Thanks Bartholomew.
Wayne LaPierre was seriously ill, and judging from what his advance crew on the ground at GRPC told me, and what I learned from him about three days later, it sounded to me like a world class case of food poisoning. He had been on the road for several days, and as a veteran of the "rubber chicken circuit," I can tell you that just one bite of the wrong entre´ and you are in a world of hurt.
To suggest that he skipped out due to the controversy over HR 2640 is simply wrong, and to claim otherwise is a flat out lie. I've known Wayne for more than 20 years, and he has rarely missed the GRPC. Besides, when the questions were tossed at Chuck Cunningham, who very capably responded IMHO, LaPierre would have been in the air flying from DC National or Dulles to Fort Mitchell, and would have had NO WAY of knowing what was being said on the ground at the conference.
I think he truly wanted to be there to respond to Larry Pratt. Let's be honest here, Larry has had something of a field day with his take on HR2640, and a lot of people who really haven't read the legislation, have accepted his perspective as gospel. I lost count of the calls I took from people who had read GOA's take on the legislation, but who admitted to me they hadn't actually read the bill, but were convinced NRA was selling out. This I don't understand, because none of us should be throwing around accusations one way or the other without actually reading the legislation. But that's just me talking.
Pratt and Cunningham clearly did not agree on 2640, and what it does or doesn't do. That's a conversation for a different day, perhaps.
As for LaPierre's absence, I won't allow a myth to be created about that. The man was so sick he could barely get out of bed.
NRAwol, your sources don't have a clue what they are talking about.
