The Patriot Post is one of my favorite online journals.
Its founder and Executive Editor Mark Alexander, attended the Annual
NRA meeting in Atlanta, GA. (4/27-30/17)
Alexander gives a pep talk on Second Amendment Rights, some
NRA tidbits and the highlight of the evening – President Donald Trump’s speech.
I will provide the NRA video embed beneath Mark Alexander’s post.
JRH 5/6/17
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Liberty, Endowed by Our Creator and Assured by the Second
Amendment
"The eight-year assault on
your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end." —Donald
Trump
May 3, 2017
“The ultimate authority … resides in the people
alone. … [T]he
advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost
every other nation …
forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than
any…” —James Madison (1788)
I don’t often escape our publishing deadlines, but I managed
to slip out of town last Wednesday for five days to meet up with 100,000 of my
best friends — friends of Liberty. It was my annual trek to the Leadership
Conference of the National Rifle Association, this year held in Atlanta.
As has been the case with every city hosting the NRA’s
annual meeting, the concentration of guns on the streets of Atlanta last
weekend went up 100-fold — and crime went down accordingly. If you read no
further, read this: In the inimitable words of economist and former Yale
researcher John Lott, “More Guns, Less
Crime.”
Atlanta had no so-called gun-free zones last weekend. The town was teeming with
firearms, including CNN Center, where some of the NRA events were held. (Memo
to Ted Turner: It’s always great to carry concealed at CNN!) As National Review
editor Jim Geraghty noted prior
to the convention, despite the howls from “gun control” cupcakes, “Not only has
there never been a shooting at an NRA Annual Meeting, crime in the city usually
goes down during that weekend. (If you were a mugger, would you try robbing NRA
convention attendees?)”
Indeed, street thugs might be dumb, but they aren’t stupid!
Of course, most of my colleagues understand that “gun
control” actually means a tight pattern at 1,000 meters!
Notably, while we were convening, The Washington Times cited
a study finding that the majority of homicides nationwide occur in only 5% of
the nation’s counties, those urban poverty plantations where millions of
impoverished Americans live under the thumb of their Democrat Party masters. It’s also notable that most of
those urban centers have the most restrictive gun regulations in the nation —
if only those pesky criminals would obey the law.
Patriots, here’s what the gun-confiscating Democrats and
their Leftmedia dezinformatsiya propagandists don’t want you to know: If you’re
not involved with drugs or gangs, the probability that you’ll be the victim of
violent crime drops to the same levels as those in Western European nations
with the most restrictive gun regulations in the world.
So why are the statists constantly endeavoring to infringe
on “the right of the people to keep and bear arms”? Because the first and last
defense “necessary to the security of a free state” is that
which is affirmed by our Constitution’s Second Amendment. And because your right to keep and bear
arms encompasses your right to defend yourself against the tyranny of the
state.
As I have often written, Justice Joseph Story, appointed to
the Supreme Court by our Constitution’s author, James Madison, wrote in his
“Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States” (1833), “The right of
the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium
of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against
usurpation and arbitrary power of the rulers; and will generally, even if these
are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph
over them.”
Which brings me back to the NRA and its noble mission.
While the NRA was founded in 1871 to promote marksmanship,
its mission has shifted in recent decades as the right of the people to keep
and bear arms has come under relentless assault by statist leftists,
particularly those in the judicial branch. As summarized from its bylaws today,
“The purposes and objectives of the National Rifle Association of America are:
1. To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, especially with
reference to the inalienable right of the individual American citizen
guaranteed by such Constitution to acquire, possess, collect, exhibit,
transport, carry, transfer ownership of, and enjoy the right to use arms, in
order that the people may always be in a position to exercise their legitimate
individual rights of self-preservation and defense of family, person, and
property, as well as to serve effectively in the appropriate militia for the
common defense of the Republic and the individual liberty of its citizens…”
That mission is inspired by the timeless wisdom of our “Founders on Firearms and Freedom,” undergirded by the unalienable rights of all people to “Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness,” and best assured by the palladium of all rights
outlined in the Second Amendment of
our Constitution. Today, the NRA and its five million members are devoted,
first and foremost, to that core mission.
It would be difficult to settle on a single highlight of the
five days I spent in Atlanta.
One was stepping onto an elevator and running into my
friend, Medal of Honor recipient Sammy Lee Davis, and his lovely wife Dixie. Another was
being joined in the festivities by my daughter, who graduates from college next
week (and has a job!). Yet another would be reconnecting with my East Tennessee
friend Gary Harrell, who’s now retired as commanding general of Delta Force.
Gary is probably best known as commander of our forces in Mogadishu in 1993
during the bloody “Black Hawk Down” battle, in which our warriors were
hamstrung by restrictive rules of engagement under former President Bill Clinton.
There were other friends — Ronnie Barrett, founder of
Barrett Firearms Manufacturing and maker of one of the best long-shooter
military rifles in history, the M107 .50 BMG, the military version of the
M82A1. (As it happens, the M107 has been my personal favorite since I first
experienced its recoil “nudge” 10 years ago.) It is always a treat to be with
Ronnie, and especially his chief administrator (wife), Donna.
I rarely miss an opportunity to talk to strangers, anywhere
and everywhere. Outside the NRA venues, while in constant transit around town,
whether on the MARTA underground train platform with a group of young law
students, or visiting with street vendors, or stuck in traffic with Uber
drivers, I didn’t run into anyone who had a negative view of
the NRA or our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Frankly, I think
there were a lot of people in Atlanta last weekend who felt much safer than
they usually do.
Most of the NRA members would likely say the highlight of
their week was the address by President Donald Trump, the first sitting commander
in chief to keynote an NRA event since Ronald Reagan in 1983. Of course, President Reagan’s remarks resonate
as if they were spoken just yesterday.
Ahead of President Trump’s remarks, NRA Executive Vice
President Wayne LaPierre set the tone:
“It’s up to us to speak up against the three most dangerous voices in America:
academic elites, political elites, and media elites. These are America’s
greatest domestic threats.”
For his part, Donald Trump was on target with every word, and
his remarks could be summed up in a single line: “The eight-year assault on
your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end.” (Watch his speech.)
Fact is, the NRA was instrumental in the election of Donald
Trump, and it endorsed his candidacy early in the campaign. Despite my own
concerns about Trump at the time of that endorsement last May, as I’ve written
repeatedly, Trump’s appointments are as conservative as those of President Reagan in his first administration,
and despite all the 100-day hand-wringers, Donald
Trump has accomplished more than a few things. Most
notably, he delivered on his biggest commitment when he selected Neil Gorsuch to fill the pivotal Supreme Court seat
vacated by the death of Antonin Scalia.
I salute NRA National Chairman Allan Cors, who was
characteristically humble about the NRA’s considerable victories during the
last two years under his leadership. (Watch his speech.)
My tour in Atlanta ended with yet another Tennessee friend, Joe Gregory, who has devoted much of his adult life to the
preservation of Liberty and extending that blessing to the next generation.
Joe is a charter member and chairman of the NRA’s Golden
Ring of Freedom, and in that capacity, he hosts a great event — inviting young
Patriots on the convention floor to ring a large reproduction Liberty Bell. He
notes, “I do this because I believe what Ronald Reagan said about Freedom:
‘Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass
it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and
handed on for them to do the same…’”
The historic Liberty Bell rang above the Pennsylvania State
House (now Independence Hall) after the first public reading of the Declaration
of Independence on July 8th, 1776.
Joe notes that the inscription on the Liberty Bell is,
“Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof”
(Leviticus 25:10), and in keeping with the spirit of that passage, he asks each
of the young people to introduce themselves and shout out, “Let Freedom Ring!”
The bell can be heard throughout the convention halls.
Joe also hosted an outstanding prayer breakfast Sunday
morning, featuring a keynote from Allen West, who also delivered an address the
previous day.
Allen’s focus was, “Make Ready Men and Women of Christ,”
basing his remarks on Jeremiah 1:17: “Therefore prepare yourself and arise…” Allen, who is from Atlanta (though gets credit for
being a University of Tennessee graduate), told me, “There is a fitting
parallel between the minutemen of Lexington and Concord making
ready the path for our Liberty on earth, and Jesus Christ, who made ready the
path for our eternal spiritual Liberty.”
And a final note: As it does our soul good to be in faith
fellowship with others, it is likewise, good for us to be in Patriot fellowship
with others. I encourage both forms of fellowship with Patriots whenever
possible!
Footnote: You can view all the speakers and proceedings here or
on the NRA YouTube Channel. You can
also view NRA advertising clips here.
Finally, in advance of the Trump administration’s push for national
right-to-carry reciprocity, the NRA announced a new insurance program for gun
owners. You can find out more about that here.
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
+++
__________________
About Mark M. Alexander
Mark Alexander is Executive
Editor and Publisher of The Patriot Post the Web's “Voice of Essential Liberty”.
His strong academic vitae in constitutional government and policy combined with
his real-world occupational experience ensure his contributions as an essayist
and analyst reflect the grassroots conservatism of the heartland, rather than
the ubiquitous Beltway news and opinion.
Alexander attributes the
character-rich content of his columns to the ethics and values modeled and
instilled by his parents, the timeless traits of duty, honor, discernment,
courage, personal responsibility, citizenship, generosity and compassion. He was
raised to live the "third person" principle: God first, others second
and self third — and notes that he "sometimes, by the grace of God,
manages to conduct his life in that order."
Typical of many in his
generation, Alexander learned the merits of hard work and civic responsibility
early. His elementary school afternoons were spent sorting and delivering
groceries for a local produce store, and summers mowing lawns. At age 13, he became
his community's youngest volunteer firefighter, and completed EMT training at
16. In high school, he learned about publishing as a print-shop apprentice for
a manufacturing plant. At age 19, he completed certification from a state
police academy and worked four years as a uniformed patrolman while completing
his undergraduate degree.
Alexander's heritage is
Scots-Irish, but he objects to "hyphenated Americanism." His is among
the "First Families" of Tennessee, having settled in East Tennessee
prior to statehood (1796). He is the product of a proud military legacy,
including … READ THE REST
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