Originally published in the July 2018 Official Journals of the National Rifle Association
The media elites and the political elites are so quick to predict the NRA’s demise and so eager to dance on our grave, they can’t see past all their fake news and recognize the real truth right before their eyes.
They can’t see you, and the millions and millions of good-hearted, patriotic Americans of the National Rifle Association.
They don’t want to see you, because they hate you. They hate you, your guns and your freedom. So the news media piles on, and the political class jumps on, the bandwagon to smear gun owners, claim the NRA is losing, and call for total destruction of our Association and the Second Amendment.
But you know what all those anti-freedom elitists either missed, or chose to ignore?
They missed the fact that 87,154 law-abiding members of the NRA attended our recent Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Dallas.
They ignored the thousands and thousands of Americans who came to the ILA Leadership Forum to hear from both the president and vice president of the United States.
They’ve been missing for years the polling data that has consistently demonstrated the majority of Americans who support the NRA, oppose the sham of gun control and stopped trusting the media a long, long time ago.
Make no mistake. Your NRA today is larger, stronger and more determined than ever. In fact, NRA membership is now at an all-time high, approaching a record 6 million active members!
For your support, I congratulate and thank you because these are dangerous and challenging times for the Second Amendment.
We face an enemy that is willing to spend whatever it takes to drown out our voice, disgrace our Association and put their anti-gun cronies in office. Their goal, as I explained in my column last month, is the complete and total elimination of the Second Amendment. Your freedom, your guns … gone. Eliminated.
For any other organization, these challenges would be too much to face. But the NRA has fought through times like these before … and we know how to win. In fact, no other organization has a more proven track record of doing everything it takes to win, even in the toughest of times.
That is because NRA members are warriors. We are warriors for freedom.
We never shrink and we never back down. Between now and Election Day, we must get stronger and even larger … to stand even firmer and more resolute in defense of the individual freedoms we hold so dear.
Standing and fighting with us, I am proud to announce, is LtCol Oliver L. North, USMC (Ret.) … the next president of our National Rifle Association.
This is the best news for NRA members since Charlton Heston so nobly served as NRA president. I can think of no one better than LtCol North to serve in this critical position. He is a legendary warrior for American freedom, a gifted communicator and skilled leader. North is an unflinching, unapologetic defender of Second Amendment freedom who has earned the enduring respect and admiration of our members.
And believe me, LtCol North strikes genuine fear into the freedom-hating political elites who so desperately wish for a weakened NRA. He understands the news media, has fought them toe-to-toe and beaten them back time and again. Most of all, Oliver North recognizes what most of the elites have never understood. He knows that the real strength of our association has always, and will always, come from our active, politically savvy and engaged members. One by one, we all save our freedom together.
I’ll take 6 million good NRA members over all the millions of dollars Bloomberg and his crowd can put together. I’ll take our hard-working NRA members over all the hypocrites in Hollywood and anti-Second Amendment media hacks they can throw in front of a camera.
History proves that when we all stand and fight together, we win elections and preserve our freedom.
Our fight has never been more critical than now. You already know that. You feel it in the pit of your gut. That fight starts right now … and every day between now and Election Day in November.
Now is our time to rally with our growing, record number of fellow NRA members … for all of us to rally together around our new NRA president … to stand with LtCol Oliver North … and fight like hell to save our country and the freedoms and values that have always made ours the greatest nation on earth.
As members of the NRA, we are the toughest defenders of individual freedom this country has ever seen. We must prove in this election, for now and forever, that we are truly “Freedom’s Safest Place.”
