Here is an article written by David Keene, the president of the NRA, from CNN.com stating that gun owners are motivated to rally for the Second Amendment rights and that the Obama administration "attempted to demonize" the NRA:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/31/opinion/keene-nra-guns/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
(CNN) -- After President Lyndon Johnson signed the
Gun Control Act of 1968, many anti-gun politicians looked forward to the
day when they could completely ban the sale and ownership of firearms
and perhaps even confiscate those already in private hands.
That didn't happen. Those
hostile to firearms ownership and the Second Amendment thought they
were on the verge of victory, but had in fact managed to wake up
millions of Americans who hadn't previously believed that government
would ever threaten their guns or their way of life. They were joined by
others who were not necessarily gun owners but believed the Second
Amendment and the rights it guaranteed a free people worth preserving.
The NRA was founded in
1871, but until the passage of the 1968 legislation had never been much
involved in politics and didn't even have a lobbying office. That
changed as the men and women the organization represented demanded that
the NRA step up to defend their rights in the frenzy of the late 1960s.
Within a few years, many
of those who had so fervently believed that the public would welcome
their sponsorship of "gun control" were defeated and before long
Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined forces to pass the
"Firearms Owners Protection Act" of 1986 that rolled back many of the
restrictions adopted in 1968.
Since that time, the NRA
has continued to devote more than 85% of its resources to its
traditional mission of providing civilian firearms training, teaching
firearms safety and working to introduce new generations of Americans to
the shooting sports, but has taken on the added role of protector of
the right of law-abiding Americans to own and enjoy firearms.
That role has become
especially important as some, unfortunately, have sought to exploit
December's incomprehensible murders in Newtown, Connecticut, to impose
further restrictions on honest people.
The organization's political strength rests on the bipartisan and
diverse make-up of its membership and of the millions of nonmember
firearms owners who look to the NRA for leadership and their willingness
to step up to the plate and the ballot box when their rights are
threatened.
It is that second
attribute of Second Amendment supporters that has surprised the
president and his allies. The Obama administration has attempted to
demonize the NRA and cow gun owners into accepting restrictions that
they know won't make anyone safer but which will interfere with a
citizen's ability to acquire, keep and rely on firearms to protect their
families or participate in the shooting sports.
Among those proposals
are "universal" background checks that will never be "universal" because
criminals won't submit to them, and magazine bans that will put the
law-abiding at a disadvantage against multiple attackers. The president
also backs a new ban on "assault weapons," even though Christopher
Koper, the researcher who studied the last ban for the Justice
Department concluded
that it caused "no discernible reduction in the lethality or
injuriousness of gun violence" and did not contribute to the general
drop in crime in the 1990s.
But gun owners have been
energized rather than cowed. They are presenting a truly united front
as they rally to fight for their constitutionally guaranteed rights.
Anyone who doubts this
need only look at what happened in the literally bankrupt city of
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, last week. The organizers of the largest
outdoor show in the country, the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show,
announced that they would not allow the display or presence of the
firearms the president likes to demonize as assault weapons. Within
days, more than 300 vendors withdrew in protest as the NRA and others
urged Second Amendment supporters to boycott the event.
Soon after, show organizers announced it was being postponed indefinitely. This was the largest outdoor show in the country. It draws a huge crowd every year and according to local estimates, about $80 million won't be arriving in the pockets and coffers of the pro-Bloomberg, anti-gun mayor of Harrisburg now.
As the battle over
restricting Second Amendment rights continues, other elected officials
under pressure from the Obama administration to ignore the feelings and
deep beliefs of some of their constituents will learn a similar lesson.
Hundreds of
self-proclaimed gun advocates didn't believe Obama was anti-gun based on
his first term and wrote the NRA saying we were using scare tactics to
have our way: Now they know.
Second Amendment
supporters are in no mood to give those who would deny them their rights
a pass and will vote in the next election in the same united way they
responded to the insult leveled at them by the organizers of the
Harrisburg show.
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