president’s column
By John C. Sigler, President

The Voice of Freedom

   On December 23, 1776, Thomas Paine wrote:

   “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.”

   These, too, are “times that try men’s souls.” And I need your immediate help to avert a potential disaster for your Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
   Right now, storm fronts are advancing within all three branches of government—executive, legislative and judicial—and threatening to combine into a catastrophe for your Second Amendment freedom.
   With Hillary Clinton calling for a “gun violence summit” at the White House, and Barack Obama suggesting he would push California-style gun bans from the Oval Office—
   —with Senator Kennedy and other anti-gun members of Congress fighting to pass gun “micro-stamping” and other national gun registration schemes—
   —and with the U.S. Supreme Court preparing to rule on whether the Second Amendment refers to an individual right, a governmental power, or none of the above—
   —with all this and much more happening on the eve of the most important elections in a generation or more, the current situation is potentially grave.
   That’s why I urgently need your help. This year alone, 13 states have considered schemes to require that ammunition be “serialized” with registration numbers—a gimmick intended to send ammunition prices soaring and make hunting and shooting unaffordable.
   Meanwhile, at the U.S. Supreme Court, 19 “friend of the court” briefs have been filed in support of the Washington, D.C., gun ban by anti-freedom members of Congress, attorneys for a dozen major U.S. cities and five states, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the American Bar Association and even the American Public Health Association—all opposing the concept that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right.
   Not only is your Right to Keep and Bear Arms under attack—your freedom to hunt is under siege from a huge and radically expanding “animal rights” lobby.
   The anti-hunting Humane Society of the United States now claims to have 10.5 million members—a gain of almost 50 percent over the past five years—and PETA claims its membership has doubled in the same time period.
To fight these looming battles to defend your rights, your NRA has launched a comprehensive and strategic multi-million-dollar initiative called the Voice of Freedom.
   The NRA Voice of Freedom initiative is a four-pronged offensive protecting your Right to Keep and Bear Arms in this critical election year and beyond:
   1. NRA Media Outreach will fund targeted communications through newspaper ads, radio and TV commercials, news magazines, documentaries, earned media opportunities and NRANews.com
—NRA’s daily Second Amendment news show on the Internet and Sirius Satellite Radio (Patriot 144).
   Your financial support of the NRA Media Outreach will help buy the kind of powerful, provocative communications that can turn the tide in elections, and change the course of history.
   2. The NRA Institute for Legislative Action will field a robust array of election-year activities as well. You can help fund everything from grassroots outreach and volunteer coordination, to federal, state and local lobbying campaigns, to “Vote Freedom First” rallies and get-out-the-vote initiatives.
   3. NRA’s non-partisan voter education activities are essential to arming a new generation of patriots with the truth about their precious constitutional freedoms. Your contributions will help preserve Second Amendment freedom for future generations by helping voters understand and appreciate the genius of our Bill of Rights.
   4. The NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund (NRACRDF) will underwrite ground-breaking, precedent-setting litigation in defense of your Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
   Through tax-deductible gifts, you can help fund courtroom challenges to anti-gun laws (like the Washington, D.C., gun ban), court actions against authorities who violate the Second Amendment (like those post-Katrina gun grabbers in New Orleans), and help defend citizens wrongfully charged with violating various anti-gun laws.
   To fund the level of activity this current situation demands and allow our Voice of Freedom messages to ring with clarity across our great land, we must raise at least $7 million for NRA-ILA, $7 million for NRA, $7 million for voter registration and $4 million for NRACRDF—that’s a total of $25 million.
   I need for you to be a part of this urgent effort. Together, we can and will secure the Right to Keep and Bear Arms as the birthright of all Americans—but it will require everyone to do their part.
In these trying times, we must all redouble our dedication to the cause of freedom. I urge you to give all that you can, as often as you can.
   I’m counting on you!
   For assistance with “Planned Giving,” gifts of cash, gift annuities, stocks, real estate and firearms, and for information concerning tax-deductibility of certain gifts, please call the NRA Office of Advancement at (877) NRA-GIVE.