United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Some recent events need to warrant some serious discussion among Second Amendment supporters. The takedown of Jimenez Arms and the defeat of Letitia James’s efforts to dissolve the National Rifle Association are alarm bells that must be heeded.
You don’t have to like either entity to recognize that both are vitally important to the Second Amendment community. There is always a need for an affordable means to exercise Second Amendment rights. The $199 gun you can buy and practice with beats the firearms you’re still saving up for in terms of short-term effectiveness, and Jimenez Arms provided that until its apparent demise.
We’ve discussed the NRA and the implications of what James was doing multiple times. Suffice it to say, the NRA’s survival is a good thing for two reasons: First, the constant hate directed at it provides cover for other pro-Second Amendment groups at the federal, state, and local levels. Second, its “single-issue” focus provides a broad coalition of supporters – which has been very handy in the past. Remember how John Dingell helped defeat an effort to destroy gun shows after the Columbine shooting?
That victory came because Second Amendment supporters from all walks of life banded together and stood strong against efforts to attack our freedoms. They didn’t all have the same tactics, but they all had the same end goal.
There are some cases where we need to police our own ranks because bad Second Amendment advocacy is worse than just sitting on the sidelines. But is it too much to ask that our internal dispute not get handed over to a Letitia James or others who seek any excuse to hamper our ability to make the case for the Second Amendment?
If anything, when Everytown comes after a Jimenez Arms, or when a Letitia James wants to shut down a pro-Second Amendment group, the entire Second Amendment community needs to stand up and be counted. Anti-Second Amendment extremists need to be made to understand that messing with one gun owner – or one part of the Second Amendment community – will generate a response from all of us.
Our enemies have played “divide and conquer” against the Second Amendment community for far too long, and some groups have become very good at it. It’s time to make that strategy fail, because doing so is in everyone’s interest.
The fact is, if we are to defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists at the federal, state, and local levels via the ballot box in the upcoming midterms – or any election for that matter – we need to be unified against those who would attack any part of the Second Amendment community.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
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” Police our own ranks ” he says. O.K. ! You go first Harold !
It is long past time that you come clean – Are you paid by the NRA to promote and support them in your columns ???
OK, I will bite. First and foremost the fight is a multilevel fight. We fight at the national level, mostly in Congress and the Federal District and Appeals courts. We conduct most of the fight at the state level in legislatures, city and county councils and in state courts. So the state level pro-liberty organizations must be robust and well funded. That being said, many if not most of the NRA state affiliates are not political advocacy groups. Groups like the Arizona and Virginia Citizens Defense Leagues amply fill that tole. If you want to be effective remember one Progressive… Read more »
“bad Second Amendment advocacy is worse than just sitting on the sidelines.”
You should meditate on your own words on this one, Harold.
The 1st thing that needs to happen is for everyone to stop saying “Constitutional Rights” or “2nd Amendment Rights” or anything similar. The fact is, we DO NOT HAVE Constitutional Rights. We have unalienable rights, or civil rights if you prefer. The Constitution grants us nothing but protection and fairness. We also need to start opening up our State Constitutions and look at the guarantees and protections offered there.
NRA’s not 1-issue. It’s supposed to back Constitution & USA, not just 2A. And it gets into indirect 2A issues e.g. 1A, campaign finance.
“is it too much to ask our internal dispute not get handed to Letitia?”
Ask Lucky (La)Pierre’s directors-vendors-lawyers whose corruption bared NRA’s neck to her. Could’ve kept it in bankruptcy had they not lied about finances & told members the b/k was a ruse. They could still go back into b/k (dismissed w/o prejudice) but the judge is onto them so it’d be a real b/k looking at corruption etc. They prefer her deadly embrace.
“because bad Second Amendment advocacy is worse than just sitting on the sidelines. ” Harold calling out others when his own positions make him the height of FUDery is just rich. What a laugh!