Editors Note: NRA-BOD Allen West has been one of the NRA Leaderships’ harshest critics in the last few months and has the back of America’s oldest civil rights organization, the NRA.
Opinion
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- Okay, there has been quite a bit of reaction to my statement earlier this week about the National Rifle Association. I took my public stance because we need to have an NRA that is laser-focused and ready to do battle against the progressive socialist left.
Unless you have been completely ignoring the news from Venezuela, and its history, disarmament of the people is a necessity for the tyranny of the left to succeed. This is indeed an “all in, all hands on deck” moment for freedom and liberty loving Americans. I have a special, and sincere, affinity for the NRA, which I had the honor to express in a speech at the NRA-ILA in Atlanta, my hometown, in 2017.
As a black American, I know what the NRA did to ensure people who look like me, recently freed slaves, were able to have their Second Amendment right. I bestow the title of “hero” upon a simple man, Otis McDonald, who took on the City of Chicago before the Supreme Court to guarantee his Second Amendment right.
If we are to defend this great nation, it means defending that one constitutional right that precludes us from being subjugated. In order to achieve that objective, that goal, we do not need the distractions that currently face the NRA. We need not focus on single individuals, but rather what shall we secure, and pass on, for future generations.
This past week I spoke at a Second Amendment townhall in Clifton (Bosque County) Texas. Clifton is a reminder of what real Texas, real America, looks like. Just hard-working people who want to believe that their elected officials can be trusted, and issue advocacy organization leaders, as well.
To all these leftist media outlets that want to talk with me [about the NRA], please stop contacting me. Trust me, it was not my intent to give y’all talking points with my statement. My statement was all about reforming the NRA, focusing it on its core competencies so we can kick Michael Bloomberg in the ass. I long for the day when I can look down to this little tyrannical Napoleon and let him know he will not succeed. I want to see each and every single anti-gun group defeated. I want to stand before the CEO of Levi Strauss wearing my Wrangler jeans and let him know he will not enable the disarming of the American people.
There are a couple of other folks that I would like to give the “stink eye.”
As reported by CBS News:
“California Sen. Kamala Harris will announce at a campaign stop Wednesday that she would use executive action to ban imports of AR-15 style assault [semi-automatic]weapons if elected president, a senior campaign official tells CBS News.
The Democratic presidential hopeful is scheduled to speak at a Girls, Inc. of New Hampshire town hall in Nashua Wednesday morning.
The Harris campaign has pointed out that assault [semi-automatic] weapons made abroad have been used in mass shootings such as the one in Las Vegas in 2017, the Dallas police shooting in 2016 and the Pulse nightclub shooting that year.
The National Rifle Association has accused Harris of using a “failed 2008 and 2016 presidential candidate’s gun control playbook.”
Harris previously announced four other executive actions she would to take if Congress failed to pass gun reform in her first 100 days in office. They include near-universal background checks and revoking the licenses of gun makers and dealers that break the law.
The Firearm Industry Trade Association says, “AR-15-style rifles can look like military rifles, such as the M-16, but by law they function like other semiautomatic civilian sporting firearms, as they fire only one round with each pull of the trigger.”
There are roughly 15-20 million assault [semi-automatic] weapons in circulation in the U.S., and more than 4 million of them were imported, the Harris campaign says. In addition to banning AR-15-style assault [semi-automatic] weapon imports, Harris would suspend all other assault [semi-automatic] weapon imports until the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) conducts a study of whether those imports should be permanently stopped under existing law, such as the 1968 Gun Control Act and firearms bans put in place by the George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations.”
Yes, I would love to have a debate on the Second Amendment against Harris, Bloomberg, Swalwell, Booker, and the rest of the cast of characters who believe that gun control, confiscation, disarmament, is a winning issue for them in 2020.
What Sen. Harris is seeking to do is abjectly unconstitutional. Her aim is to use the tyrannical power of her office, as president, to strip individual American citizens of their constitutional right. It may sound good to the deranged followers of progressive socialism, but it will not succeed.
Just why won’t it succeed? Because Americans now, just as back in 1775, will not tolerate this. There is no difference between these people and King George III, or Hugo Chavez.
What stands in their way? Yes, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. No, it ain’t the doggone NAACP, which was started by two white progressive socialists . . . and run by a black communist.
The nation’s oldest civil rights organization is the NRA.
I believe that out of this current organizational turmoil, our nation will witness a stronger, more committed, NRA. It will be an NRA that will regain the trust and confidence of its five million members, and increase its numbers. It will be an NRA that will not have to send out incessant solicitations for funding and support. The resources will flow because a new, reformed, re-energized NRA will go on the offense and instill fear in the hearts of the tyrants of the left.
Law abiding, legal gun owners do not need to respond to the actions of demented individuals who would cause harm to others. When there is a fatal car accident involving alcohol, no one seeks to punish the alcoholic beverage-maker or the maker of the car, so why do these leftists demand on gun control and the eradication of a constitutional right? After all, having a drivers license is a privilege, not a right.
As a Battalion Commander in the 4th Infantry Division, 2d Battalion, 20th Field Artillery, I told my soldiers, before we deployed to Iraq, that the most expendable person in the unit was me. No single individual is more important than the unit they are called upon to serve.
America needs the National Rifle Association in these troublesome times. But our Constitutional Republic needs the NRA focused on its core competencies, its mission: to train and educate this nation on marksmanship and responsible gun ownership, and to ensure we will never be subjects, but armed individuals . . . citizens.
Hey, Kamala: “Molon Labe,” or as it is translated down in Texas, “Come and Take It!”
Allen West is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army and NRA Board Member. Mr. West is a Senior Fellow at the Media Research Center to support its mission to expose and neutralize liberal media bias and is author of the book from Brown Books Publishing Group, “Hold Texas, Hold the Nation: Victory or Death” available on Amazon.
Any of you who are not dues paying voting members of the NRA and actually vote in their BOD yearly elections should STFU!
The current NRA Board is much, much to large (76 members), elected by “rigged” election rules, and 90% Wayne’s syncophants. It will not and csnnot bring reform to the nest of self-serving snakes at NRAHQ.
It was proven just a few short weeks ago that LT COL West and the rest of the BOD couldn’t pull off a defeat of LaPee. There are no other methods to change the NRA into what he wants. It ain’t gonna happen under the current due suckers so why pound more salt in the wound, they are not going anywhere. From the looks of things, there are lobbyers working the NRA over. Why else would they be chipping away at our rights. Come back and talk to us when the dust has cleared and the executive positions have been… Read more »
I agree with Lieutenant Colonel Allen West. Although it’s like a drop in a barrel, opinions don’t get things done though. The thing about all of those “Left”, “Democrats” and “Anti-Gun” people is that they have done NOT ONE THING to stop or reduce criminal activity. All their actions are ONLY against Law abiding citizens. What good have they really done. there biggest problem is they can’t recognize the problem so they end up doing the opposite of what is needed. The NRA really hasen’t been a friend of the gun owner. WHY, well they are always on the defense… Read more »
“We Need a Strong, Focused, & Reformed National Rifle Association”
We already have that; it’s called Gun Owners of America.
To those of you who seem to be ANTI NRA, Stuff it . If the NRA goes down, TURN IN YOUR GUNS. You people are surely haven’t looked at the other side. OR your out to help the LEFT kill the second . Five million plus two million is a very large number , two million minus five million is to loose the second. This GOA and NRA LIFE member thinks that you should think about what you are doing . Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.
Y’all do whatever you want. I’m done with them. Scrapped off my stickers and I’m not renewing next month. I’ll figure out something on the instructor certification. I shoulda learned in the 90s the first time.
If he believes what he says, LaP will fall on his sword
“We Need a Strong, Focused, & Reformed National Rifle Association”
So gut the organization of La Pee and all his fellow miscreants no matter where they are including Board of Directors,Not One More Penny To Negotiating Rights Away since 1934.
Answer- get rid of Wayne & Chris.