In this animated cartoon, ‘Someone’ is performing a mass hypnosis at the annual NRA convention. How else can gun lovers all share the same ridiculous paranoia?! They know who the ‘Good’ guys are, and everyone else is a ‘Bad Guy’ They are surrounded by terrorists, haters, liars. They are closing in. Everyone is lying, lying lying! Once a year you stop stocking your bunker and go to be with others like you, and listen to the message (again) from Wayne LaPierre.
There is only one true ‘friend’ in your life, your gun – and Obama wants it! . By the way, I have yet to receive a link to Obama threatening to take anyone’s guns, yet the myth is real in the minds of those who are busy collecting yet more of the sticks that go ‘bang!’ and end the lives of other human beings. Cartoonist Mark Fiore ‘visits’ the recent NRA annual meeting and invites you to select which hyperbolic, paranoid lines are direct quotes from Wayne LaPierre’s address, and which lines are Fiore’s own interpretation. It’s not easy.
I had already been planning on cartooning the National Rifle Association’s ridiculous annual meeting when my nephew’s unarmed friend got killed in what is shaping up to be another “Stand Your Ground” case. The circumstances surrounding this shooting may make things a little more difficult for the shooter, who was basically laying in wait to murder someone. The shooter’s defense attorney has already said his client is going to use a Castle Doctrine/Stand Your Ground defense.
Regardless of what the circumstances are in this particular case that happened to strike close to my family, it is perfectly clear that the NRA is stoking the fires of paranoia and fear in order to pass legislation, sell more guns and make more money. All you have to do is listen to the apocalyptic, conspiratorial speech made by the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre to get so scared you probably will rush right out and buy a couple AR-15s. (Which were conveniently available at the time of the speech in an adjoining gun showroom that covered nine (9) acres.)
It is baffling to me that members of Congress speak at the NRA’s annual gun fest, an orgy of military hardware marketed to civilians, while the head of the gun lobby group essentially trumpets the need for armed revolt. (Join now, buy now!) As a bonus, the NRA held a “Youth Day” last Sunday, which coincidentally was the day my nephew’s unarmed 17-year-old friend was killed. Ugh. While you’re watching the cartoon, see if you can pick out which lines are direct quotes from Wayne LaPierre, and which are my interpretation. Mark Fiore