Editorial-Opinion September 2016

Is now a time to buy guns and ammo? I think it is. It’s also time to vote.

Here is what one very knowledgeable person said last month.

James Debney, CEO of Smith & Wesson, said, “We are honored to support this effort on behalf of our employees and especially the law-abiding firearm owners of Massachusetts, who have so recently been denied their fundamental rights through arbitrary government action that threatens to turn lawful gun owners and dealers into criminals. To stop this from happening elsewhere, it is imperative that citizens across our nation are informed and knowledgeable about their rights, their candidates, and the importance of their vote in this critical election year.”

The effort he is talking about is a social-media hashtag effort and website called #GUNVOTE. This effort is being made by a trade organization called the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).

The support Debney was talking about was a $500,000 donation.

According to NSSF, #GUNVOTE is a voter registration and education platform for use by firearms industry manufacturers, wholesaler distributors, retailers, ranges and media members. The effort helps gun owners, hunters and target shooters to register to vote, to become informed on where the candidates in 2016 stand on gun control and conservation issues, and encourages everyone on election day—armed with the facts—to #GUNVOTE, so we do not risk our rights. Others in the industry have joined the effort, including Hornady at $250,000, Mossberg at $150,000, Sig Sauer at $100,000 and Browning at $100,000.

These are just some of the 13,000 companies—the retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers—that have joined together in this unprecedented effort to protect our rights. This organization and its members recognize that guns are under attack by the left wing, by the current administration, and by Hillary Clinton.

The threat to guns rests simply, clearly and directly with the outcome of this presidential election. Everyone understands that the only thing standing between gun ownership and gun confiscation is the Second Amendment.

Everyone understands that the Supreme Court is within one vote of overturning the protection of the Second Amendment. And everyone understands that the next president will choose one, and perhaps as many as four, new Supreme Court judges. In short, the election will decide the future of gun ownership in America.

The bottom line is that our generation is on the front line of protecting the Second Amendment. It is a fight we simply cannot afford to lose. The only way we have to fight is at the ballot box. We simply must vote, and we must get our friends and neighbors to vote.

With that in mind, I think now is a good time to consider what others have said about this issue in times past.

Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Wisdom regarding the link between guns and liberty includes these often-cited, unattributed observations.

An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.

Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.

Gun control is not about guns, it is about control.

You only have rights you are willing to fight for.

Guns have only two enemies; rust and politicians.

The Second Amendment protection is in place in case the politicians ignore the other amendments.

Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.

And with these thoughts and others in mind, it now falls to us to continue the protection handed down to us by the wisdom and blood of our forefathers.

Our firing line is the voting booth, and we all are armed with single-shots. The goal for us must be to turn out the vote. Increasingly, our presidential decision will turn in five states, including Florida and North Carolina. We all know people in both of these states.

Many of us are demure—quiet and polite—when it comes to talking politics with our friends. Don’t be this year.

Please talk to your friends. Go to www.gunvote.org for “ammo.”

Truly this year is our single shot at protecting our rights and our future.

It is a shot we simply cannot afford to miss.