PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
By Ronald L. Schmeits, President

The Gift of Freedom This Season

The holidays are here again, and on behalf of this association, I'd like to extend my best wishes from the NRA family to yours.

Chances are, you're reading these words right around Thanksgiving.
So in the spirit of the season, I'd like to call on you to think about all that we have to be thankful for—and all that the idea of being thankful and diligent and vigilant entails.

In the U.S., hunting season is in full swing. Whether or not you're a hunter, I think we can all be thankful for the bountiful harvest from our farm fields or our forests, the blessings of life, liberty and security. Our health. Our families. Our freedom.

It's entirely fitting and proper that we are mindful of all our blessings at Thanksgiving. But I believe giving thanks is only one part of what being thankful really means.

I believe we also have a duty to try to protect, preserve and perpetuate the blessings with which we've been endowed, for the good of our children and their children.

This is a natural and appropriate time of year to do so. Think about it.

Whether you're winterizing your home, getting new tires and anti-freeze for your vehicles, or sheltering your livestock and planting cover crops for wildlife and soil conservation, so much of what you do at this time of year revolves around being a good steward and protecting what you have for the future.

I believe we should do the same for our freedoms. And one of the best ways we can do so is by giving our freedoms new friends. Let me explain.

By now, you've heard the news that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of McDonald v. Chicago—a case that could give the Second Amendment the same protection against state and local government action contained in the First, Fourth and Sixth Amendments to the Bill of Rights.

This is monumental news. Many legal scholars believe the mere fact the Court has decided to review the case bodes well for our Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

But even if the Supreme Court were to build a permanent, impenetrable wall of protection around Second Amendment freedom, that freedom couldn't be truly safe without citizens to exercise, cherish and give it new relevance with each generation.

After all, with the ranks of hunters aging and thinning, with gun owners too often belittled by the media and Hollywood elites, and with young people faced with a widening array of activities competing for their time, interest in firearms and the shooting sports could slowly decline—if we let it.

That's where you fit in.

Over the past few months in this space, I've asked you to reach out to anyone you know who doesn't know about hunting, shooting, firearms or the freedom to own them—but who might take an interest in such things if only they had a chance to experience them.

I'm hoping you took my words to heart and made a real effort to give firearm freedom some new friends by introducing your friends to the shooting sports.

If so, it's fairly likely that you have some newcomers at your deer camp, in your duck blind, or visiting your gun club, shooting range or sporting clays courses.

If that's the case, I thank you, I congratulate you and I urge you to take the next step.

You've introduced them to firearm freedom. Now introduce them to the one group that does more than any other public or private institution in America to ensure that freedom is exercised safely, effectively, lawfully and extensively now and in the future: the National Rifle Association of America.

When you're standing around the fire in your deer camp, talking quietly in your duck blind or attending a holiday event this season, make it a point to tell fellow shooters, hunters, gun owners and believers in freedom what the NRA is and what we do.

Tell them why you're a member. Then urge them to join.

Better yet, take that one extra step that can turn a freedom believer into a freedom advocate, and buy that new friend an NRA membership.

Call (877) NRA-2000 (672-2000) now to give the gift of an NRA membership this season. In so doing, you'll be giving the gift of freedom—a gift that comes to us from our Creator, but that depends upon us for sustenance and survival.