Standing Guard | 2020 Is All About Your Freedom

Standing Guard | 2020 Is All About Your Freedom

NRA America’s 1^st Freedom

by Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President - Wednesday, December 18, 2019

https://www.americas1stfreedom.org/articles/2019/12/18/standing-guard-2020-is-all-about-your-freedom

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.