It is with great pride and humility that I write my first column as president of the National Rifle Association—the largest and most important civil-rights organization in the history of our great nation. I want all NRA members to know that I take this responsibility extremely seriously and will work tirelessly to protect the Second Amendment and strengthen the size and influence of the NRA.
Before I present this month’s message, let me introduce myself briefly to those who might be unfamiliar with my background. I was born into a military family in Iowa City, Iowa. My father was a West Point graduate and, after his retirement from active service, he worked overseas as a civil engineer, which took my family and me to far-flung places around the world, including Malaysia, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Baghdad and Tehran (where I graduated from high school).
I attended the University of Southern California and graduated with a degree in international relations, and later earned my law degree from Georgetown. After moving to Georgia, where I practiced law, I became involved with the Republican Party. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan appointed me to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, an honored post I held until 1990. A few years later, I was elected to Congress.
I represented Georgia’s 7th Congressional District as a Republican from 1995 to 2003, during which time I served on the Judiciary Committee as a stalwart protector of the Second Amendment. I was first elected to the NRA Board of Directors in 1998 and have continued to serve proudly ever since.
Enough about me. The really big news is about the National Rifle Association’s recent, historic First Amendment victory in the U.S. Supreme Court.
We filed the lawsuit National Rifle Association v. Vullo way back in 2018 when then-New York State Dept. of Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo, at the behest of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, violated the NRA’s First Amendment rights when she pressured banks and insurers in that state to cut ties with the Association.
As one of the most high-profile First Amendment cases in recent Supreme Court history, much was at stake, and when the decision was rendered on May 30, freedom was the victor. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for a unanimous Court: “… Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors. Petitioner National Rifle Association (NRA) plausibly alleges that respondent Maria Vullo did just that.”
Clearly, this is a historic win for the NRA. The importance of the Court’s opinion, however, goes far beyond the NRA and is a victory for every organization regardless of its mission or goals. Yes, it is that far-reaching. Any government regulator that abuses its power to go after a regulated entity because of disfavored speech is now on notice—the Supreme Court has said you can’t do that.
To me, the Vullo case illustrates a number of principles that are important to me as president of the NRA and that have served me well over the course of my career. One of those attributes is that we must always try to see the big picture. New York was actually trying to keep us from doing business, not just to ban us from engaging in political speech. New York’s brazen attack on the First Amendment was directly aimed at killing the Association and the Second Amendment, something we could not let happen.
Another important attribute is that we must be in the fight for the long haul. No matter what victory we win, there’s always another challenge right around the corner. We can’t lose strength. We can’t lose the drive to fight. The NRA cannot rest on its laurels.
We’ve been working on this case since 2017, which by any yardstick is a long time. But we stuck with it, and that’s what we have to continue to do in all our battles.
A last key attribute is we must always be flexible. Yes, we’re committed to the Second Amendment and to fighting for it, and we never shy away from that battle. By the same token, we need to remain nimble because attacks are going to keep coming at us—not always from the same people or from the same direction, as this First Amendment case proved.
These attributes are and must always remain at the heart of what the NRA is. These are the reasons we win again and again. Nobody else, no other organization, has the strength, the foresight and the drive that are ours here at the National Rifle Association of America.
I stand proudly with you in the battle for Freedom.
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