Willie Lee Hill says he returned home and "butted into" a robbery in progress. Police say the suspect struck Hill several times with an unopened soda can, rendering him unconscious. He awoke minutes later. Bleeding profusely and half-blind without his glasses, he managed to reach a pistol in his bedroom as the robber returned. "He lunged toward me.” Hill said. "There was only the bed between us, and I shot him and he fell face first on the bed. He didn't move.” Hill says the gun saved his life. "I can handle a pistol.” he said. "I know that he was going to kill me if I hadn't got him first. ”When police arrived, the suspect told them, "I can't feel my legs and I got what I deserved.” (El Dorado News Times, EI Dorado, AR, 07/28/07)
A man was sitting in his vehicle while his wife shopped for groceries. To his horror, three men burst into the store with a gun, appeared to fire and began robbing customers. The man called 9-1-1, then received a call from his wife. "I just heard her saying, 'There is nothing in my purse,’” he recollects. "And there was a 'pow,’ The phone went dead.” The man, a concealed-handgun license holder, sprang from his vehicle and entered the store with his AS-caliber pistol. He hoped to avoid confronting the bandits, but police say that was not to be. One of the robbers pointed a gun at the man, and he responding by firing two shots at the suspect, injuring him as his accomplices fled. Neither the man's wife nor any others were harmed. "I was just worried about my wife,” the man said, noting he took no satisfaction in shooting the suspect. "I just wanted to get her out of there.” (The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX, 07/5/07)
Tim Welby was putting tools away when he noticed his back door was suspiciously ajar. According to authorities, he found several signs of burglary and was missing a firearm. "As far as I know, there's an armed person inside my house, so I go and grab my .357 out of my nightstand,” Welby explained. That's when he heard noises coming from the garage apartment where his stepson, Tristan Pierce, resides. In the apartment, he encountered a man wearing a motorcycle helmet. Thinking it might be his stepson, he called out, "Tristan?" Silence followed, until the helmeted man said, "Please, sir. ”When Welby knew the man wasn't Tristan, he pointed the gun at him and said, "You move, I've got a biohazard on my hands.” Hearing the commotion, several neighbors came out of their homes with guns ready to help. One of them called 9-1-1 and the intruder was arrested without incident. (The Gabber, Gulfport, FL, 07/12/07)
Johnny Johnson awoke to the sound of a gunshot and his front door being kicked in. A security system alerted the sheriff's office while Johnson phoned his mother. She told him to avoid heroics and "stay low,” but Johnson had other plans. He snuck down the hallway with a 9mm pistol, surprising one of the intruders and shooting him multiple times. Police nabbed the alleged burglars and their getaway driver at a hospital. "I'm in the right, because it's either me or them,” Johnson said. Police agreed. (The Times Union, Jacksonville, FL, 07/12/07)
Responding to a knock at the door, 22-year-old Carri Humphrey thought she saw another resident of the apartment building through the peephole. Police say that when she opened the door, however, two strangers forced their way in, one of them toting a .22-caliber rifle. Humphrey's roommate, 24-year-old Michelle Reeder, heard Humphrey's screams and ran to the bedroom where she retrieved a handgun. Reeder returned to the front room, where she found Humphrey being held at gunpoint. The intruder then trained the rifle on Reeder and threatened to kill her. In response, she fired several shots, striking her assailant once. The other suspect fled, but the injured intruder continued to struggle, forcing Reeder to stab him. He succumbed to his wounds at the scene as the young women fled to safety. (The Record Herald, Waynesboro, PA, (07/02/07) |
The 2008 federal elections represent the most dangerous threat to American liberty yet. What is at stake is control of both houses of Congress and the White House by gun ban radicals, and ultimately their control of the federal judiciary. In our free nation today, there is one cohesive, dedicated block of citizens that can stop this attack-the millions of unaffiliated gun owners who daily cherish the exercise of American freedom the NRA steadfastly protects. But they need to be organized and informed as never before. To meet that end, NRA and members of the firearm industry have formed a remarkable coalition-a partnership to increase NRA's membership by at least 1 million activist voters before these critical '08 elections. This unified campaign will use every communications avenue at our combined disposal-in retail stores, magazines, television, radio, the Internet-to reach out to the 80 million gun owners across the nation with a single message: INSURE YOUR GUN RIGHTS-JOIN THE NRA. We've created a website where folks can sign up to become proud NRA members: www.insureyourgunrights.com Among those in the industry who are leading the charge are AcuSport, Beretta, Big Rock Sports, Davidson's, Gander Mountain, RSR Group, Savage Arms, Smith & Wesson, Taurus and Turner's Outdoorsman. We're honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. These and many other influential companies will be donating ad space, public service announcements, product literature, retail displays and Web space to the singular goal of making the NRA even stronger and more effective. When you see and hear about their involvement, please thank these companies by patronizing their businesses and buying and recommending their products and services. In this campaign, we will need your direct help as well. When you see promotional material, direct non-member gunowner friends to the message. Help sign them up. Urge them to join our cause. The action you take today-renewing your membership, signing up your family and friends-couldn't be more important. Here's why: Hillary Clinton (NRA-F) and Barack Obama (NRA-F) want to capture the White House. For both candidates, gun control will be a priority. Hillary wants to restore the Bill Clinton gun ban, and she wants universal firearm registration and gunowner licensing. If she gets the chance, she will misuse the power of federal threats and prosecution to bring down all lawful commerce in firearms. Among a host of other gun control schemes, Obama would reinstate-permanently-the failed Clinton gun ban and undo the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, unloosing the lawyers of big city mayors like Michael Bloomberg on the firearm industry. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wants more power, a huge majority in the U.S. House of Representatives to press her gun ban agenda. Shealong with the majority of her committee chairmen, like John Conyers-are all "Fs" in NRA Political Victory Fund ratings. Like Pelosi, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (NRA-F)-who successfully ran the nationwide campaign to control the Senate in the last election-will be working to increase his grip on that chamber. For Schumer, leading the core of the gun ban members of the Senate, the goal is to pack the courts with anti-Second Amendment judges-especially on the United States Supreme Court. He wants a federal judiciary that will declare our Freedom belongs to government, not to the people. He wants a federal judiciary that will subject the u.s. Constitution to foreign law. And all of these politicians-if they control all three branches of government-would embrace a United Nations civil disarmament treaty that will put our liberty under internationalist control. Winning the White House and both houses of Congress would be billionaire globalist George Soros' dream. And it is the dream of their sweetheart big media. Among their collective agenda are all manner of strictures on the First Amendment as well-designed to "fix" the system to assure their power would be permanent. They want to shut down talk radio by forcing stations that run pro-gun commentators like Rush Limbaugh to give "equal time" to the likes of Rosie O'Donnell. They want to censor the Internet and they want to reinstate and expand the "campaign finance" gag rules recently declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court-a decision made possible only with the addition of two new justices who believe in the strict interpretation of what the Constitution actually says. This is the gathering political storm of the ‘O8 election season. We must be prepared to meet it with all our resources. Today the power in the American republic still rests with the people, with us. To exercise that power we must reach out, through all means possible, to strengthen our solid, activist grassroots base. Our new coalition with the firearm industry is a remarkably important step to accomplish that goal. Total solidarity. Together, we can and we must motivate millions of gun owners to join NRA, and with those new members, we can reach millions of others with the message about the dangers to us all in the coming elections. |
Insure Your Gun Rights
NRA Protects Hunting And Hunters If you're like me, when October rolls around, you've already been scanning the skies, scouting the fields and getting your gear ready for hunting season. But this season dedicated hunters should watch out for predators as much as for prey. Powerful political groups are setting their crosshairs on you and your sport-for them, hunting is prey. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Humane Society of the United States and other anti-hunting groups nationwide are working to kill off your traditions forever-one state, one season, one method at a time-and they become more powerful every year. Last year, they banned dove hunting in Michigan. This year, they tried to do the same in Minnesota and Rhode Island. Last year, they sued to block black bear hunting in New Jersey. This year, they're fighting to end bear hunting in Maryland. From bans on lead ammunition to bans on hunting with dogs, these groups will do anything to stop you from hunting-including teaching your kids that hunting is cruel and "uncool.” It's all part of the "Culture War" Charlton Heston warned us about years ago. Meanwhile, as more and more of your hunting land is posted and padlocked, developed and devoured by the sprawl of suburbia, fewer Americans are buying hunting licenses each year. This trend should alarm you even if you don't hunt, because hunters are among the most important constituents and stakeholders of Second Amendment freedom and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in America. If you do hunt, your biggest, strongest and most capable ally is the NRA-just ask Congress. In a National Journal poll of congressional insiders, your NRA was rated the most effective lobbying group in Washington, D.C. Even AARP-with triple the budget and eight times as many members-couldn't top the NRA. NRA's credibility and clout allow us to take on fights that other groups wouldn't attempt, much less have a chance of winning. For example, when federal officials proposed closing a 1OO-year-old road in Colorado's Brown's Canyon Wilderness Area, your NRA cried foul. We knew that closing the road would put the 31-square-mile area off limits to elderly hunters, disabled hunters just back from Iraq and ordinary hunters like you and me, who can't afford to spend days hiking into the place just for one day of hunting. So we fought the rule-and won. Likewise, last year your NRA helped pass the Valle Vidal Protection Act, a federal law to keep 100,000 acres of world-class habitat accessible to hunters in New Mexico's Carson National Forest. In North Carolina, when the U.s. Navy wanted to relocate an airfield near the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, we went toe-to-toe with them, convincing them to consider other sites. After all, that refuge is the wintertime habitat for thousands of migratory waterfowl and is vital public land for hunters of deer, ducks, feral hogs and upland game. When it comes to your hunting lands, your hunting guns and your hunting rights, your NRA doesn't care who stands in opposition. We have the members, manpower and money to fight for you-and win. That's how we have helped pass hunter protection laws in all SO states and win "Right-to- Hunt" constitutional amendments and laws in 11 states so far. And it's how we're winning "no-net-Ioss" laws that require states to open one acre of land for public hunting for every acre they close. So far, we've won such laws in eight states and with the help of U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, we're fighting for a federal no-net-Ioss law, too. Make no mistake: The only reason we're able to achieve such victories is because of you and your NRA membership. Your membership dues help support important programs like the Youth Hunter Education Challenge, Hunter Clinic Instructor Program, Women On Target, Shooting Sports Camps and the Great American Hunters Tour. When you stay informed on the issues by reading this magazine or logging onto NRANews.com and then spread the word to fellow gun owners, you serve as a vital link in the communications network that results in millions of pro-freedom letters, faxes, e-mails and phone calls to lawmakers. Therefore, I urge you to tear out this column, take it to hunters you know, get them to read it and then get them to join the NRA. The more of us there are, the more powerful and effective we become. Together, we can safeguard and sustain America's precious hunting heritage as the legacy and birthright of future generations. Together we can win this "Culture War.” |