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No issue is more mainstream than exercising
and protecting the freedoms that make America unique in
the history of the world.
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Freedom Is Our Birthright
Not long ago, an American gun owner
suggested to me that because NRA so strongly supports gun safety
and voluntary training, we should go one step further and endorse
legislation requiring NRA training for anyone who wants to purchase
a hunting rifle.
I was shocked. To think that he would even consider
such a proposal—let alone suggest that NRA actively assist
in erecting roadblocks and checkpoints between law-abiding citizens
and their God-given rights—well, it was disturbing, to say
the least.
Obviously, social pressures are behind such points
of view. Gun safety is certainly a worthwhile aim and no one does
more than NRA to teach Americans to be safe with firearms. We’ve
helped reduce gun-accident rates by a stunning 94 percent over the
past century.
But should safety training be mandatory before
you exercise your rights? Of course not.
What if the government applied the same roadblocks
to the rest of the Bill of Rights?
Should bureaucrats require training before you
can write a letter to the editor, become a talk-show host, join
the clergy or attend a house of worship? Should government “education”
be required before you’re “qualified” to hold
a rally or walk a picket line?
No, once fundamental freedoms become dependent
upon government’s “approval,” your most fundamental
rights become subject to the whim and will of whoever writes and
grades the test, whoever decides the “passing” grade,
and whatever biases, trick questions, and arbitrary grading schemes
they wish to impose.
That’s why the Constitution says that you
are not required to earn the right before exercising your freedoms—as
an American, freedom is your birthright.
In my travels around the country, I’ve heard gun owners say
they believe in the Second Amendment absolutely—but then suggest
that “we should be more tolerant and learn to compromise”
to gain “acceptance” from our anti-gun opponents. How
can that be?
They seem to believe that if only we would give
an inch, then our gun-hating, freedom-hating enemies would become
more tolerant and accepting of us and leave our freedoms alone.
It’s nice to be accepted, but it doesn’t
work that way.
What some call compromise—like requiring
mandatory training before anyone can exercise his Second Amendment
rights—is really capitulation, surrender without a fight.
We sometimes place too high a value on compromise.
As citizens in a representative democracy, some folks think that
the best, most stable form of governance is one where all interests
have a voice and a vote and thus the best for the most is achieved
through the give-and-take of political horse trading. But not when
it comes to freedom.
Freedom is unique. It is uniquely fragile. It’s
also uniquely threatened when, for example, it’s voted into
oblivion by a temporarily distracted, dishonest or malevolent majority;
that’s called “tyranny of the majority.”
As the old saying goes, “Democracy is two
wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch. Freedom is
a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.”
Did Patrick Henry, John Adams, George Mason and James Madison compromise
with King George? No! In word and in deed, they said, “Give
me liberty or give me death!” And, years later, Charlton Heston
proclaimed, “From my cold, dead hands!”
To those who say the NRA should compromise more
in an effort to become more mainstream, I can only reply, “We
are mainstream.”
Look at the millions of Americans who consider
themselves NRA members, whether or not they paid their dues.
Look at how your NRA is ranked at the top of the
list among Washington interest groups every year, easily besting
bigger and better-funded organizations.
No issue is more mainstream than exercising and
protecting the freedoms that make America unique in the history
of the world.
Be proud of who you are, what you do and what
you believe. Display your NRA membership decals proudly. Tell your
friends, family, co-workers and neighbors why you care so deeply
about the Second Amendment and the NRA that defends it.
Invite them to the range to shoot, and let them
find out for themselves how much fun it is. Then invite them to
join the NRA.
Do this, and you will help build the proud, passionate
“army of freedom” that registers pro-gun voters, defeats
anti-gun politicians, elects pro-freedom leaders and reaffirms time
and again that NRA is at the heart of mainstream, Main Street America.
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