ILA's website at www.nraila.org. If you do not have access to the Internet, please call the Grassroots Division at (800) 392-8683.)
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