NRA head predicts ‘bare-knuckle’ midterm fight

The head of the National Rifle Association (NRA) on Thursday blasted the national media and said his group is preparing for a “bare-knuckle street fight” in the 2014 midterms.  

Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre spoke of the outpouring of support from the public in the year since the failed effort by congressional Democrats and the White House to pass a gun-control package after the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., in 2012. 

{mosads}“In this uncertain world, surrounded by lies and corruption everywhere you look, there is no greater freedom than the right to survive and protect our families with all the rifles, shotguns and handguns we want,” he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). 

He predicted the 2014 elections would be a street fight as a number of outside groups advocating for gun control have emerged since the 2012 election. But he maintained the NRA “will not go quietly into the night.” 

“Our opponents are shrewd and skilled and spinning webs of deceit,” he said. “I know you know this, their coffers are full. Their sights are set squarely on this fall’s election. And this election, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, is going to be a bare-knuckle street fight.” 

He did not pull any punches with the national media, which he described as “feverish” fear mongers.

“The media’s intentional corruption of the truth is an abomination, and NRA members will never, and I mean never, submit to the national media,” he said. 

Last year, when LaPierre appeared on the CPAC stage amid the gun control debate, he had been criticized from many for the NRA’s proposal to put an armed guard in every school. He maintained Thursday many communities have taken up the plan.