Few elections in American history have mattered more to the future of our gun rights than the one that will take place just two weeks from today.
For that reason, Jeff Foxworthy and I are spending the final weeks of this campaign season touring key swing states and rallying NRA members and gun owners to not only vote on Election Day, but to make sure every one of our pro-freedom friends and family members vote as well.
And I’m happy to report that the response we’ve received has been overwhelming.
Gun owners clearly understand the stakes on November 6. We know this election will be decided by just a few percentage points in a handful of key battleground states. We know these are states where gun ownership is strong and hunting is a cherished and respected way of life.
And we know that — more than any other group of people — we have the power to decide this election and save the future of our American freedom. According to a 2008 Zogby post-election poll, roughly one-third of all voters were gun owners.
But most important, we understand that each one of us has to work between now and Election Day to turn out every pro-gun and pro-freedom vote we can possibly get. We can’t leave anything to chance, because right now, the Second Amendment is clinging to a razor-thin, five-to-four majority on the Supreme Court.
Just one vote on the Court is all that stands between the America our Founding Fathers established, and the America Barack Obama and his gun-ban allies envision.
If Obama wins a second term, he could nominate up to three additional anti-Second Amendment judges in the same mold as his previous two nominees, Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Obama’s new majority would then almost certainly erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights.
If you think that sounds over-the-top, consider what recently retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said just last week. Stevens actually suggested replacing our constitutional right to bear arms with a constitutional right to bear cell phones:
“Maybe you have some kind of constitutional right to have a cell phone with a pre-dialed 911 in the number at your bedside, and that might provide you with a little better protection than a gun which you’re not used to using,” Stevens said.
The fact is, if it were up to Obama, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Stevens, there would be no more individual right to keep and bear arms. No more Second Amendment. No more fundamental right to defend your property, your life, or your loved ones from a violent criminal attacker.
You’d just have a government-issued cell phone and an inalienable right to cower in fear.
Barack Obama’s vision for America is a nation that most of us would hardly recognize, let alone want to live in. And if re-elected, Obama will have the chance to make his vision a reality.
That’s why every gun-owning, freedom-loving, Constitution-revering American must do his and her part to win this election in these final two weeks. It’s time to take our country back. It’s time to defeat Barack Obama.
Chris W. Cox is the Executive Director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) and serves as the organization’s chief lobbyist.