It seems as if every time I turn around these days I have to hear Hillary Clinton or some other anti-gun radical tell me in one way or another that my National Rifle Association is not my grandfather’s NRA. They’re trying to announce to the world that the NRA today is no longer the one that provides shooting and gun safety training—it’s the one that zealously lobbies for firearms freedom in America and is therefore out of touch with the vast majority of Americans. It stands in the way of “progress.” It’s just one additional cheesy line the antis have apparently settled on using long-term, despite the fact that it makes them look as hare-brained as they really are.
The question is, where do we begin with this? First, when my grandfather was around, there weren’t many gun-ban zealots like Clinton out there trying to strip their fellow Americans of their essential firearm freedoms. The Second Amendment meant what it said: the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. For everyone outside of the growing number of statists in the Northeast, that was where the entire issue began and ended. It was as simple as always intended. I’m thankful that my NRA is not my grandfather’s. His was great during his time, and mine is great now.
About when my father was old enough to buy his own NRA membership, everything began to change. Those twisted individuals who enthusiastically live to oppress others began to stir in great numbers. It wasn’t a brawl that the NRA wanted or started, but our Association answered the bell and chose to stand and fight when no one else would. I count my lucky stars every day that it did. For this reason, I’m thankful that my NRA is not my grandfather’s NRA. His was great during his time, and mine is great now. Clinton should understand this. There are millions who share my view.
I’m sure she and the others, like most bullies, would prefer to go about their business unchallenged. Trying to imagine their attacks over the last four decades in towns, cities, counties, states and Congress with no defensive lines or counter-operation whatsoever is simply impossible for me. The visuals are too terrible. We would not be England or Australia; we would be worse. There is no way I can be proven right on this, but if a time machine were created tomorrow I’d bet everything I make for the rest of my life on it.
The creation of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) in 1975 marked a new era that would make things tougher—much tougher—on those who hate the one American freedom that safeguards all of the others. The fact of the matter is that ILA would have never been needed, nor created in the first place, if not for their ilk. The NRA would have been happy to know that Second Amendment freedoms remained secure and unchallenged forevermore. It could have continued to focus all of its energies on safety and training programs. The NRA performs dozens of critical functions, all while remaining the world’s leading authority on firearms safety and training.
A second important point here is that the NRA can actually walk and chew gum at the same time. Yes, ILA works daily to unapologetically protect our freedoms at every level of government, but it is one relatively small entity in a much larger organization. The NRA performs dozens of critical functions for law-abiding gun owners, all while remaining the world’s leading authority on firearms safety and training.
Third—and Hillary is likely horrified by this—today’s NRA is more popular with the American public than ever before. They can call us “radical,” “fringe,” “militant” or whatever their favorite term of the day is, but the public isn’t buying it. Scientific polling shows time and time again that the NRA is more popular than the president and Congress. The people trust the NRA, and Americans’ positions on firearm freedoms have been trending in the NRA’s directions fairly steadily since the 1960s. Sorry, Hillary, but it seems as though the public likes today’s NRA just fine.
Finally, at a recent campaign stop Hillary took this whole silly line about the NRA having changed too much since its founding in 1871 to a new level. She implored “responsible gun owners” to break away and start their own alternative organization. Oh, to have been inside that twisted mind the moment she was reciting those words into the microphone.
It was definitely envisioning a “middle-of-the-road gun-safety organization” that supported some relatively “modest” policy goals that Clinton and her associates have pursued for at least a few decades. They include:
- Bankrupting all firearms manufacturers, distributors and retailers;
- Banning affordable handguns;
- Banning all handguns;
- Banning all scary-looking rifles and shotguns;
- Banning all rifles and shotguns if they are able to be fired “fast;”
- Banning all magazines that might provide citizens the same defensive opportunities provided to police;
- Banning all common centerfire rifle ammunition;
- Imposing punitive taxes on firearms and ammunition;
- Imposing “stockpile” limits on firearms and ammunition;
- Prohibiting retail firearms sales anywhere any citizen might find them to be convenient;
- Dramatically expanding the classes of “prohibited person”;
- Requiring all firearms to be locked and inaccessible for self-defense in the home;
- Banning all firearms carry outside of the home where an attack is most likely;
- Imposing permit requirements for gun purchase, allowing government officials to deny guns sales without cause;
- Creating a national firearms registration system to ensure a master accounting of all legal firearms; and
- Creating secret government lists that deny Americans their Second Amendment rights.
Hillary evidently believes that all “responsible gun owners” would go along with such measures in order to make our collective village safer (or at least more subservient to government). I wouldn’t want to be the director of her recruitment effort on this matter. It could lead someone to a serious state of depression. She has spent the last 30 years of her life so detached from mainstream America that she no longer has any remote bearing on reality.
So, Hillary and her loony friends who came before her are responsible for my NRA, and the transition from my grandfather’s NRA. The simple, apolitical NRA was great, but it had to change with changing times. ILA has been the leading force in the preservation of America and its freedoms over the last four decades. Hillary hates it for this reason—and I will always love that she hates it.
Unlike her, I’m a lover, not a hater.
