Giving what might be the most passionate speech at CPAC thus far, Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President and CEO of the National Rifle Association, eviscerated gun control advocates and the recent efforts of Congress to implement comprehensive gun control policies.

“Here’s what political leaders offer: a placebo called Universal Background Checks. Yep - that’s their big idea…a check that will always be far from universal, will never make our schools or our streets safer and will only serve as universal registration of lawful American gun owners. Criminals won’t participate, and the records of the mentally ill will never, ever be a part of that check. With all of the HIPA laws, patient privacy issues, the monsters at Tucson, Aurora and Newtown - those names will never be in the system.”

“What’s the point of registering lawful gun owners anyway? So newspapers can print those names and addresses for gangs and criminals to access…so it can be hacked by the Chinese…so a list can be handed over to the Mexican government? In the end there are only two reasons for government to create that federal registry of gun owners: to tax them or to take them.”

LaPierre went on to address the recent gun control measures proposed by Senator Diane Feinstein. “They’ve offered nothing new - nothing to make our schools, our streets or one child in this country safer. Senator Feinstein admitted that she had her gun ban bill ready to go a year ago- tucked away in a drawer, just waiting for the right opportunity. Really? Waiting for an unspeakable tragedy to [enable her to] push her political agenda? They’re simply not serious about making our kids or our country safer. If they were serious, they’d arrest, they’d prosecute and they would imprison felons with guns, drug dealers with guns - as many as they can find. But instead - they let them go free.”

Continuing to speak on the issue of lack of criminal prosecution, LaPierre brought up a familiar buzz word. “Now let’s talk just a minute about this thing called sequestration. I run the NRA - not an economic think tank, but I watch the news and I see that instead of rational belt-tightening, the first thing the government thinks to do…is let thousands of criminal illegals out of jail. Normal people all over this country think that’s crazy. It’s as if sanity itself has been sequestered in Washington.”

LaPierre noted that the failure to prosecute criminals and the ineffectiveness of current federal gun laws is more evident in President Obama’s home base than anywhere else in the country. “Nowhere in this country does it apply more than in Chicago. Listen to this: federal gun crime prosecutions fell by more than 30 percent from their peak in 2004. Federal firearms prosecutions in Chicago dropped forty-five percent. President Obama’s home town ranks dead last in firearms prosecution. Out of 76 thousand prohibited persons flagged by the instant check system - thirteen, only thirteen, were successfully prosecuted nationwide. Vice President Biden said…’We don’t have time to prosecute.’ Excuse me? Don’t have time to prosecute prohibited people trying to illegally get a gun?”

And he wasn’t finished with the VP: “But the Vice President does have time to offer advice to women threatened by an intruder. I’m gonna quote him directly: ‘Just walk out and put that double-barreled shotgun in the air and fire two blasts outside the house.’ The Vice President of the United States actually told women facing an attack to just empty their shotguns into the air. Honestly, have they lost their minds over at the White House? It doesn’t make any sense - no doubt the violent predators would love to face a woman with a shotgun…that’s empty. Well Mr. Vice President…you keep your advice; we’ll keep our guns. The one thing a violent rapist deserves to face…is a good woman with a gun.”

He finished by addressing the idea of having armed guards in our public schools and implementing common sense answers to the issue of gun-related violence. “There’s not a mom or dad in America who wants to leave their children unprotected. If the Washington elites…really wanted the same thing, they would stop trying to demonize law-abiding gun owners all over this country. Put police and trained armed security in every school. Enforce the federal gun laws right now that are on the books. Interdict and incarcerate armed criminals before they get to the next crime scene. Rebuild our broken mental health system. Help the mentally ill by getting them off the streets and into treatment. And for God’s sake - leave the rest of us alone!”

LaPierre has served as executive vice president and CEO of the NRA since 1991, but has found himself in an increasingly bright spotlight recently, following several high profile mass shootings.

Last December, in a prepared statement in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he blamed gun violence on violent films, video games, issues regarding mental illness, the media and gun free zones.

In the speech he said, “I call on Congress, today, to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation.” This drew the ire of many on both the left and right, but LaPierre was, to some extent, validated when the Newtown school board came to the unanimous decision to request armed police in all of its elementary schools.

LaPierre hosts a weekly television program, Crime Strike, dedicated to highlighting safe gun use for self-defense and true stories of both officers and citizens stopping criminals with the use of a gun.