Jennifer Cooper had never fired a gun before, but when an intruder invaded her home as her two sons slept peacefully, she knew she had to take action. At 10:40 p.m., she heard the chime other front door sound. Cooper had not set the home alarm system because her husband, Gary, was in San Antonio at a Spurs basketball game, and she was awaiting his return. "I could hear footsteps," she said. When she called her husband's name and no one answered, she ran into the master bedroom—where she had left her children—and locked the door. Seconds later, Cooper heard someone twisting the doorknob. There was no phone in the bedroom, so she was unable to call the police. Cooper and her children spent the next two hours in fear, hoping whoever was on the other side of the door would leave. She yelled through the door that the house was alarmed and that the police were on their way, but the intruder turned on all the lights and the television and periodically twisted the doorknob. "We talked and we prayed a lot," she said. Then she retrieved a .357 Mag. from the closet. When she thought she heard the lock being picked, Cooper pointed the gun at the door and fired. All went quiet, and footsteps and the door chime signaled the stranger's exit. When Gary Cooper returned home he found his family huddled together, a smoking gun in his wife's hand and a bullet hole in his bedroom door, Jennifer Cooper has vowed to never become a victim. "I'm going to start taking classes," she said. "My husband said it's the first thing on the agenda." (Sequin Gazette Enterprise, Sequin, TX, 06/12/05)

When his wife woke him. to report that their two dogs were barking at something on a hill near their ranch outside Loomis, Wash., Lamoyne Wahl grabbed his rifle and went to investigate. He found the dogs fighting with a bear. "So I shot the bear once, and he turned around and charged me," said Wahl. "Then I shot him again. I knew I wasn't going to get a third shot off, so I turned and ran." Wahl took about 10 steps and the bear bit him in the calf. He put the barrel to the bear's neck and pulled the trigger, dropping the animal in its tracks. Wahl was treated at North Valley Hospital in Tonasset and released. (The Seattle Times, Seattle, WA, 06/19/05)

Thanks to his trusty .22 rifle, it took less than 10 minutes for a Waldo County, Maine, man to rid his home of intruders. The man and his wife, both in their 70s, were awakened at 6:30 a.m. when their front door was smashed open. The intruders—at least two of them— blindfolded the woman and left her in the living room. They bound her husband's feet to the footboard of his bed and threw a pillowcase over his face. The home-invaders repeatedly asked the couple "where the stuff was," said Maine State Police Detective David Tripp. Exactly what "stuff" they were looking for was unclear, but police speculate they may have been looking for drugs. While the intruders were elsewhere in the house, the man freed himself and retrieved a .22-cal. rifle kept by the side of his bed. When one intruder returned to the room, the man fired a shot at him, hitting the bedroom wall. "They fled the residence," said Tripp. It was the fourth home invasion reported in Waldo County in the past year. (Bangor Daily News, Bangor, ME, 06/15/05)

In the span of one month, Brian Sidie lost more than $500 worth of property in three thefts from his truck, so when he glanced outside his kitchen window late one night and saw a young man walking down the street, he was suspicious. Before heading back to bed, Sidie took another look and noticed the man in his truck. Sidie grabbed his rifle and headed outside. "I came around the front of my truck and slapped my hand on the hood," Sidie said. "I told him, 'You aren't going anywhere.'" Sidie's wife called the police, who arrived to find the suspect still sitting in the truck. (La Crosse Tribune, La Crosse, WI, 06/08/05)

The tables were turned on two teenage thugs in a Dayton, Ohio, alley one night in June when they targeted a man licensed to carry a firearm. They approached Mark Hill, and one of the men shoved him. When Hill turned around, they both flashed handguns, according to the police report. Hill backed away, hands outstretched, then pulled out a Clock 23 and fired, hitting one of the gunmen several times. Both men ran off. Shortly thereafter, two 16-year-olds accompanied a 17-year-old to the Good Samaritan Hospital. The latter was admitted with gunshot wounds to his leg, abdomen and arms. Hospital officials notified police, who said all three matched the description of the gunmen and another male he had seen during the robbery attempt. The 16-year-olds were arrested as they tried to leave the hospital, said Dayton Police Sgt. Dennis Chaney. It was Dayton's first defensive shooting by a holder of a concealed-carry permit, said Chaney. (Dayton Daily News, Dayton, OH, 06/06/05)

Right now, as you read this column, dozens of nations are at work—hand in hand with dictatorships and terrorist states—to snuff out freedom around the globe and dismantle our Bill of Rights here in America.

I'm talking about the mounting effort by more than 100 members of the United Nations to impose a worldwide ban on civilian ownership of firearms. It's a plan that includes a ban on YOUR guns here in the United States, claiming that our Second Amendment rights are making the world a more dangerous place.

At U.N. headquarters in New York City—right here on American soil—these nations, along with gun-ban groups worldwide, held an international conference July 11-15 to draft a global "Treaty on Small Arms" for ratification by the U.N. next year. If they succeed, this treaty could sit for days or years, ticking like a time bomb under the Second Amendment, waiting for the right moment—when international pressure forces a future U.S. President and U.S. Senate to sign and ratify it.

And if this treaty were ratified in the United States, it would be binding on you and other citizens with the full force of American law—outlawing your guns, extinguishing your hunting, prohibiting your shooting sports, ending your right to self-defense and destroying your Second Amendment rights forever.

Few nations on earth are pumping more money into the global gun-ban movement than six supposedly "free" countries: Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Japan and Belgium.

Along with globalist billionaire George Soros—who spent over $26 million of his own personal fortune to try to elect gun-ban Sen. John Kerry to the White House last year—these six countries alone have already bankrolled the U.N. gun-ban campaign to the tune of tens of millions of dollars ... with still more to come.

When they support a U.N.-backed effort to destroy the right of self-defense for every man and woman on earth, they're on the wrong side of freedom and the wrong side of history.

It comes as no surprise to you or me that the vast majority of the nations backing this scheme don't allow their citizens the individual freedoms guaranteed to you and me under our unique Bill of Rights.

What these countries and the U.N. will never acknowledge is that virtually all firearm atrocities and massacres around the world aren't committed by individual criminals.

Instead, the vast majority of wanton killings around the globe are committed by governments—the MEMBERS OF THE UNITED NATIONS THEMSELVES.

The same governments that now want to extinguish the right to self-defense in America and in every nation around the world—so that only governments will have guns.

Make no mistake. This fight is about more than just firearm ownership. This is a fight for our national sovereignty, our individual freedoms and the future of our nation.

Just as a handful of patriots fired the "shot heard 'round the world" at Concord Bridge, it's up to you and me and the handful of patriots who are proud to be NRA members to tell the world today that our nation will not be bullied by the U.N.—and that we will not allow its dictators and despots to subordinate the U.S. Constitution to the United Nations along with the worldwide eradication of self-defense as a human right.

This threat is very, very real, and it won't be defeated unless you and I and our fellow NRA members stand together and fight with all the strength and courage we can muster.

But please don't just take my word for it. When I debated Rebecca Peters—George Soros' hand-picked head of the global gun ban movement—she lectured to the world that privately owned firearms "are the real weapons of mass destruction." She said, "Americans should abide by the same rules as everyone else"—that we should give up our freedoms like those in other countries who lined up like sheep to turn in their guns. And that hunters and sport shooters should, "Take up a sport that does not require a weapon." And on the question of self-defense, she said "handguns have no legitimate role in civilian hands."

In the coming months, leading up the 2006 conference to ratify this global "Treaty on Small Arms," NRA as an official "non-governmental organization" (NGO) will attend these planning sessions leading up the 2006 U.N. conference, and we'll be working to ensure that gun owners have a voice in this debate.

In the months ahead, I'll be calling on you to put all the pressure you can on the U.S. Congress, the White House and the Executive Branch—to make sure that America stands firmly opposed to this international gun ban and that not one thin dime of your tax money is used to support it.

Please do your part, alerting your family and friends, to what will be one of the most important battles that we have ever fought, or will ever fight.