NEWSWEEK: Are people right to be saying “Why do we have guns? Why can’t we do something about this violence?”
LAPIERRE: Absolutely. I think we all share that same emotion of stopping violence and stopping these horrible tragic situations. They’re unimaginable. I think what we differ about is what will stop them. I’ve watched this debate for 20 years, and the reality of politics in Washington has become completely detached from the reality of crime and violence with guns on the streets. We know what would make an immediate, dramatic impact on stopping violence with guns… Confront these criminals with guns directly. Confront the gun dealers directly. Confront the felons trying to buy guns directly and get them off the streets.
So you think the problem is not with the laws, but with enforcing them.
There’s a deliberate effort by this administration and by the Department of Justice not to enforce the laws on the books and not to prosecute any of these cases. They ridicule programs like Project Exile [the Richmond, Va., effort to prosecute felony gun cases and lock up offenders, supported by the NRA]. And they’re getting people killed every day on the streets of this country by not doing it. Instead they’re going to concentrate on cutting off guns at the source. Well, I mean, give me a break. They can try that for the next 50 years, and criminals that want guns are still going to get them.
I really don’t believe that there’s a criminal in the United States that cares about a one-gun-a-month law. What they would care about is if tomorrow morning [Attorney General] Janet Reno would hold a press conference side by side with the NRA and say, “We just approved $100 million for additional prosecutors and additional enforcement people. And I can guarantee you tomorrow night, if you’re out on the street with a gun and a felony record, if you’re a violent juvenile with a record with a gun, if you’re carrying guns and selling drugs, if you’re walking into a school with a gun–I can guarantee you 100 percent of the time you’re going to be prosecuted and spend time in the federal penitentiary.” That would have an impact.
Why are you so opposed to licensing gun owners? People believe they have a constitutional right and a freedom to own guns in this country. And they don’t want their names on government lists. They know what the next step is. It’s a knock on the door confiscating their guns. And, you know, they’re not going to stand in line and submit to that. What purpose is there for the government to compile a list of who has guns in their homes in this country? Why does Janet Reno need a list?
I’ll tell you what’s going to happen with a registration system and a licensing system: a lot of duck hunters’ guns are going to suddenly fall off the canoe into the water. They’re never going to register them and they’re never going to license them… You’re going to have massive civil disobedience on a scale that you’ve never seen. Why do they want to pass a law that puts the American public in that position?
Why do you think they want to do it?
I think the real target is the Second Amendment. I don’t think it has anything to do with crime. I don’t think it has anything to do with stopping violence. I think the ultimate target is to take away the freedom and take away the Second Amendment.
Why do you think they want to do that?
I don’t know. Let them tell you why.
How about stricter bans on assault weapons, like California just enacted?
They don’t want to say they want to ban all semiautomatic firearms in America, because they know they’d get a huge uproar from Americans all over the country that own and use them. So what they say is, “We want to ban these bad guns as opposed to these good guns.” Well, I hate to tell them, but they all shoot the same. And that’s why the NRA says, “You guys are a bunch of hypocrites.” You know, if you want to ban guns, just say it.
Are you willing to compromise on gun laws?
I think there have been 20,000 compromises [that is, 20,000 laws on the books already]. This latest crime happened in California, and it has some of the toughest gun laws in the country. Crazy people and criminals don’t care what the gun laws are. And the problem is that what is being offered is some utopian society where guns do not exist. And I hate to tell people, you’re never going to get there.
The countries that have bans, you can still get guns. If you’ve got cash in your hands, it’s just like drugs, the guns are there. It’s the honest people who fill out the forms, abide by the paperwork, and have to live with the bans.
How do you think this issue will play in the 2000 campaign? I think the Democrats want to ban guns and I think the Republican candidates, from what I’ve seen pretty much, want to stand for the freedom. And I think the Republicans are much tougher than the Democratic candidates I’ve seen on enforcement and prosecutions.
The Democrats are on the wrong side of that. When you get on the wrong side of freedom and people’s rights, you’re on the wrong side politically and I think they’re going to find it hurts them at the polls.
The American public is seeing through a lot of this stuff. I’ve been getting swamped everywhere I go by the American public going, “You’re right, don’t cave in.” And we’ll see who’s right. I believe that the public is with us.
