Hello Dallas and good morning NRA! It s great to see you all here, and it s a great day to be a member of the NRA. I m so proud of you and every member of our association. And I m proud to report that, despite all the national media attacks and predictions of our demise, your NRA today is larger than ever before and stronger than ever before. Every one of you has played a role in our success and in our staunch defense of the freedoms and values that have made America the greatest nation on Earth, and for that, I congratulate and applaud you. You know, not enough people think about the founding of our country how it all began and what it was all about. Most classrooms don't teach it. And too many politicians, media personalities and Hollywood celebrities don't think about, much less recognize it. But we do. A bunch of pretty brave people didn t think of themselves as patriots when they crossed the violent ocean. They came here to be free. To live free. And when the government they left behind shackled their freedom here, they rose up, led a revolution, and forged a nation. They forged America. Their utopia based on the simple idea that every citizen
lives free. Not based on royalty or wealth, but on the God-given principle that even the most common of commoners were free. That was the utopian concept of our Founding Fathers. That is what America is, and has always, been about. Until now. Now, that pure ideal of American freedom has been twisted and distorted. Perverted by the elites of the political class and media class that long for their own utopia far removed from the dreams of our Founders. No, their agenda is to turn America into some European-style socialist state. Now, when you think about what I just said, you know I m telling the truth. But, even as I speak, reporters in this hall are writing about Dystopian Wayne there he goes again saying all kinds of strangely dark things. I ve been leading this association for almost 30 years now, and for most of those 30 years, the media elites have been calling me every evil name you can imagine and describing me as some sort of dystopian character. So let s take a look at those three decades, and see who s been telling the truth. Let s go all the way back to 1989, when I was still serving as the Executive Director of our Institute for Legislative Action. Take a look. 2
There I was, almost 30 years ago, talking about the problem of illegal drugs and guns coming from our southern border. And how prohibitions against our rights won t solve the problem. I could say the exact same thing today, and be just as relevant and just as right. But that s not all that s still happening. Take a look at 2016. And even as the media continues to ignore it, Chicago and other major cities still burn with violence all these years later. Here s one that drove the media really crazy, calling me crazy. Take a look. The media goes nuts when I say things like that. Dystopian Wayne they call me. That s their go-to phrase to make fun of you and mock our entire association. But what about Katrina? What about Houston and Southeast Texas? What about Puerto Rico, where for so many citizens, American citizens, the lights are still off and the night still deathly dark? And yet they call me dystopian. They call the NRA paranoid. Here s another. 3
Not only was I right then, but the United Nations is still determined to ban civilian ownership of firearms in the United States. And the NRA will never, not ever, allow that to happen. In 2006, I said something that drove the media and political elites insane. Watch this. Yep, the media went crazy and made all kinds of fun of me, but they ignored the fact that in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, government did exactly what I talked about they knocked on doors and seized the guns of honest citizens desperate to protect themselves when the darkness of night descended. You know, most of the media and political class just don t get it. They don t get us. They don t get real America. Boy, that was true then and it s gotten even worse today. And they ve always been willing to lie about the NRA and our freedom even willing to lie legislation into law. When the lying media rolled out those same fake stories to re-impose the Clinton Gun Ban, I had had just about enough. Watch this. 4
They lied then and you all know it. History is repeating itself and they re lying like hell again now! And when it comes to safety, especially the security of our school children, the NRA has been clear. Many school districts are working with the NRA School Shield Program to evaluate their security needs. Thousands of school districts around the country are hardening their schools and arming trained security. Yet the national media and the political elites continue to ridicule the NRA for simply calling for protecting our children as much as we protect our jewelry stores, banks, and celebrities. And the media continues to ignore a dark truth I exposed in 2011. That was 7 years ago. It could have been 27 years ago. It s the broken record of failed policies to advance an agenda that they just won t stop playing. For them, it s not about keeping school children safe. It s all politics. And we know their agenda. The complete elimination of the Second Amendment. 5
But that s not the first time NRA members have been onto their plot to destroy our Second Amendment freedom. When we see a threat to the Second Amendment, their first response is, "No, we support the Second Amendment." Do you believe them? When they call for gun bans, and gun taxes, and ammo bans, and licensing and registration all while claiming to support the Second Amendment do you believe them? Neither does the majority of Americans who trust the NRA, because we tell the truth and stand and unflinchingly fight for the values and freedom we cherish. Now the media and a lot of politicians have never liked hearing that. And they sure don t like this. Now, in spite of what the national media has said about me, despite how many times they ve called the NRA a paranoid organization, history proves time after time they ve been wrong and the NRA has been right all along. And there is no greater proof than this. 6
The media elites and political elites have mocked me, scorned me and demonized me for saying that. But I ll say this, whenever a good guy with a gun runs toward the gunfire, the madness stops quickly. And that is undeniable proof that we need more armed, trained security good guys with guns protecting our schools. But the media ignores that truth, denies that fact because it doesn t fit their agenda. Let me be very clear. The political elites and the media elites, in order to pervert and fundamentally transform our country into their imaginary world, lie to the American people. THAT is the very definition of dystopia. The growing majority of Americans distrust government. They see our polarized society unraveling. The foundations of our free society the FBI, the Department of Justice, even the national news media, which we used to rely upon and I ll stress used to rely upon for the truth about what was going on in our country the institutions Americans have always trusted have proven to be no longer worthy of our trust. For years, I ve warned Americans about the decay of our society, the threats to our individual freedoms, the growing contagion of the ever-increasing violent Left and the anti-american dream of so many national democrats and their "running buddies" in the media to warp our nation into a Europeanstyle socialist state. The political class and the media class will deny those truths. They ll criticize this speech and mock me. 7
But over the last three decades, I ve been right. Everything I have predicted and warned gun owners about has either come true or is happening now. To the national news media that will call me Dystopian Wayne to the lying politicians who will rant and rave about my words to all the violent protesters and vile bloggers who inaccurately portray me I say this: You twist and pervert truth, you deliberately deny reality, you wait for tragedy to exploit and make us the villain when the NRA has for decades predicted potential tragedy and called for real solutions to prevent them. You, the corrupt, lying political and media elites and you Hollywood hypocrites represent one of America s greatest threats. You are the very definition of Dystopia. Americans all over this country are sick of the lies and the sanctimonious hypocrisy that has pushed good citizens to the edge of fear. Fear for the future of their country. Fear of an increasingly unstable society. Fear of untrustworthy government institutions, the loss of civility, and the corruption of basic rule of law. We re standing at the edge of fear, staring into the abyss of the demise of our country and its freedom we care about most. I m here to tell you one thing, to warn you and every good American who hears my words. America is teetering on that abyss and this coming election is a guarantee of our worst nightmares if we don t win. This election will determine whether or not the Second Amendment survives or is headed to complete, total extinction. 8
Gun owners every one of America s 100 million law-abiding gun owners had better listen up, buckle up, and get to work to win this election. If we lose the House and Senate, the dystopian media and political elites will destroy President Trump. They ll block every judicial appointment, and every pro-freedom measure. And then they ll seize the White House and come after us with everything they ve got. Come after you, your guns, your freedom. Don t believe a lot of what you are going to hear in this election. The leadership of the national democratic party is the most anti-second Amendment bunch of socialists in U.S. history. They aim to seize your firearms, destroy your NRA and entirely obliterate your Second Amendment. That is the very real fear, the daunting challenge we all face in this election. You know I m right. You feel that fear in the pit of your gut. The NRA will do everything we can devote every resource we can muster but we can t do it alone. We need every gun owner, every citizen who cares about American freedom, to stand with us. Stand and fight like hell to save our great nation. 9