Originally published in the October 2018 Official Journals of the National Rifle Association
The most pivotal election of our lives is only a few weeks away, and I have just one question: What are WE going to do about it?
Please consider what’s at stake and whether we are willing to join ranks and accept the challenge of doing what’s good and right for our nation.
One of the greatest privileges in my life is to be named the 66th president of our National Rifle Association.
That privilege is the opportunity to serve you—the nearly 6 million men and women of the NRA—our nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization.
Your sense of duty, your commitment to defending our rights, your diligence and activism in protecting our nation and our freedoms inspire me. That’s why I’m privileged to be your NRA president.
Your rise to action humbles me. In election after election, you have helped preserve the liberties and values we all hold dear. But this year, all we have accomplished is at risk. The time for action, from every NRA member, is now.
If the Democrat Party’s “progressive socialists” seize control of the U.S. House and Senate in November, they will derail every pro-Second Amendment measure and conservative judicial nomination in Congress. Their stated goals are to roadblock and impeach President Donald Trump and then replace him in 2020 with a far-left, anti-freedom socialist.
In election after election, you have helped preserve the liberties and values we all hold dear. But this year, all we have accomplished is at risk.
Only the NRA stands in their way. You and our fellow NRA members, nearly 6 million men and women strong and growing, comprise one of the greatest movements for individual liberty in history.
We are “Freedom’s Army.” If our children and grandchildren are to enjoy “the blessings of liberty” tomorrow, we have no choice but to fight for our freedom NOW.
Our strategy is simple. We have three immediate missions:
First, we ALL must immediately contact our two U.S. senators and urge them to swiftly confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Call their offices, email them and send notes in the mail letting them hear your support for Kavanaugh.
Senate Democrats are intent on blocking Kavanaugh’s confirmation and delaying a vote until after this November’s elections when they hope to take over the Senate. Today, pro-freedom senators are in control. That’s why every NRA member and gun owner must act now. Contact your senators and urge them to vote immediately to confirm Kavanaugh.
Second, I’m asking all NRA members to upgrade your NRA memberships. If you are an annual member, please consider signing up as a five-year member or becoming an NRA Life member. There is no more critical time than right now and no better way to help NRA stand up for liberty.
Our third mission is crucial—and it is perhaps the easiest part to accomplish: doubling our membership.
If every one of our nearly 6 million NRA members signed up just one new member, we would double our “political firepower” in defense of the Second Amendment.
We all know someone—a family member, friend, neighbor, co-worker, someone we see at the gun range or in the hunting field who cares about freedom as much as we do. We need to ask him or her to join us as members of this great association.
Urge them to call 1-877-NRA-2000 or contact me directly at nra.org/OliverNorth to become an NRA member. You can even gift a membership, like I am doing for my grandchildren as they get old enough to grasp the value of belonging to America’s greatest civil rights organization.
Imagine the strength of an NRA with 12 million members!
I’ve been told by some of my former media “colleagues” that that’s a “mission impossible.”
I don’t believe it.
If we “stand together in the breach” we can accomplish all three of these missions and preserve our Second Amendment for generations to come:
• Immediately let our senators know we want Kavanaugh confirmed as a Supreme Court justice;
• Upgrade our memberships; and
• Sign up at least one new member of our nation’s greatest civil rights organization, the NRA—“Freedom’s Safest Place!”
Finally, as this crucial election looms, we need to encourage everyone we know to turn out at the polls and vote for freedom-loving candidates on Election Day. History proves that when NRA members accept the challenge to work and vote, we consistently make the essential difference in close elections.
We’ve done it before. We must do it again.
Semper Fidelis,
Oliver North
