As you and I survey the current landscape surrounding our Second Amendment freedom in this country, it’s impossible not to be optimistic and proud of what we’ve all accomplished together as NRA members.
There is an unprecedented level of gun ownership in America. More and more Americans are purchasing guns because they know that there has never been a more important time to own a gun—and to have an ironclad right to do so. Permitless carry laws are passing in states across the nation—as are laws that protect our most basic right to self-defense.
And is it any wonder, considering the actions and inactions of anti-gun politicians?
You can see it every day in the paper and on the news. Mayors all over the country are acknowledging the fact that their cities are experiencing a growing wave of violent, deadly crime. Yet, at the same time, they’re throwing up their hands and saying they don’t know what to do about it.
Don’t take my word for it. Just read some of their ludicrous statements:
“We’re not going to arrest our way out of crime,” says Neal Noakes, deputy chief of the Fort Worth Police Department.
“We’ve done almost all we can do,” says Van Johnson, mayor of Savannah.
Every mayor in every city … has the ability to clean up their streets tomorrow. Enforce the laws on the books.
“There’s nothing that’s going to bring this down in the near future,” says Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.
“More police doesn’t prevent crime,” says Tishaura Jones, mayor of the most dangerous city in the U.S., St. Louis. Jones ran for office on the promise to defund the police, and once elected, she did exactly that.
Not to be outdone in the lunacy department, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez let loose with this gem: “If we want to reduce violent crime, if we want to reduce the number of people in our jails, the answer is to stop building more of them.”
Nancy O’Malley, a district attorney in California, really highlighted how her hands are tied like so many of her counterparts nationwide. She recently told the Washington Post that she has a 12,000- case backlog of criminals who will never be brought to justice.
“We’re just dismissing because we know we won’t see a courtroom,” she said. “There was basically no consequence,” she went on. “We saw some people who were released for low-level crimes come back and commit higher-level crimes.”
Let’s be clear. Every mayor in every city in the United States has the ability to clean up their streets tomorrow. Enforce the laws on the books! Stop defunding your police departments! Put an end to your revolving-door justice system! Stop emptying the prisons! Do away with no-cash bail!
But the fact is, they would rather kill the Second Amendment than save lives. They’d rather blame NRA members and law-abiding gun owners for the violent crime wave they know that they enabled, and, in many cases, created, cultivated and encouraged. They’d rather ignore the monsters plaguing their cities and instead try to divert people’s attention to guns—inanimate objects—like they have little legs and are walking around terrorizing people.
Every police officer who walks the street knows that if you want to stop violent crime, you take violent criminals off the street. You draw a line in the sand. You send a message to every other would-be felon that if you commit the crime, you do the time. It’s not rocket science.
However, to the gun-hating politicians, it’s political science. That’s the tragic truth. Their goal is to brainwash America into thinking the NRA, guns and the Second Amendment are to blame. It’s good politics for them. It keeps money flowing into their campaign coffers from billionaires like Michael Bloomberg. It keeps their anti-gun, anti-freedom base of supporters motivated and angry.
When it’s all said and done, what you and I are witnessing right now is one of the worst, most-cynical deceptions ever perpetrated by the anti-gun political class.
But, as I said in the beginning, we have reason for hope and optimism. Because a growing number of Americans are seeing through the spin. They recognize the political theater for what it is, and they’re embracing their Second Amendment freedom in record numbers. They’re preparing for the world that surrounds them.
And that freedom they embrace is made possible by NRA members like you. For that, they owe you a debt of gratitude. As do I.
