While sitting in a New York City courtroom last July, as the NRA fought for (and won) its right to exist, I quietly watched the room. The judge, of course, was the center of attention. And, as this was a bench trial, everyone was trying to read him. But there was also New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), a politician who tried to “dissolve” the NRA and who called us a “terrorist” organization. And there were the lawyers for and against us, members of the media and others. And there is a lot to say about all of that, but what I found most important, and what I want you to know, is it felt calm at the center of this political storm because we are on firm constitutional ground.
We have the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and we have the First Amendment right to speak our minds and to freely petition the government for a redress of grievances. Those constitutional bulwarks still matter. No amount of political noise and antics could change that.
This natural right also protects other elements of our individual rights, even our very sense of ourselves as individuals with rights that extend above government.
More than this, it felt calm in that courtroom because you and millions of other NRA members were there behind us. That might sound like a bromide, but it is true, and all of the people in the courtroom could feel you there behind this 153-year-old civil-rights association. If we were just some small, regional group, then they could have easily stepped on us. But this is a huge, national association. The strength of numbers is real. The judge must have felt it, too, or he would not have ruled as he did.
This leaves the NRA right where it should be: on the solid constitutional ground we have always stood upon. And, with this critical national election just weeks away (and with early voting either underway or about to begin in most places), it is more important than ever that we stand together behind our freedom.
As I walked out of the New York City courtroom, I saw firsthand what gun-ban politicians are doing to the jurisdictions in which they have power. For example, open-border policies have allowed criminal gangs and even actual terrorists to flood into this nation amongst the unvetted masses who are, no doubt, mostly seeking the better life our nation of laws offers. Defund-the-police policies—which Vice President Kamala Harris (D) went on camera to support in 2020—and so-called “bail-reform” changes that allow caught criminals to walk right back onto the streets to rob and harm good citizens have clearly made New York City and many other places in this great nation less safe. Despite the additional threats to safety, Harris has supported a national gun-confiscation scheme (people with her politics like to call these “buybacks”) of popular, semi-automatic rifles. She is now talking about a new ban on these rifles, but, if we consider her previously stated position, we must realize that she’d also use armed public servants to forcibly disarm law-abiding American citizens of the most-popular firearm type sold today and a type of gun that has been sold to citizens for well over a century.
In this election—Nov. 5—your freedom is unequivocally on the ballot. It is therefore critical that you go to nrapvf.org to see how your local candidates rate regarding this freedom. Talk to your friends and neighbors and politely let them know their constitutional freedom does hang in the balance of this presidential and congressional election.
I recognize that the NRA has not been right about everything, but the prior financial issues have been cleaned up, and we are right about the most important things. As I testified and sat in the courtroom, I could see that enemies of our freedom truly hate the Second Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights because it acts as a keystone to our freedom. A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch. It is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch (in this case the Constitution) to bear the weight. This natural right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, by its very nature, also protects other elements of our individual rights, even our very sense of ourselves as individuals with rights that extend above government. Without the individual ability to defend our lives and our loved ones, none of the other rights are usable.
That is literally what is at stake in this election.
