National Rifle Association board member R. Lee Ermey, best known for his drill sergeant role in the film Full Metal Jacket, claimed that “nowadays lazy is our new cripple” to attack recipients of public assistance during an NRA News special celebrating Veterans Day.

The November 11 holiday honored individuals who served in the United States Armed Forces. As Think Progress notes, “there are roughly 5.5 million disabled American vets and over 3 million receiving disability compensation.”

Ermey used the word “cripple” -- a derogatory term for a person with a disability -- several times while describing how his new book Gunny's Rules: How to Get Squared Away Like a Marine “tells you how to take command of your life, get off welfare, unemployment, food stamps and regain a little bit of your self-respect”:

ERMEY: I've got a new book that just came out, it's out right now, you can get it on the Internet or you can pick it up at just about any bookshop. It's called Gunny's Rules and basically it tells you how to take command of your life, get off welfare, unemployment, food stamps, and regain a little bit of your self-respect.

You know, those things are like quicksand. Once you get in there, it's real difficult to get back off of it. Welfare back in my time, back when I was a kid, I remember my parents voting for welfare and it was sold to us -- like cripples, we got to look after our crippled people in this country. Crippled, those that can't work, and I guess nowadays lazy is our new cripple.

During his November 11 appearance on the NRA News show Cam & Company, Ermey also suggested that the United States is on the path to communism and said, “I am very disgusted and disappointed with the way this world's -- with the way this country has changed over the 70 years of my life.”

Ermey was previously fired from a Geico insurance commercial acting gig after stating during a speech at a 2010 Toys for Tots event that, “I think we should all rise up, and we should stop this administration from what they're doing because they are destroying this country. They're driving us into bankruptcy so that they can impose socialism on us.”

In addition to serving on the NRA's board of directors, Ermey is an "ambassador" for handgun manufacturer GLOCK.