 The chair recognizes the gentleman at microphone 1A. Thank you. My name is Jason Selvig and I'm from West Palm Beach, Florida. And I would like to say that I am sick and tired of the left-wing media and, frankly, people in this room today spreading misinformation about Wayne LaPierre. Whenever there's a mass shooting, they all say that Wayne LaPierre isn't doing enough to stop these mass shootings and even implying that Wayne LaPierre has played a part in making it easier for these shooters to get guns, to get weapons. You heard it after Las Vegas. You heard it after Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. You heard it after Columbine. You heard it after Parkland. You heard it after Virginia Tech. You heard it after Sandy Hook. You heard it after El Paso. You heard it after Buffalo. You kept hearing that Wayne LaPierre isn't doing enough. And frankly, that's not true. The NRA under Wayne LaPierre's leadership has provided thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families. And maybe these mass shootings would stop happening if we all thought a little bit more and we prayed a little bit more. So I'm asking everyone in this room to think, to pray. Give your thoughts and your prayers and your thoughts and your prayers and your prayers and your thoughts. And if we give enough of these thoughts and these prayers, these mass shootings will stop. So I want to thank you Wayne LaPierre for all your thoughts and all your prayers. Thank you. That happened last week at the NRA convention in Houston and the crowd, as you saw, was completely oblivious. In fact, I didn't even know if Wayne LaPierre realized that he was being trolled by a comedian. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with that comedian, this is a viral TikTok star. Him and his partner go by The Good Liars. And this is a comedic duo that trolls politicians all the time, similar to Walter Masterson. And they're brilliant. So I'll link you to their YouTube channel and Twitter down below. If you want to follow them, definitely check them out. But I love things like this because it shows you in a satirical way how absurd the conversation in this country is with respect to guns. Now, to be fair, Wayne LaPierre isn't the only individual who's offering thoughts and prayers. As you all saw last week, Republicans and mass who were bought off by the NRA were offering thoughts and prayers as if that was some sort of a solution to this problem. Now, since 1990, the NRA has given over $23 million to politicians and spent nearly $64 million on lobbying since 1998. And just in 2019 and 2020, they've spent millions on lobbying. So this is why they're so influential. And even if the power of the NRA has waned over the years, they still are the main authority when it comes to gun rights in this country. And even calling it gun rights feels like a misnomer because what they want is gun anarchy. And that's what they bribe politicians to enact or to perpetuate in this country. But they're not the only interest group to be clear. There are other more insane organizations, believe it or not, like Gun Owners of America, that has pushed the NRA to the right on this particular issue. And also it's not just interest groups. There are gun manufacturers who bribe politicians and make sure that any restrictions that might cut down on their profits don't get enacted into law. So that's why we're in this current situation. Now, you might think at some point that the NRA is going to reflect, and at least for optics, even if they don't care about children dying, maybe they could pretend to just so they don't look as bad. And so that way there's not as much attention directed at this organization. But no, just a couple of days ago, they signaled that they're not turning back. NBC News reports the National Rifle Association's Board of Directors voted Monday to reelect longtime CEO Wayne LaPierre, signaling that the gun rights group isn't changing direction despite a rise in mass shootings and its own internal turmoil. LaPierre has been in charge of the NRA's day-to-day operation since 1991 and has shaped its no-compromise approach to lobbying against gun control even after New York's Attorney General accused him of using the group as his personal piggy bank. The NRA said in a statement that the vote was almost unanimous as a rival candidate former Republican Congressman Alan West received support from only one board member. LaPierre's position atop the NRA has been threatened by allegations that he used its money for personal expenses, including flights to the Bahamas on private jets. The NRA filed for bankruptcy last year, but a judge rejected the filing, ruling that it was financially sound and was using the bankruptcy process in bad faith to avoid scrutiny from New York authorities. New York Attorney General Leticia James, a Democrat, is seeking LaPierre's ouster in a lawsuit she filed in 2020 over his expenses, alleged gifts from vendors, and alleged no-show contracts for associates. Now think about how insane this organization is. Wayne LaPierre is under investigation by the New York Attorney General for allegedly using the NRA as his own personal piggy bank, taking money, membership fees, donations that the NRA gets, and using it for himself, and yet the board of directors said, let's keep him in power. Now, one might think that corruption is bad because it shows a lack of moral character at a minimum, but the problem is that this organization is so disgusting that they probably see his lack of moral character as a benefit and not some sort of a character flaw because in order to have this position of power, you have to essentially be ruthless and have no moral compass whatsoever and turn a blind eye to bloodshed even when it happens in elementary schools because of lax gun laws that you lobbied for for decades. It's absolutely ridiculous. Now, one more thing that needs to be spoken about is how even if the NRA voted for Alan West or someone else who wasn't as extreme in their gun anarchy views, the problem is that things probably still wouldn't change honestly because of the climate in this country. We have interest groups who are competing to be the top gun lobbyer in America. So anytime the NRA has signaled support for just modest gun reforms, gun owners of America, a competing interest group, well, what do they do? They send out emails to all of their donors and members and they say the NRA, they're getting cucked by the Republicans and Democrats in Congress. And if you really want to support the true advocates for guns, then you've got to support us. So if they even choose to try to be somewhat reasonable, well, gun owners of America will step in and take the members that they lose and they could lose that top spot and they don't want to lose that spot because, you know, they want to keep that money. Now, another thing that might help is if these interest groups and lobbyists didn't have as much power over politicians, but the problem is that our democracy isn't a democracy. It's not. It's a plutocracy. A 2014 Princeton University study by Drs. Gillens and Page found that normal citizens, they have a statistically insignificant impact on policy outcomes, whereas elites and interest groups, they actually dictate what policies become law. Or in this instance, what policies do not become law, what bills that are proposed never see the light of day. And I sound like a broken record because if you've been watching the show for a while, I talk about that study all the time, but it is the most important study arguably because it shows why our political climate currently is just not conducive to any positive or progressive change at all. So since our political system is so corrupt, since all politicians and the Republican Party and some Democrats have been bought off by the NRA, at a minimum, we can at least be somewhat satisfied watching comedians troll these ghouls who have established this situation, this climate where kids essentially have to go to school in war zones. It's truly just ridiculous, but this is the state of American politics, unfortunately.