The National Rifle Association is proverbially firing back at the political weaponization of prosecution by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Letitia James, according to NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre on Newsmax TV.
"You can't do that in the United States of America – you can do that in other countries, where we shake our head and say, 'thank God, we don't live there,'" LaPierre told Wednesday's "Stinchfield," about James campaigning on a platform to destroy the NRA as a "terrorist" organization and then proceeding to conduct potentially motivated investigations and attacks after taking office.
"We have filed to major First Amendment cases against the governor, his Department of Financial Services, and also against the sitting attorney general and her corrupt regulatory system that was attempting to silence and destroy the NRA.
"This is a constitutional fight; it's bigger than the NRA."
LaPierre added to host Grant Stinchfield, the Democrat leaders' attempts to destroy a leading Republican gun lobby should concern "all Americans."
"If they can do it to the NRA today, they can do it to any organization on the right or left tomorrow," he continued.
The NRA has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York and is moving its operations to Texas, a famously gun-friendly red state.
"We faced a weaponized, as I said, regulatory system," LaPierre said, adding, "the NRA is strong financially, we're growing in members."
"We're asking a federal judge to let us re-incorporate in a freedom-loving state like Texas," LaPierre said.
The CEO also warned Americans of the Biden administration's gun-control agenda.
"If they get their way, they'll leave Americans defending their homes with broomsticks and garden hoses," he said. "My gosh. At the very root of American consciousness is 'I have a right to defend myself. I don't want to face evil with empty hands.'
"Every police officer knows, you want to control violent criminals, take them off the streets. And yet here we see this agenda on the part of the Biden administration just go after law-abiding people, not going after criminals."
LaPierre added the irony Democrats ignore the fact criminals by their very nature break laws.
"What they don't understand is all of their gun control requires the criminals' cooperation," he said. "The criminal could care less. Honest people all across the country, they don't want to be left defenseless. That's why they're joining the NRA in record numbers right now.
"We're going to fight and we're going to defend your freedom and we're going to stand up to this."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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