Conservative website The Daily Caller published in its entirety an over-the-top fundraising pitch from National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre that suggested the only way to save America is to buy an NRA membership.

The March 3 column posted in the Caller's “Guns and Gear” section included the phone number for an NRA membership hotline and a link to a website where Caller readers can purchase a discounted NRA membership:

Like other material published by the NRA at the Caller, the fundraising pitch was filled with paranoid rhetoric based on the conspiracy theory that the Obama administration is plotting to confiscate privately owned firearms. 

Warning that “2014 could be remembered as the turning point in the loss of your Second Amendment rights,” LaPierre urged readers to buy or upgrade NRA memberships, and wrote, “your NRA membership may be the only thing that can stop the Obama-Biden-Bloomberg gun-ban bulldozer.”

LaPierre continued: “Right now, President Obama is on the verge of putting together a royal flush -- an unbeatable, winner-takes-all hand in poker -- in his drive to 'transform' American society by disarming the American people.”

The fundraising pitch also included one of the NRA's more outlandish conspiracy theories, the claim that the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty -- an effort to crack down on the diversion of weapons to human rights abusers -- “could set the stage for a national gun registry, to be shared with foreign governments.”

The reprinting of LaPierre's fundraising pitch follows what is already an unusual relationship between a supposed journalism outlet and an advocacy group. Since its launch in December 2011, the Caller's “Guns and Gear” section has frequently republished press releases from the NRA's lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action, and op-eds from members of NRA leadership. The NRA has also bought advertisements on the site.

The special membership price offered for Caller readers is also evidence of the NRA's never-ending use of fearmongering about manufactured Second Amendment crises for fundraising purposes. The current offer includes the exact same language from a 2012 membership special for Caller readers: “There has never been a more important time to join the NRA! ... Remember: NRA is the ONLY firewall standing between your firearm freedoms and those who would take them away.”