Opportunity. We have serious discussions ahead and serious issues that impact each and every one of us. Just a week ago we were all horrified by another terrible tragedy at an American School. Each and every member of the National Rifle association mourns the loss of the innocent and continues to keep their families in that community in our prayers. We share a goal of safe schools, safe neighborhoods and a safe country. As usual the opportunist wasted not one second to exploit tragedy for political gain. Saul lynnski would have been proud. The break back speed of calls for more gun control laws and the breathless National Media eager to smear the nra. Think about that. In the midst of genuine grief in a very understandable passion as millions of americans search for meaningful solutions, what do we find . Chris murphy, nancy pelosi and more cheered on by the National Media eager to blame the nra and call for even more government control. They hate the nra. They hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom. In the rush of calls for more government, theyve also revealed their true selves. The elites dont care not one wit about Americas School system. And School Children. If they truly cared, what they would do is they would protect them. For them its not a safety issue, its a political issue. They care more about control and more of it. Their goal is to eliminate the Second Amendment and our firearms freedom so they can eradicate all individual freedoms. What they want are more restrictions on the lawabiding. Think about that. Their solution is to make you, all of you less free. They want to sweep right under the carpet the failure of school security, the failure of family, the failure of americas Mental Health system and even the unbelieve bib unbelievable failure of the fbi. They fantasize about more loss stopping what other loss failed to stop. The truth is, laws succeed only when people obey them. Thats what the lawabiding majority in this country practices. But once again, so many existing laws were ignored. Their laws dont stop illegal criminals from crossing our borders every single day. Their laws dont stop the scourge of Gang Violence and drug crime that savages baltimore, chicago and every major american community. Their laws havent stopped the plaque of opioids and chinese fentanyl from mexico that floods american streets and kills victims every single day in this country. No wonder lawabiding americans all over this country revere their Second Amendment freedom to protect themselves more than ever. They dont care if their laws work or not. They just want to get more laws to get more control over people but the nra, the nra does care. We [ applause ] we at the nra are americans who continue to mourn and care and work every day at contributing Real Solutions to this very real problem, real Practical Action to truly protect our children. Think about it. Its a bizarre fact that in this country our Jewelry Stores all over this country are more important than our children. Our banks, our airports, our nba games, our nfl games, our office buildings, our movie stars, our politicians, theyre all more protected than our children at school. Does that make any sense to anybody . Do we really love our money and our celebrities more than we love our children . Can we answer that question honestly . Any of us, can we answer that question honestly knowing that we surround and protect so much with Armed Security while we drop our kids off at school that are socalled gunfree zones that are wide open targets for any crazy madman bent on evil to come there first. In every community in america, school districts, ptas, teachers unions, local Law Enforcement, moms and dads, they all must come together to implement the very best strategy to harden their schools including effective trained Armed Security that will absolutely protect every innocent child in this country. [ applause ] and that has to happen now. Evil walks among us and god help us, if we dont harden our schools and protect our kids. The whole idea from some of our opponents that Armed Security makes us less safe is completely ridiculous. If thats true and just think about this, if thats true, Armed Security makes us less safe, lets just go ahead and remove it from everywhere. Lets remove it from the white house, from capitol hill, and remove it from all of hollywood. Any American School that needs a immediate professional help with organizing and defining these solutions should call the National RifleAssociation School shield program. [ applause ] and we will provide immediate assistance and we will also provide it absolutely free to any school in america. [ applause ] ill tell you this, thats more than anybody at the Democratic National committee or nbc news or the Washington Post is offering. But you know what . The shameful politicization of tragedy its a classic strategy right out of the playbook of a poisonio poisonous movement. In my three decades of leading the nra, ive had the pleasure of working with a number of democrats who believe america to be the greatest country in the world because of our free market capitalism and because of our individual liberties, but during the last decade the obama decade, many of those leaders had been forced out as a tidal wave of new european style socialists seize control of the democratic party. Obama promised a fundamental transformation of our country and you know what . It began with his own national party. A party that is now infested with sab atours who dont believe in capitalism, dont believe in the constitution, dont believe in our freedom and dont believe in america as we know it. Obama may be gone, but their utopian dream it marches on. And president trumps election, while crucial, cant turn away the wave of these new european style socialists bearing down upon us. Im not just talking about bernie sanders. I mean, hes near the end of his career, but how about kamale harris, elizabeth warren, bill de blasio, andrew cuomo, corey booker, Christopher Murphy and keith ellison. They are not democrats in the mold of john f. Kennedy or tip oneill. They hide behind labels like democrat, left wing and progressive to make their socials agenda more palatable. And that is terrifying. [ applause ] and that should terrify every citizen who values the american ideal in this country of individual liberty. They politicize the department of justice, they weaponize the Internal Revenue service, the epa, perhaps crippled the fbi and the Intelligence Community and seized an imbedded leadership in all of them to advance their agenda. Absolute control in every corner of our government is their ultimate dream. These intelligent chal leads they think theyre smarter than we are and they think theyre better than we are. They truly believe it and you know it. The privileged and the powerful, they think they deserve to be in charge of every lever of power. But you know what . The United States constitution makes it absolutely clear that they are not in charge. We the people are in charge of this country. [ applause ] but washington, oh, my gosh, this city, it likes to ignore that. Our Intelligence Community shrouds everything in secrecy, driving into darkness every dirty memo, and every dirty institutional secret and memory in the name of National Security, but when the leaks come as so often occurs in the light of day, it reveals nothing about the security of our country and it reveals everything about the corruption of those in power. [ applause ] thats because in a captive society the loss of transparency results in the loss of truth. They also eliminated internal resistance of wrongdoing in these great institutions. There is no stronger supporter of our Law Enforcement than the National Rifle association. My gosh, were one of the largest Law Enforcement organizations in the United States if you look at our membership. And were proud of that. Everywhere i go i get a Police Officer coming up to me, thanking me and saying im a member of your organization, keep up what youre doing. And there are tens of thousands of incredible men and women at the fbi. These are honorable, decent, hard working people and theyre dedicated to keeping our country safe every single day. [ applause ] and were proud of them and we thank them. But as weve learned in recent months, even the fbi is not free of its own corruption and its own unethical agents. Look, and i know you probably all share this sentiment and i get people telling me from coast to coast and they kind of shake their heads when they say it to me, i can understand a few bad apples in an organizations as large as the fbi, but whats hard to understand is why no one at the fbi stood up and called b. S. On its rogue leadership. [ applause ] i mean, really . Where was systematic resistance and repulgs that should protect every powerful institution that serves us. The lowest ranking marine knows to resist an unlawful order the rank and file in every powerful institution must police its own leadership. But still, too much of todays washington no one speaks out. No one challenges authority. Every one keeps their mouth closed and their heads down and thats exactly how socialistic societies function. When leaders do whatever they want, when resistance and repercussion disappears and when the fundamental concept of moral behavior is expunked, the state rules the day. And any one who attempts to resist is smeared right into submission. Yep. You know it. Ah, yes, the art of the smear. We do live in the socialistic age of the art of the smear. Doesnt have to be true, it just has to stick some where, anywhere. Its designed to degrade, destroy and all over the National Media to serve their agenda and socialism say movement that loves to smear. Racist, massage in any event, sexist, xenophobe and more, these are the weapons and victory victory ol these people scream because socialism feeds off manipulated victims. You name the group, and they will find a way to turn them into victims. They keep their movement growing by finding someone to be offended by something every minute of every day. From the occupy movement, to black lives matter, to antifa, they agitate the offended, promote uncivil discourse and ignore any sense of due process and fairness to destroy their enemies. The elimination of due process is the very Gold Standard of the socialist state. Imagine this and this happened and its true. Imagine telling an elderly couple that because they sought help to do their taxes, that they could no longer exercise their fundamental Second Amendment right. Thats exactly what obama did. His Administration Proposed to some Social Security recipient who granted Financial Authority to a family member, friend or financial professional was banned from purchasing a firearm. No questions asked. Just like that. Good lawabiding people were automatically and unjustly declared mentally incompetent and put on a new government list and oh, how socialists love to make lists, especially lists that can be used to deny citizens their basic freedoms. And now some people are calling for a new list of anyone, anyone who has sought Mental Health care to deny them their Second Amendment rights. Look, and this is really important and you never hear this on the National Media, so i want to say it to all you now and i need your help in telling all america this because its the truth, the National Rifle association originated the National Instant check system. It was our bill. No one on the prohibited persons list should ever have access to a firearm, no killer, no felon, no drug dealer. [ applause ] and anyone adjudicated as mentally incompetented should be added to the check system and prevented from getting their hands on a gun. But but watch what i released three years ago and the media machine all over the country, they so callusly and incompletely ignored it. Watch this. Heres what the media wont tell you. The nra is fought for 20 years to put the records of those adjudicated mentally incompetent in to the National Instant check system and until the politicians demand that they are submitted, killers who are legally prohibited from owning firearms will walk into gun stores and pass every background check they take. So if they really wanted to make a difference, the media would lead every newscast with a reminder that the names of millions of violent felons, criminal gangbangers and ad jaud indicated dangerous people are missing from the background check system. But no one gets ratings by telling the truth about how to stop mass killers. So they dont report that 38 states submit less than 80 of their felony convictions to the system. Leaving more than 7 million felony convictions in the dark. They dont tell you the truth. Instead, the only thing the average american has heard about background checks is the absolute fallacy that what we need is more. The system is only as good as the records within it and the records only get submitted if the politicians demand it. What the oregon killer, the wdgb killer, the staush killer, the Maryland Mall killer, the l. A. Airport killer, the d. C. Navy yard killer, the Aurora Movie Theater killer, the tucson killer, the Virginia Tech killer, and both ft. Hood killers have in common. Every single one with of them passed a background check. If you cast a net and the fish swim throw the holes, you dont need a bigger net, you need tighter holes. But when comes to background Check Systems that missing the names of millions of prohibited people, the politicians dont want to fix it. The best kept secret is that the National Instant check system wouldnt exist at all if it werent for the nra. Its true. Back in the 90s president clinton forced passage of a mandatory waiting period on every handgun purchased in america. Not a background check. A wait. But nra said as soon as the technology was available, their wait had to be replaced by an instant background check done by the dealer at the point of sale. Nra supported it, nra got the votes and nra got it passed. We demanded an honest system that was supposed to make sure good people can purchase firearms as quickly as possible, a system that catches violent felons, the ad jaud indicated mentally incompetent and dangerous and every other prohibited person right at the point of sale. Where they would be prosecuted for a federal felony. But they arent. What is happened instead is one of the greatest failures in the history of american leadership. In 2010, roughly 80,000 prohibited people committed a felony by trying to buy a gun. Just 44 were prosecuted for it. Does that sound like a good number to anybody . So when you hear politicians who wont fix the broken system talk about expanding it, dont buy it. Demand what works. Put Armed Security in every school. Fix the broken Mental Health system. Enforce the federal gun laws against every criminal thug on the street. Prosecute dangerous people had they show up to buy a gun and for god sake, put every prohibited person into the system. Thats what common sense gun laws look like. [ applause ] the whole discussion of the Second Amendment and the gun issue in this country has become so dishonest in the National Media and so dishonest among the politicians that you can barely stand it. Thats not a new video as i said. Ive said for years, ive said for years and ive been ignored by the same opportunists who dont give a damn yet you see them on tv every day wining away. Heres what i said on cbs way back in 1993. That was 25 years ago. Let me ask you this, are you in favor of computerizing the Mental Health records of people into a National Computer you bet i am. Can we join hands on that and go to capitol hill we sure can now heres the real tragedy, Charles Schumer shook my hand to get all the Mental Health records into the system and then he went back to capitol hill and you know what he did . Absolutely nothing. How many lives might have been saved if he had just kept his promise . They are liars to the core and ill make this prediction right now. A year from today, many of those records may still not be in the system. Not if some of these whining for television politicians and their media enables have their way. [ applause ] instead, what theyll do is theyll keep coming after the nra and when another monster slips through the cracks, the very cracks that theyve enabled in the system as the records of prohibited persons remain out of the databa