Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Within minutes of the National Rifle Association’s opening forum at their annual meeting this weekend, the group’s leaders went after gun control proposals and advocates who sought to expand tougher firearm laws following the deadly Newtown elementary school massacre. …

“While we pray for God to comfort those suffering unimaginable pain, they rush to microphones and cameras, gather in war rooms on Capitol Hill and scheme about how to use that suffering to push their political agenda,” he continued. “That’s who they are and what they believe, but not us.”

The crux of Jindal’s remarks, however, focused on the Second Amendment, which he accused Obama of attacking from his “very first days in office.” “It’s one of the primary reasons I opposed his reelection,” Jindal explained to the audience of over five thousand. He pointed in particular to the president’s nomination of Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, who does not believe the constitutional right to “keep and bear arms” applies to individuals. “That’s pretty close to the top [of the Bill of Rights], so I wonder when she stopped reading,” Jindal quipped.

He urged the crowd to remain engaged in the fight for liberty that he said falls to each generation. “All of our rights are dependent on a people willing to fight for that freedom,” he said. “I am ready to stand and fight for that freedom.” And he concluded: “May God bless America, and may God bless the NRA.”

 “If he believes the answer to violent crime is not prosecuting felons and fugitives, not prosecuting gun crimes but going after the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens, I would like to invite the vice president to engage in an hour-long conversation and debate,” Cruz, R-Texas, a Tea Party favorite, told an enthusiastic audience at the National Rifle Association’s Leadership Forum in Houston. “How do we stop crime?” …

Cruz mocked the vice president for advice that he gave at an online town hall that someone faced with an intruder should go outside and “fire two blasts” with a double-barrel shotgun.

Cruz said that advice ” is very useful if it so happens you’re being attacked by a flock of geese.”

Sen. Ted Cruz blew away some 6,000 peolpe at NRA in Houston, with some jumping to their feet, yelling "You are our leader!"

— Ralph Z. Hallow (@RHallow_Times) May 3, 2013

Please, don’t encourage them. The NRA’s critics already consider the organization directly responsible for every shooting death recorded in the United States. That tidbit aside, were people really yelling, “You are our leader”? It’s certainly possible, and Sen. Ted Cruz’ interest in a 2016 run for president has been called “undeniable.” If Cruz does run, expect a lot of headlines that resemble that tweet.

Santorum, a former senator from Pennyslvania, told NRA members that the Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment “come from God.”

Santorum said by helping to defeat the Senate bill, the NRA “stood up when freedom was under assault. You stood in the gap. You made a difference.”

http://twitter.com/#!/hellion1111/status/330170226761158656

http://twitter.com/#!/RaymondMcNeel/status/330343047734910976

http://twitter.com/#!/DrSchadNFreude/status/330115946259808257

(via Twitchy)

“Now I see that the mayor of New York now wants to ban public displays of legal tobacco products,” she said, referring to his recent push to keep tobacco products out of sight at stores in order to de-glamorize the product.

“I tell ya,” she said, as she pulling out a pack of chewing tobacco. “Don’t make me do it.”

With the crowd roaring, she put the pack back in her pocket.

“It’s funny because Todd’s been looking for this all morning.”

Note: Allahpundit has the day off.