Message from ISRA Executive Director - Part 2

Printed below is the balance of the message yesterday from Illinois State Rifle Association executive director, Richard Pearson

[continued from March 28]

Our refusal to submit to their ideal of a gun-free America is why they hate us.  And this hatred is nothing new.  The following is a quote from an editorial appearing in the February 2, 1997 edition of the “Philadelphia Inquirer.”  In the editorial, author Jack Cobbs depicts the hatred gun controllers feel towards gun owners:

“I may have to live in a world with NRA members, but I don’t want them on the school board, or the vestry of my church, or as leaders of my children’s Scout troops, any more than I want KKK members or people who think it’s OK for terrorists to bomb airplanes.”

Cobbs goes on to say:

“Like most of us, they (NRA members) cherish their positions as responsible citizens, and if it becomes clear that the price they must pay to belong to the NRA is to become social pariahs, most will opt for responsibility.”

Cobbs’ editorial plainly shows what we are up against.  Don’t fool yourself, Cobbs is not an extremist – he is a moderate among those who support gun control.  These people are not interested in any sort of “national dialog” or “balancing the rights of gun owners with public safety,” or any of the other post-Newtown claptrap we’ve seen in the press.  The only thing the gun controllers want is to see you hand over your guns – all your guns – to the local police and then just go away.

This is why we must continue to fight in Springfield.  This is why you need to keep calling your representatives and senators.  They need to be reminded day in and day out that the right to keep and bear arms is not negotiable.  They need to be reminded that incremental diminishment of our rights is not acceptable.

The gun controllers are patient.  Their plan is to rely on gun owner complacency – to wait us out.  The gun controllers expect you to stop making calls to your representatives and senators.  They expect you to get distracted by other pursuits while they remain focused on taking your guns away from you.

Gun owner complacency is responsible for people like Obama and Quinn being elected.  The more complacent gun owners become, the worse the political landscape becomes.  The more gun owners let others make decisions for them, the more oppressive the outcomes of those decisions become.

Remember – preservation and protection of the right to keep and bear arms is a moral imperative.  With a diminished Second Amendment, this country will become unrecognizable to those who cherish freedom and self determination.
Richard Pearson
ISRA Executive Director