Standing Guard |
2020 Is All About Your Freedom
NRA America’s 1st Freedom
by Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President - Wednesday,
December 18, 2019
The choice is ours, as the Democrats running for the
presidency have never been clearer about what they want to do with our freedom.
We must be just as clear as we stand together to vote for our freedom.
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer
soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service
of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of
man and woman.” –Thomas Paine, 1776
The American people will only stand so much before
they’ll get up with their backs straight and jaws set firm to defend their
freedom. We saw this in 2016 when the electorate said “no” to Hillary Clinton,
and therefore to the U.S. Supreme Court justices she would have nominated.
Now, as we enter 2020, we see a field of Democrats vying
for their party’s nomination who have told us they want gun bans,
confiscations, new onerous restrictions on your right to keep and bear arms, to
be allowed to sue gun companies out of business, the desire to nominate U.S.
Supreme Court justices who don’t think the Second Amendment is an individual
right and more.
The choice is ours, as the
Democrats running for the presidency have never been clearer about what they
want to do with our freedom. We must be just as clear as we stand together to
vote for our freedom.
It clearly isn’t hyperbole to say that your Second
Amendment will be on the ballot this November. What is even more worrying is
that the sheer noise of this bombastic election season, and the amount of
disinformation stuffed into current mainstream-media narratives, might confuse
or turn off voters who simply don’t see the importance of this coming federal
election.
This is why we must speak loudly and clearly now. After
all, even in America’s Revolutionary War period, it took heralds like Thomas
Paine, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to plainly articulate to the
public what needed to be done to win freedom from tyranny. Now, to paraphrase
Franklin, all we have to do is keep it.
Achieving this means understanding and communicating the
importance of this moment. It is possible for even freedom-cherishing Americans
to become weary in this struggle. Each of the last presidential elections,
after all, have felt like they were the pivotal elections of our lifetimes. And
in some ways, they all were. When everything is at stake election after election,
it can be hard for us to keep up the same vigor.
That is what keeps me up at night. The media distortion
and the threats from politicians who want to blame law-abiding Americans for
the actions of criminals all in a quest to control the citizenry are bad
enough. But if the freedom-loving American electorate becomes complacent, or
even takes a step back amidst all of the smoke from rhetorical battles over our
rights, then we could find ourselves the day after election day watching as
anti-freedom majorities jump at their opportunity to not only erode, but to
outright take away our Second Amendment rights.
That has happened before and it can happen again. But it
doesn’t have to be this way. A clear majority of citizens of this great country
cherish their right to keep and bear arms. We have come such a long way
together, battle by battle in state and federal elections winning back freedoms
once lost. We can’t stop now.
I remember, back in the 1990s, after your NRA made it
crystal clear that the Second Amendment is a freedom issue, more Americans
began buying guns for recreation and for self-defense, and more began to vote
for their liberty. The fact that violent-crime rates began to fall nationally
as this took place—especially in areas where the government hasn’t overly
infringed on our rights—is no coincidence.
So this year, we will be informing you, as you must know
what’s going on with your rights, and we will be encouraging you to not just
vote for your freedom, as you no doubt will, but also to talk to your friends
and neighbors to tell them how important this fall’s election is so they will
also vote to protect their rights.
This year, our rights are in danger of being diminished
into something the Founders of this nation wouldn’t recognize. The choice is
ours, as the Democrats running for the presidency have never been clearer about
what they want to do with our freedom. We must be just as clear as we stand
together to vote for our freedom.