Wonder why Wayne LaPierre wasn't in the Army during Vietnam?

[sinkingfeeling]

We should restate it that he was rejected due to a mental issue.

[BSdetect]

1. Typical bully type. All bluff and bluster.

[Motley13]

2. hmmmmm

"We should restate it that he was rejected due to a mental issue."

that means he shouldn't have a gun

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Nervous disorder? At first, I thought perhaps bone spurs? ...

Ha! He still looks like he has a nervous disorder. Lottery number of 97? Gee Whiz, I wonder how he ever got out of that, being such a low number.

I remember sitting around the TV and watching these drawings. Very scary for a lot of us and our childhood friends back then (for those not in the know, drafts weren't voluntary back then, only if you had a physical deferment or going to school/college, could you get a deferment.)

I guess that this guy and tRUMP must have been childhood friends?

[klook]

6. Brain spurs. (nt)

[RoBear]

23. damn!

You beat me to it!

[kairos12]

25. Razor sharp comment!

[maddiemom]

14. That's the problem for those of us in the "Viet Nam generation."

Those of us who were genuinely against the war had no problems with so called "draft dodgers." It's when those same guys turned around and became "chicken hawks"...Politicians vigorously defending or advocating senseless wars when somebody else will fight them, is completely deplorable.

[hibbing]

73. + 1

And then you had the deplorables with their purple bandaids at their convention mocking John Kerry who DID serve, it's disgusting.


Peace

[bigbrother05]

30. My number was 301 in '71

The estimate that year was up to #125, so in #97 in '69 would have been called.

When I saw my number pulled on TV, refused to celebrate until I saw it confirmed in the newspaper the next day. Dropped my student deferment and was immediately reclassified as 1-H for "holding" until my target year passed.

Yes, very scary to be a lottery target where 1/3 or more were "winners".

[aka-chmeee]

40. In 1970 my number was 180 and got my invitation to participate in June

Must have got just about everyone that year.
A little rhyme I wrote to celebrate the occasion:

Drafted, Shafted,
Into the Army wafted
By that well known ill wind.

[barbtries]

41. i don't remember it very well

but i do recall my mother's clear relief when my brother got a high number. and she was a republican product of the "good" war and once yelled at my older brother, a member of VVAW, that she would be "proud" if he died in Vietnam. of course it was all booze and bluster; she certainly would have never recovered.

[DownriverDem]

34. When you think about it

everyone who was sent to Nam had a nervous disorder.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

65. Well, I certainly had one after Vietnam.

It's called PTSD.

[SergeStorms]

62. I watched as well....

I was 20 years old, and I took a year off from College just to bum around for awhile. They said the first 125 numbers drawn in the lottery were certain to go. I watched in incredible anxiety. All young men did. I made it through the first 125! Yippee! Number 126..........November 13, my birthday. I went for my pre-induction physical and they found an irregular heartbeat. That saved me. I haven't had any trouble from it, and I take medication to keep it that way. I'm actually thankful they found that, but I'm more thankful I didn't have to attend the University of Southeast Asia. I went back to College the next semester.

[secondwind]

69. Am happy for you as well. Vietnam destroyed my first marriage. He was never the same

when he returned.

[MyOwnPeace]

75. Now THAT...........

is a sad story - so many paid such a price for that needless war - most hear the stories of so many, but the little stories suffer alone.

So sorry for both of you - and your families.

[atreides1]

4. The reason has still not been proven

According to Snopes that is still unproven! And for some reason the Selective Service System has failed to provide Wayne LaPierre’s archived draft registration documents.


https://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/lapierre.asp

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Either Way, The Fake Tough Guy. . .

. . . bailed on military service during a time of draft and now promotes guns and war like a maniac.

[asiliveandbreathe]

5. Let this be the distraction of the day..instead of baldspot...eom

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Wayne's not in it for the guns -- he's in it for money and power.

SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, The New York Times:
Wayne LaPierre is the NRA. He built the NRA into what it is today.

NARRATOR:
In the 1970s, he started as a lobbyist.

RICHARD FELDMAN, Former NRA Lobbyist:
If you’re a political junkie, like Wayne or like myself, it was a wonderful job. You’re working with all these people and having these fights. And you’re cutting your teeth.

NARRATOR:
But LaPierre was no one’s idea of a glad-handing lobbyist.

WARREN CASSIDY:
He was a very quiet man. I was amazed he was a lobbyist because he did not have the “hail fellow well met” attitude or personality that I associated with politicians or with lobbyists.

NARRATOR:
And surprisingly for the NRA, he was not a gun enthusiast, more comfortable on K Street than in a duck blind.

JOHN AQUILINO:
The safest place you could be with Wayne and a gun back then was in a different state because he really did not know anything about guns. Politics, yes. Guns, no.

NARRATOR:
And inside the fractious politics of the NRA, LaPierre was skillful, navigating between the sportsmen and the gun rights activists.

WARREN CASSIDY:
Wayne could put a finger to the wind and see which way it was blowing, and he would position himself so that neither side would be offended and might even think that he were, in fact, on that side.

TIM DICKINSON, Rolling Stone:
In an organization that is so beset by factionalism, his being unmoored to any particular point of view is actually very helpful for him in terms of being able to ride the torrents that have occasionally swept through the NRA and emerge always on top.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/gunned-down/transcript/

Those last two paras sound disturbingly Trumpian.

[njhoneybadger]

10. That's interesting.

Just a plain old sociopathic demagogue and opportunist

[Raster]

13. LaPierre reminds me greatly of Renfield from Stoker's Dracula...

...."Yesss, Mahhster, I will bring you children, beautiful, living children, so you can bathe in their blood."

[keithbvadu2]

39. The NRA used to be for sportsmen, hunters and gun safety. Now it has become an industry owned shill

The NRA used to be for sportsmen, hunters and gun safety.

Now it has become an industry owned shill for the sale of more guns and the enrichment of its leaders.

[Ligyron]

56. Yeah, I got out of it when the started that "gubmint bad" crap in the late 80's.

They got so completely RW and CT it was ridiculous. Wrote and told them that and also to take me off their damn mailing list too.

[irisblue]

9. 🐤🐦🐤🐦🐤🐔🐣🐤🐦🐤🐦🐤🐔

[Farmer-Rick]

11. Just another liar

To much of a coward to go to war. But more than willing to take Russian money.

Hmmmm, I see a pattern here. He would not defend his country back in 1969 and now he's getting paid by one of our country's enemies.

[dalton99a]

12. Kick

[bluestarone]

15. don't know BUT

next time he takes questions THAT WOULD BE A GREAT ONE FOR SURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[smirkymonkey]

16. Scratch a gun-humper, find a lily-livered coward underneath.

It's almost always the case.

[kairos12]

26. Agreed!

[Blue_true]

17. I had older brothers who could not dodge the draft.

They served, and unfortunately, fought.

[Bengus81]

18. 1969--my brother was in the Navy by June of that year,served for six years.

And this POSER to the line up of Conservative ass wipes that talk a big story NOW but BAILED when the Vietnam was was going full blast.

[relayerbob]

19. That's why he opposes mental health limits

on gun purchases, he would likely fail that test.

Anyone so paranoid and delusional to believe they need a weapon like an AR-15 is too paranoid and delusional to actually own one.

[snort]

20. He'd heard of fragging.

It made him nervous.

[Timmygoat]

21. How about Ted Nugent

He is working for the NRA and loves to swagger around with a rifle, he is the one who pooped in his pants to get out of going into
the military and going to Viet Nam, then he walked around in his own excrement for days.

[Ligyron]

57. Why hunt something that can shoot back?

That's no hunt. Hell, you could get killed!

[randr]

22. Itchy finger syndrome I presume?

[onenote]

24. Is there any proof supporting this?

More likely than not, he got a student deferment.

[sinkingfeeling]

28. Why does it even matter? If the NRA can claim Parkland students are

'crisis actors'? Besides this is the age of post truth.

[onenote]

29. Because all LaPierre has to do is produce records showing he had a student deferment

And our credibility is gone. And if we don't have credibility, we have very little with which to fight their lies.

[sinkingfeeling]

32. Then why hasn't he produced them? Charges about his deferment has

been out there since 2006. I'm tried of playing nice with these a**holes. A lack of credibilty doesn't hurt them ever.

[onenote]

35. Let me ask you something

LIke you said, this has been out there for awhile. Do you think that there is a single NRA member who, upon seeing that meme, has or will drop their membership, change their position on gun rights, stop supporting republican candidates? Is there a single elected official who has or will change their support of the NRA's positions because of this met?

What exactly, other than getting a good laugh for those of us that hate him and the NRA, does it accomplish?

[sinkingfeeling]

45. No, but again does not matter. What is the point of any meme posted on DU?

[LanternWaste]

37. Your evidence supporting that is...?

"he got a student deferment..."

Your evidence supporting that is, and dismissing any other potential is exactly what...?

Because, if you have no evidence, "we could be discredited...."

[onenote]

38. Well, it would have been a lot simpler to get a student deferment

So, maybe just Occam's Razor.

I'm of the age to have gone through the draft lottery (a bit younger than LaPierre). I'm trying to think of I know anyone who went to the trouble of getting a medical deferment when they could have a student deferment.

Can't think of one.

[aka-chmeee]

42. But student deferment is conditional, needing to be renewed and supported

by passing grades. Hard to beat a good ole 4F- once obtained requires little upkeep.

[Paka]

54. Exactly!

My brother, who had Rheumatic Fever as a child could not at the outset get a medical deferment, so went for the student deferment. He was not a particularly good student and it did need renewing often. Kept trying for the medical and once he did get it, dropped the student deferment.

[LanternWaste]

85. That's the kind of thing you allege will "discredit us."

"Can't think of one..."
That's the kind of thing you allege will "discredit us."


"So, maybe just Occam's Razor..."
Or maybe just lazy thinking.

[muntrv]

27. At least Charlton Heston fought in WWII, unlike this chickenhawk.

[lpbk2713]

31. Did he have a pimple on his ass?

[beachbum bob]

33. another republican coward like cheney, trump, nugent, limbaugh

run away as cowards do

[appalachiablue]

44. Was just about to add this & Newt b. 1943 received student,

and marital deferments (m. 1962 to his teacher) and had a child. Rudi is another case.

[Bengus81]

80. Now now....Limbaugh had a real bad pimple on his ASS and couldn't serve.....

[FakeNoose]

81. Limbaugh may have had a student deferment

A lot of guys my age (I'm 66) were still in school during the years of the draft lottery - that started in 1969 as I recall. Male students may have gotten a low number in the lottery but they still kept their S-1 deferment as long as they stayed in school. A lot of guys my age actually graduated college and enrolled immediately in graduate school in order to keep their S-1 deferment. That didn't always work though.

I've no idea what Rush Limbaugh did, but it would have been a common maneuver. By about 1974 they weren't drafting so many guys because the war was winding down and Uncle Sam had volunteers and re-ups to fill spots. There were other strategies, as we all know. Some guys were able to get a 4-F for a medical problem, others got out on a CO - conscientious objector. Some guys got married and had a baby, and Uncle Sam gave them a pass. If you were a teacher you got a deferment, and some split for Canada. It wasn't a good time to be a young male in America.

[Stinky The Clown]

36. I avoided the draft, too.

I joined the Navy.

Fuck him. He's just another coward and bully.

[beachbum bob]

46. I avoided the draft too, served 4 years in the USAF, same as my brother

and several of our cousins. To get a health related deferment (bone spurs, pilenidal cyst, etc) because you are coward shames our country

[Thomas Hurt]

43. Doesn't respect guns nor is he a patriot....he is just a fascist ideologue and money grubber.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

47. Wayne LaPierre couldn't be trusted with a gun in 1969. . . . . . nt

[NoMoreRepugs]

48. If it's true use it, if it was a student deferment use it....

because aren't college kids "eggheads and snowflakes" to the true country AR15 humpers?

[yellowcanine]

49. To be fair he did have a "nervous disorder."

He was nervous about getting drafted and sent to Nam. Join the club, Wayne.

[BobTheSubgenius]

50. Would that it was Muzzle In Mouth Disorder.

With triggering features.

[SummerSnow]

51. Punk ass probably stood in the mirror drawing his gun like John Wayne

[keithbvadu2]

61. I just f_______ shot myself

[Skittles]

52. typical gun humper

[SayItLoud]

53. Nervous Nelly

Banned from owning weapons because of itchy trigger finger.

I'm betting there is some crazy hidden shit in this scumbags background. Power hungry=abusers.

[Dan]

55. Nervous Disorder called fear.

[torius]

58. On the list of cos. that support the NRA

I saw some author's Web site and he had written a Christian book about his anxiety disorder.

[nuxvomica]

59. He went to school at my alma mater!

I looked this up on Snopes and he apparently graduated from Siena College, a year before my freshman year, so I never met him. They list the deferment as unproven yet he did score a 97 in the lottery and was not drafted so there's a question as to why.

[Sarg]

60. Just another fake "tough guy"

followed by legions of fellow fake "tough guys." A loser who could go nowhere in life until he discovered the grifter's paradise on K street.

[Miigwech]

63. Red flag him with the FBI

[BSdetect]

64. We should keep this post very visible for a long time.

Be nice to see an ad around election time - which has begun.

[GoCubsGo]

66. Nope. Never wondered.

I always figured he was a chickenshit, like Trump, Dumbya, Cheney, Limbaugh, and the rest of their ilk.

[jmowreader]

67. As a veteran, I don't care WHY LaPierre wasn't in the Army

And I'm actually glad he was not...you know a guy like that would have been one of those lieutenants who got his entire platoon killed out of utter stupidity.

What's important is his actions now, and he seems to be fine with everyone else's kid getting blown away for no good reason.

[A2er]

68. Still crazy after all these years...

And still a liar and a traitor to the USA. Give him a pardon and let him go live in Moscow.

[iluvtennis]

70. I was going to say bone spurs. :-)

[Gore1FL]

71. I don't know if this is true or not.

If it is, he shouldn't be around guns.

[rustydog]

72. Come on, show some compassion LaPierre has suffered WPOS syndrome since 1969

There is no known cure. WPOS syndrome is known medically as Worthless Piece Of Shit syndrome.
It can be as debilitating as bone spurs...

[RainCaster]

74. SNOPES: unconfirmed

Sorry, it sounds like a good story but it's BS.

[oasis]

76. GOPocrisy.

[Gabi Hayes]

77. Wonder why I havent seen this on TV

No I don’t

[orleans]

78. one thing du has taught me across these years is to site sources and fact check

so i googled and snopes says this:
https://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/lapierre.asp

[DFW]

79. He had a legitimate worry

In Vietnam, he would have had to face a whole lot of people who didn't agree with him--and they all had guns, too. Gun nuts do not like being confronted by other people with guns, especially if there are superior in number. The transition from gun nuts to numb nuts can sometimes be faster than the eye can see.

[invrabbit]

82. Mental issue-can't buy or own guns.

[The_FOX_Hound]

83. Another right-wing hypocrite!

Although it's not been verified, with facts, that his deferment was of the medical nature—it could have been a student deferment…

the fact that he did not serve makes him as much of a hypocrite as our draft-dodging "president". All talk, no action! Whatever rakes-in the big bucks.

[Rhiannon12866]

86. And he does make "the big bucks" as I recently learned

Approximately $5 million a year - all from spoils from the NRA! And for what??

Welcome to DU, The_FOX_Hound!

[Eliot Rosewater]

84. Add him to my list of people who if the enemy had

not taken him out, his own men would have and WE would not have to DEAL with him now.

There are many other names that apply here, Limpdick, Trump, Cheney, etc.