Charlotte, NC –-(Ammoland.com)- We’re not saying that things are going so well that Lady Luck is trying to tell us to run out and buy a lottery ticket. But there has been some good news lately.
Pro-Second Amendment Gov. Scott Walker’s seven-percentage -point victory in the recent recall elections in Wisconsin– a great victory for gun owners in its own right– calls into question Mr. Obama’s ability to win that state, which he carried by 13 percentage points in 2008. And a recent poll shows that Gov. Mitt Romney and the president are virtually tied in Michigan, a state President Barack Obama previously won by 16 percentage points. And nationally, Gov. Romney has narrowed the gap with Obama in recent polls.
The importance of NRA members in an election year was duly noted by President Bill Clinton after numerous U.S. Representatives who had voted for the Brady Bill and the now-defunct federal “assault weapon” ban were defeated in their 1994 reelection bids. It was cited as a factor that helped defeat anti-gun presidential candidates Al Gore and John Kerry in 2000 and 2004, respectively.
So, it goes without saying that we’ll be a force to be contended with this year.
The good news is that we don’t have to do anything fundamentally new; we just have to keep doing it until the job is finished. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted before the NRA’s annual meeting in St. Louis this year found that we’re on the right course.
The poll found that the association is now viewed favorably by 68 percent of Americans, including majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents. Eighty-seven percent of respondents support the right to use force to defend yourself in your home, 75 percent support the availability of Right-to-Carry permits for law-abiding citizens, and 67 percent support the right to use force to defend yourself away from home.
The Pew Research Center reports that since 1993 the percentage of Americans that believe it is more important to protect the right to keep and bear arms than to control guns has risen from 34 percent to 48 percent. Gallup reports that since 2000, the percentage of Americans that believe a gun in the home makes people safer has risen from 35 percent to 47 percent and that the percentage of Americans that support banning handguns has dropped from 60 percent to 26 percent. Another series of polls shows that, since 1989, the percentage of college freshmen that believe that more should be done to control the sale of handguns has dropped from 80 percent to 74 percent.
As we work for pro-gun candidates until the last votes are cast on Election Day, we can be confident of the righteousness of our cause. But we should also remember a lesson from history, chronicled by the ancient Greek writer Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War.
Refusing to surrender their island to the Athenians in 416 B.C., the Melians said that they would prevail because their cause was just. The Athenians replied that to win, it is not enough to believe that one is morally right. One must also be strong, because “the strong do as they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
Our strength will be measured by our determination to see the 2012 campaign through to the end. Needless to say, if there is any whining to be done on a national scale after Election Day, such as what took place in Wisconsin recently, it should be done by our adversaries.
About NRA-ILA
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org
