New York Attorney General Letitia James’ (D) lawfare against the NRA—the oldest civil-rights association in America—is over. James called this association a “terrorist organization” before she even took office. Her stated objective was to have this 153-year-old American institution dissolved. She failed. We are now set for a renaissance for Second Amendment freedom just as President Trump and Vice President JD Vance take office.
Please don’t take this as a denial of the NRA’s past faults. Previous NRA management led this association astray—and New York Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen is making those individuals pay a price.
Indeed, the last six years have been difficult for everyone who cherishes their Second Amendment-protected freedom. As this issue was going to print, some legal details still needed to solidify, but these aren’t bad things and we’ll explain all the details in future issues.
Right now, you need to know that the NRA—your NRA—is transparent, accountable and energized to continue to fight for and to celebrate our freedom.
Incidentally, this is why we call our February show in Harrisburg, Pa., the “Great American Outdoor Show,” as we are celebrating the use of a right the Founders specifically protected from government infringement—celebrating something, after all, is an effective way to promote it.
So, if you’re within reasonable driving distance, you should bring your friends and family. The show goes from Feb.1-9. You can find out about all associated events, the companies attending, the seminars and so much more at greatamericanoutdoorshow.org. Like our NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits (nraam.org), which this year is in Atlanta, Ga., from April 24-27, this show is an immense celebration of our freedom.
Even Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), of all people, noticed the enthusiasm of America’s many gun owners. After Kamala Harris lost the election, Pelosi commented that running against American freedom—specifically, against our Second Amendment-protected rights—cost Harris and others in her party a lot of votes.
This is actually a lesson Al Gore learned in the 2000 presidential election after his anti-freedom positions cost him his own state and the presidency. This lesson was taken so seriously at the time that, at first, former President Barack Obama tried to be quiet about his views on the Second Amendment; nevertheless, his many attacks on our freedom contributed to the ouster of many Democrats in Congress who did support this individual right.
An unfortunate side-effect of this shift was that Second Amendment-related issues became much more partisan nationally. This resulted in a massive disservice to American freedom as the Obama-Biden administration and, later, the Biden-Harris administration, misdirected a lot of resources by using federal agencies to go after law-abiding gun owners, stores and manufacturers, instead of the criminals who are harming people. Incredibly, many in their party even went after police-department budgets.
This showed they don’t appreciate that our freedom—as in each amendment in the U.S. Bill of Rights—should be our shared values. Instead of understanding this, bad policies from gun-control-promoting politicians fueled a crime wave that they blamed on you.
As crime went up, more than 22 million additional Americans opted to become gun owners since 2020 (many of whom are registered Democrats). These new gun owners were a part of this course correction, as voters even tossed out far-Left prosecutors in California.
Hopefully, this will convince more Democratic Party candidates to support our Second Amendment-protected rights; after all, if this constitutional issue can become less partisan again, our freedom will be much safer.
To bring this full circle, I began this column by noting that this costly court battle in New York is over. New York’s attorney general saw a chance to use lawfare to destroy us, but she ended up helping us. We have come out cleaner, leaner and ready to fight for and to celebrate our God-given right to live free.
This is a big, positive time, a 2025 renaissance for American freedom of which the NRA is a part. As we again grow—I hope to more than 10 million members—President Trump will no doubt go back to nominating judges for the federal benches who will respect our individual right to keep and bear arms. In his first term, this was critical, especially at the U.S. Supreme Court level. Trump also promised to sign national reciprocity should it come to his desk and he promised to make the federal agencies work for, instead of against, law-abiding gun owners.
We need to loudly support him in this endeavor. One way to do that is to support NRA Competitions (competitions.nra.org), Friends of NRA (friendsofnra.org) dinners and more, as these events showcase our freedom. By doing all of this, we can bring this celebration of American values to everyone around us.
So, yes, I’m bullish on America right now—and nothing is more American than the NRA.
