Originally published in the July 2018 Official Journals of the National Rifle Association
You’ve no doubt heard the terrific news.
LtCol Oliver L. North, USMC (Ret.), is the next president of our National Rifle Association of America!
Our record-setting convention in Dallas concluded with North answering the call to serve at this critical time in NRA history.
As your former second vice president, it is a true honor for me to now serve as NRA president on an interim basis, to allow LtCol North time to set his affairs in order to hit the ground running as our next president. Our talented leader, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, First Vice President Richard Childress and I all agreed that there was no better warrior for freedom to serve as our president than Ollie North. And I am eager to soon step aside to support and follow North’s command of our NRA Board of Directors.
On a personal note, I never dreamed of the honor of writing in this space to directly address NRA members in our official journals. There is little doubt that this will be my first and only column as your NRA president. It is a true honor for me, because of all you do over the years, all of you together, to protect and defend and even expand our great freedom.
I’ve been a bit amused, over the years, to hear other organizations talk about wanting to be more like the NRA. The key word there is “talk.”
NRA members don’t just talk. We walk. We walk precincts. We walk to the post office to send in our dues or an extra contribution to the NRA. We walk to our neighbors to encourage them to support our freedom. We talk, and walk and work. The power of the NRA has always, and will always, reside in the minds and hearts and will of you—the members of the National Rifle Association of America.
I know that I don’t need to remind you of how critical this coming election is to our Second Amendment. You already know what we face. The opponents of our freedom are raging and ranting and chanting the demise of our freedom in march after march.
Our march is in November when, one by one, every single one of America’s 100 million gun owners march to the polls. That’s where we, the men and women of the NRA, make our difference. That is where LtCol Oliver North, our Marine now called to serve as our president, will lead us: to victory at the polls!
Ollie and I cannot thank you enough for your prayers, for your patriotism and for your support. Join us, stand with us, stand together and fight to save our freedom from now to November.
