On Saturday October 14, 2023, I made the keynote speech at the annual meeting of the Arizona State Rifle And Pistol Association.

Many people have asked me on social media and emails if they could read a copy of the speech because they could not attend.

When I make a speech, I usually write out what I want to say, and then make an outline, study the outline and then make the speech from memory. I’m publishing here the original script of the speech, however, I did adlib around it and it is not an exact version of the speech.

So here it is:

Thank you, It was an introduction like that that made Joe Biden what he is today!  

 

No, no, I’m just kidding, that was a beautiful introduction, thank you.  I am honored that you would invite me here today and be interested in anything I might have to say.  But speaking of Joe Biden!

 

You know, I moved her 36 years ago and back then channel 10 was a good tv station, and they used to send us out into the community to speak and back in 1988, I would follow the introduction with that very same phrase, “It was an introduction like that that made Joe Biden what he is today,” and everybody would roar in laughter.  Because back then he was running for president, and he lied about his college background, academic achievements, and plagiarized his speeches, (word for word) and the news media was legit then.  So NBC, CBS, ABC, even PBS called him out and showed how he was lying.  Even calling him a lightweight and buffoon.  You can see the videos on-line today.  So today he is president of the United States! Has anything changed?

 

My name is Rick D’Amico and I’m here to stand up for my country!

 

You know I have always said over my 50 year career, “I’m just a blue collar guy from a factory town in Ohio.” A small town, Wickliffe, Ohio population about 12 thousand. So small that when my mother died about 11 years ago at the age of 99, most of the towns people came to the funeral, the only funeral parlor in town, including the police chief and my high school speech teacher whom I hadn’t seen in 50 years!

 

Living in Phoenix it is hard to get that small town feeling.  And I have found that I get that small town feeling when I’m with people like you and when I meet the nicest people in gun stores or at the range, I feel so much more at ease, more comfortable and more accepted than any other place.

 

For example, Joe Biden made a speech some time ago when he said again he was going to outlaw all semi-automatic weapons.  It just so happens, that day I purchased, on-line, a handgun and the following morning I went to Sportsman’s Warehouse to pick it up.  And there was a line out into the parking lot of people waiting to buy a gun! About an hour wait to get to the counter! And we had a wonderful time talking to each other, it was a small town atmosphere. Talking about guns, and gun ranges, and the 2nd Amendment .

 

I love small towns and small town stories. Recently  a friend told me a about a little old lady, 85 years old who was stopped by the town constable for cruising through a stop sign in a small town in Ohio. The  Cop says “Why Mrs. Jones, you did it again drove through the red light in the middle of town, for the 4th time, I’m afraid this time I’m going to have to write you a ticket may I see your driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance.”  And she gives him that and included her Concealed Weapons Permit!   And the officer says, “Why mam, are you carrying?”  And she says, “Why yes!”  And he says, “What are you carrying?”  And she says, “Well I have a Ruger 22 on my hip, a Glock 19 Gen 5 in the glove compartment and under the seat I have a Colt Cobra 357 magnum!” The cop says, “Mam, what on earth are afraid of?  And she says, “Absolutely nothing!”

 

I’m a blue collar guy from a factory town in Ohio.  I was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1944, World War 2 was still on, it was about 5 weeks before D-Day. And has fate would have it, about 18 years later, I would serve in the US Military with some who were there on Omaha Beach. And one who survived the Bataan Death March. As I look back at my life, I feel that was one of the most honorable things I did, serving my country with those real American heroes.

 

My father was a blue-collar guy who worked in a factory, third shift, my mother was a housewife and we lived in the “Projects.” I guess we were poor, but we didn’t know it, we ate spaghetti 4 times a week, but I thought that was normal for Italians!

 

My parents pulled enough money together to buy a small 3 bedroom ranch in a Cleveland suburb.  My dad was an immigrant from Calabria, Italy of Sicilian decent and he loved God, loved his family and loved the United States of America.   And after that came two things he loved. One was Guns Hunting and Shooting and two, he loved his lawn! Italian men have a thing about lawns. As my father was an outdoorsman, one of his best friends was an American Indian, Native American, named John Brownfoot. Every Sunday morning John Brownfoot would come over to the house have coffee and they would work on the lawn, and they would trample through the forest across the street and dig up plants and replant them in our yard. My dad’s yard was a big deal.

 

And my father was a shooter and a hunter. There were days when they would come home after hunting  for pheasant and some days rabbits, and my mom made them into a delicious dinner with tomato sauce and pasta. And I remember days when my father would take me with him where he competed, at his gun club, in skeet and clay target shooting with his shotgun.

 

And every year, my dad, along with his buddies, would go on a two week hunting trip to Canada. And before he left he would tell me, “Son when you are 12 years old, I’m going to buy  you your own gun and teach you shooting and you will come with us!”

 

 

There were days when my father wasn’t home I would sneak up to the attic and check out his guns.  He had a double barrel, side by side, shotgun and a 22  rifle, I believe it was tube fed.  I would open the ammo boxes look at the shells, admire the firearms and I couldn’t wait for the day when I would turn 12 and go hunting with my dad and his buddies.

 

One fall day, October 9, 1955, a Sunday morning, my father was mowing the lawn, the lawn that he loved so much, and collapsed and died of a heart attack.  I was 11 years old.  So I never made it on that hunting trip.

 

So I didn’t have much to do with guns until about 7 years later.  The very first thing I wanted to do when I started my life’s journey was to serve my country, in uniform in the United States Military, and that’s when I joined the United States Air Force a month after I graduated from High School.  I walked into our small town military recruiting office in the Wickliffe, Ohio Post Office.  And it was empty with the exception of a United States Air Force Staff Sergeant, his name was Staff Sergeant Carr.  He said, “Can I help you young man?” I told him I wanted to join the Navy, he said the Navy Recruiter is out to lunch, why don’t you have a seat. 45 minutes later I was I the Air Force! I told the recruiter, “I want to be in Armed Forces radio”, and said, “When you get down there in basic training, they’ll ask you what you want to do and just tell them!”

 

During basic training in the Air Force, we ran the combat confidence course, (Only fell in the water once!)  overnight bivouac and qualifying on the rifle range.   We had World War II M-1 Garands. So there I was lying prone, with an M-1 Garand, pushed against my right shoulder, I see the target, about 75 yards down range. “Ready on the right, ready on the left, ready on the firing line, commence firing!” The range master yells!  A couple minutes later, a DI (Drill Instructor) runs over to me and starts banging on my helmet.  “You dumb SOB!” (he didn’t say SOB.)  You are firing at the target that belongs to the airman in the lane next to you!”  So needless to say I didn’t qualify on the rifle range that day, but the guy next to me did!

 

They asked me what I wanted to do “in this man’s Air Force, and I said I like to see if I could get into Armed Forces Radio, and the sergeant nodded and two or three days later they are sending me to the United States Air Force Medical Service Corp Training School in Greenville, Mississippi!  Then I became a medic in a USAF Strategic Air Command Hospital ready to go to war on a 15 minute notice during the height of the Cold War.

 

I got out of the Air Force and went into Broadcasting. In my 50 year career I interviewed a lot of people in all genres. Music Stars, Movie Stars, Political Stars, TV stars, and everyone always asks me what are they really like? And what was your most embarrassing moment on TV.

I had a doctor’s appointment a few weeks ago with my nose doctor and he said, “Everything is fine, now tell me about being on TV!”  I had the honor of speaking before the entire staff of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, in their amphitheater, at Banner University Hospital downtown and after speaking I opened it up for questions, and a neurosurgeon in the front row asked, “What was your most embarrassing moment on TV?!” Everyone, it seems, wants to know that and also who did you interview, what are these celebrities really like.

 

Well, there were 3 interviews I did which left a lasting impression on me and one terribly embarrassing moment which occurred on network television, coast to coast!

 

Channel 10 used to do an annual telethon for the Arthritis Foundation and every year there would be a reception the night before to get the troops together.  One year it was at Barry Goldwater’s house.  I thought, “Wow!” I was wondering if Barry Goldwater would be there and would we get to meet him.

As my wife and I approached Goldwater’s home, I noticed a man standing outside next to the front door.  I thought it was security or perhaps a butler to check our credentials.  The closer we got, I began to recognize it was Barry Goldwater!  He said, “Hi I’m Barry Goldwater, welcome, let me show you around my home!” And he gave us a tour, showing us his remarkable photographs of Native Americans, his amazing gun collection and his office.  And we sat down and talked.

 

Now, if you think I was getting special treatment from Goldwater, because I was on TV, I wasn’t, because the first thing he asked me was, “What do you do for a living?” I told him TV weatherman and he told me about the time he built Phoenix’s first radio tower downtown. And as we chatted, I asked him, “What’s the best thing you’ve ever done?”  And he said, “Gosh, moving my wife Peggy here from Indiana!”  Wow! founder of the modern conservative movement in America, United States Senator, Republican Candidate for President of the United States, and the best thing he’s ever done was being in love with his wife!

 

I interviewed Lee Iacocca, (the man who invented the Ford Mustang, and saved Chrysler Corporation from bankruptcy, borrowed money from the Federal Government, and paid back every last dime. Saving hundreds of thousands of jobs.) The man who invented the Mini-Van! I asked him, what’s the best thing you’ve ever done, and he replied as he kind of chuckled, “Raising my two daughters!” 

 

I interviewed President Ronald Reagan.  He had in-laws who lived in the valley, and he wanted to be on our noon show to plug his book, “An American Life” as he was leaving office.

It was a satellite hook-up with the Western White House in California.  After I introduced him, and looked into the monitor, I noticed he was grimacing. A little alarm started going off in the back of my brain, and I said, “Good afternoon Mr. President.”  He didn’t answer, so then I said, “Mr. President what can we learn about you that we don’t already know about you after serving 2 terms in the White House? He was not responding, (alarm going off in the back of my brain getting louder) I then said, “Mr. President, can you hear me?”   And he said, “Well, all I can hear is a confounding buzz and static in my ear!”  I panicked and looked into the camera, and said, “We’ll be back in just a moment!” 

 

Somebody, obviously, messed up the connection.  So, after the break we had a short conversation and I remember him saying the best he’s ever done was, “Falling in love and marrying Nancy, she was more than anything he could have ever hoped for, she brought a warmth and joy to his life that has grown every year.”

 

Channel 10 used to be a CBS television Station. One day CBS in New York called me and asked if I would come up to New York City for a week and do the weather on their morning news shows. I would be anchoring with Charles Osgood, Connie Chung, Harry Smith, Paula Zahn and Kathleen Sullivan in the same studio where Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite did the news. Yes, it was a bit of a shocker.  So Ruth and I flew to New York on a Sunday afternoon, and after arriving in our hotel room, we decided to take a walk and explore the city.  It was time for dinner and we found an Irish Pub type restaurant called Houlihan’s.  After dinner we had to get right back to the hotel room, because they would be sending a limo for me at 4:00AM!

 

So I anchored the first half hour with Charles Osgood and I did fine. And then I did the weather on “CBS This Morning” and a producer came over to me and asked if I would sit in on the “Co-Op.”  I said, “What’s that?”  She replied, “You just sit around and talk with the other anchors and guests about what’s going on in the world.”  That little alarm stared going off in the back of my brain, “Wow” I thought, this could go south really fast!”

 

“25 past the hour, good morning everybody welcome back to CBS This Morning, (Harry Smith is talking into the camera) I’m Harry Smith and I’m here with the Reverend Jessie Jackson, Chris Matthews, Paula Zahn and weatherman Rick D’Amico from our affiliate station in Phoenix, Arizona.  He looks over to Chris Matthews and says, “Chris, you just got back from Northern Ireland, what is going on there?”

So now that alarm is getting louder in the back of my mind, “What if they call on me to talk about the problems of Northern Ireland?”  Panic starts to set in!  Then a lull in the conversation, its quiet for a second, Harry Smith looks over to me and says, “Rick have you ever been to Ireland?”  And I replied, “No, but last night I ate a Houlihan’s!”  Harry Smith looked into the camera and said, “We’ll be back in just a moment!”

 

 

So, Let’s talk about guns and the 2nd Amendment!

When I get dressed in the morning, I put my wallet in back pocket, my car keys go here, my phone here and then I strap on my carry gun.  As Kevin Michalowski of the United States Concealed Carry Association says, “if you are more than 3 seconds away from your gun you are unarmed!”

 

So, why do I carry? I bought my first handgun about 14 years ago. Without getting into specifics, there was a perceived threat on our family by bad people south of the border. As reported to me by the Phoenix Police Department. So, I ran off to the Scottsdale Gun Club and bought a Beretta, PX4 Storm in 40 S&W. And the first thing I wanted to do after buying my first gun was to take a CCW class at Ben Avery. Later we found out that threat was non-existent. And in the last 14 years or so,  I have purchased about 8 handguns.

 

You know, as much as I know you think I’m a beautiful, sweet, lovable, talented guy and while working on TV, everybody loved me, oh contraire!  Do you now that while I worked at channel 10 there were people who wanted to kill me? And I’m not talking about my bosses!  (They wanted to kill me, but in a different way.)

 

One man wrote in and said he was going to kill me and assault my wife Ruth, and break both of her hips, so she would remember who he was.

Yes, I reported it to security, yes they said they would look into it, yes I was scared. I had to be prepared to protect my family. Nothing ever materialized from that.

 

I was shopping at a Pool Store some time ago, and guy was in the store talking really loud, and he came over to me and started harassing me.  I backed off and he yelled, “I know who you are and I’m going to knock you out!” I backed off a little, and the store manager jumped in and said he was going to call the police and sent the guy packing.  

 

Here's my favorite “Why I Carry” story.   One day my granddaughter walked to QT to meet a friend and buy snacks.  She called me to pick her up.  No sooner than when we got into the driveway, a car pulled up and a young lady got out and started screaming at me that my granddaughter took money from her brother. Obviously, this was not true, the boy bought her a thermos soft drinks and candy and chips, etc. I offered to give her 20 bucks to get her off my driveway, but she kept yelling she was calling her father to come and beat me up!  And she wanted to beat the heck out of my granddaughter and wanted to beat the heck out of me.  Neighbors were coming outside to see what was happening.  So I called 911! No sooner than when I got 911 on the line, another car pulled up and a man got out (her father) and charged me and got right in my face, screaming that he was going to physically beat me.  So I held my phone up to his mouth and said, “Excuse me, may I interrupt you for a few seconds, You are talking to the Phoenix Police Department!, this is 911!”  So he gets in his car and rushes away.

 

Now here’s the good part!  If you remember nothing else about what I say here today, remember this: When did the police arrive? About 10 – 15 minutes later! We gave the police the attacker’s phone number and they went to his house, and he was at home watching TV! After threatening to kill me!

 

When seconds count the cops will be there in minutes, usually the police show up to take notes.

 

I was at a Little Caesar’s Pizza one day, and in the tiny waiting area of the store, there was a really mean looking man waiting for his order, and he kept staring at me, with a terrible, mean look on his face.  And I thought this guy is going to attack me as soon as I leave the store.  They called his name, he picked up his pizza and walked towards the door, and stopped and looked back at me, with this terrible scowl on his face and he said, “Are you Rick D’Amico?”  And I said, “Yes.” And he said, “I love you man! I really miss you on TV!

 

 

So why has Gun Control gained so much traction in the United States. Two reasons: One: An absolutely Corrupt, immoral, incompetent, lying, dishonest media and two: Stupid People! And as long as people remain stupid, the corrupt media can get away with their lies!

 

 

I have always said throughout my career that about, 50% of the people in this country are stupid.  One day I was being treated by a doctor for an injury from a car accident, and I told him that and he said, “Oh no, I don’t believe that, I would say 75% of the people in the country are stupid! Maybe 80!”

 

 

Through the many years of my time on the air, I always used to say to my co-anchor, “Give this one the cul-de-sac test.” You know what that is, go stand out on the cul-de-sac or in front of your house and ask your neighbor what they think of a critical event in the world which is in the news today, and see what they say.  I’ll bet you a dollar to a donut they’ll answer, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

Example: I’m at the mailbox one day and a neighbor told me he hated Donald Trump, and hated Kari Lake and all republicans and I asked: “I suppose you voted for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden?”  And he said, “Sure did.”  And I asked, “What have they and the Democratic Party ever done for you?”  And do you know what he said? “Got my stimulus checks!” The guy is willing to sell out the country for a couple thousand bucks!

 

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a presbyterian minister, who spoke out and demonstrated against Nazi Germany and Hitler, during the days of the Nazi regime wrote days before he was executed in a Nazi Concentration camp, “The reason the people of Germany were seduced by Nazism was just plain stupidity.” Stupid people are much more dangerous than malicious people.”

 

One day on my social media and web sites, I published the following:

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well-regulated militia, is the best and most natural defense of a free country."
- James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789

 

Oh my what a reaction I got.  Some wrote to me, including family members, “Oh yea, that doesn’t mean weapons of war, weapons of mass killing, guns that fire hundreds of rounds per second!” 

 

Where did they get that idea? When people like Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris and Joe Biden say, “weapons of war should not be allowed on the streets of our country.”  You know that’s a lie because they are not, but the news media only covers the half-truth which in fact is lying. You know weapons of war are not on the streets of America.  It is a lie.  What they should say when broadcasting a sound bite like that is, “Actually Weapons of War are not on the streets of America..etc.”

 

Here's another example of how the news media lies by not covering the full truth.  My sister-in-law who lives in Columbus, Ohio and watches the ABC Evenings News, sent me a message, “Oh my, I am so worried about you, Phoenix has a critical water shortage, Phoenix is running out of water what are guys going to do?”  So I checked out the story, and found it was a government agency that is requiring home builders to insure they have a guaranteed source of water before beginning building.  Nothing new, been going on for years.

 

Now the very same day there was a story in the news, that the water levels of Lakes Meade and Lake Powell (where we get our water) have risen 40 feet.  Did they broadcast that? No, why? Because it does not fit their narrative.  Global Warming, obey!

 

Massad Ayoob The nation’s foremost expert on firearms says:

Of the 1.67 million defense gun usages every year according to every single study going back to the 1970’s…the vast majority of gun usages are where the victim displays his firearm and the assailant backs off and runs off.  Without any bloodshed on either side.  And these events are never reported in the news.

 

They only report the gun deaths, 38 to 40 thousand deaths, where the bad guy is killed or shot.  But this Includes criminals killed by police in the line of duty. And criminals who were killed in the line of self defense by their intended victims and every one of them represents an innocent life saved. 

 

And the figure of 38 to 40 thousand dead by gun includes a minimum of about 60% in some cases 2/3rds suicides.  Never reported in the news.

 

So what does the left wing demonic democrats want? They want to eliminate all guns! Period!  Why?

 

The Governor of New Mexico, case in point.  In total violation of the Constitution of the United States, suspends the 2nd Amendment!

 

“Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.”  James Madison, 1789.

 

General Norman Schwarzkopf, the Supreme Commander of the Iraq war told me in an interview, “You never judge an enemy by its intentions, only by its capabilities.”

 

We live in a time when our freedom is under attack from all sides. Big government, the mainstream media, and social media are all working together to destroy our rights and liberties and our way of life.

Men can get pregnant, Mexican drug cartels flushing our country with fentanyl killing hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Riots and disorder where criminals run freely in cities like L.A. Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

 

John Lock, 17th century English Philosopher said, “Without law, there can be no freedom!”

 

The Declaration of Independence says we have the right to life, not given to us by Joe Biden, or Nancy Pelosi, but by the Lord our God and if we have the right to life, we certainly have the right to defend our life!

 

 The right to defend yourself and your family is a moral right and a solemn duty!

 

And they are even trying to take away our right to worship God. The FBI investigating Catholics because “they are extremists and may be a threat to the United States.”  When Christopher Ray was interrogated by Republicans in the Congress, he said, “Well I put a stop that immediately.”  That’s not the point, the point is, what kind of culture in the FBI, what kind of mentality, would even lead to a thought of the US Justice Department investigating Christians?

 

And finally, as many of you know, my wife passed away one year ago next week.  She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinsonism, in January of 2016. I took care of her for 5 years and the last two, I had to put her in a care home.

One day, when I was in our house alone, I walked into our closet and saw all of her clothes and shoes and jewelry.  The gym clothes, the dress up dresses, and I thought these things were so important to her and now these and other possessions are meaningless.  She could not take them with her where she was going.

“As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so he will return as he came. Ecclesiastes 5:15-16

I recently  read about Steve Jobs, lying in a hospital bed, saying, “All the fame and fortune I have achieved in my life seems so meaningless now that death is immanent.”

I realized that the most important decision I can ever make in my life is how I’m going spend eternity.

Let me tell you this, if you are sitting bedside next to your spouse or loved one, and they are passing away, and struggling to stay alive, who are you going to turn to? Joe Biden? Nancy Pelosi- the Federal Government?  No, you turn to God, the only one who can save your loved one and you.

That’s when I decided to get back with God, get back to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and get back to my church.  I pray every day, say the Rosary every day, and I pray for our Country.

Franklin Graham recently said on Twitter, “There is only one who can save our nation, and it is God Almighty, It’s time to pray.”

And I urge you to do the same.

Remember Barry Goldwater, Lee Iacocca, President Ronald Reagan, Steve Jobs,  the most important things in life are not what money can buy, Love of God, love of your family, and love of freedom, love of our country and I urge you to get back to God and pray for the United States of America. And pray that the country will be returned to the way our founding fathers wanted it to be.

God Bless you all.  And thank you.