NRA's LaPierre Blasts Obama: 2nd Amendment Is Absolute

One person who was not a fan of President Obama's inaugural address: Wayne LaPierre, executive director of the NRA. Yesterday at a Nevada hunting conference, LaPierre attacked the president's speech, specifically the part where Obama urged Americans not to "mistake absolutism for principle." That was an attack on gun owners who believe in an absolute right to bear arms based on the Second Amendment, LaPierre said, according to the New York Times. Highlights:

• "I urge our president to use caution when attacking clearly defined absolutes in favor of his principles," LaPierre said. "When absolutes are abandoned for principles, the US Constitution becomes a blank slate for anyone’s graffiti."
• Furthermore, there are only two reasons the government would want to expand background checks: In order to collect gun owners' names, and then "either to tax [guns], or to take them," LaPierre said. Obama wants to put "every private personal firearms transaction right under the thumb of the federal government," he added.
• LaPierre also accused Obama of turning the word "absolutist" into "extremist," with a goal of getting law-abiding citizens to give up their guns "through scorn and ridicule."
• If the president wins, LaPierre said, only criminals and rich people will be left owning guns. Ultimately, Obama thinks "the only principled way of making children safe" is making others less safe, LaPierre said.

(More National Rifle Association stories.)