An Essay By: Edson Waite Jr

 I am the NRA. Myself and 3 million plus other red blooded American Patriots. I am your next door neighbor. I may be your doctor, your lawyer, your grocer, or any of several thousand professionals and laborers who exist in your world. We are men, women, and children. We are plumbers, carpenters, roofers, engineers, police officers, and firemen. We are Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen. We teach in schools and in churches. We interact with you every day, but in most cases you don’t even know we are members of the NRA. We don’t look different or dress different, we don’t even talk different. We don’t run around trying to force our will on anyone. (However, there are many organizations out there that would force their beliefs on us and say that we should not be allowed to own this or that type of firearm, or any firearm for that matter.)

We don’t say that everyone must possess a firearm. Our position is that all law abiding citizens have the Constitutional and God Given right to keep and bear arms, and that no one in this great United States of America, has the right to stop us from owning any type of legal firearm. We hold responsible jobs and perform services for all the people within our community. By looking at us, you cannot tell who we are, yet some would condemn us for our belief in the “Bill of Rights” and the “Second Amendment”. We are not “gun nuts” or “wackos” as we are labeled.

I believe that Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin would both have been NRA members had the organization existed in the late 1700’s. These men were both Patriots and Freedom Fighters, members of the Militias of the day. These men believed that Americans had the right and indeed the duty to protect their families and their country. All the Great Patriots who signed the “Declaration of Independence” risked their lives and all they owned to back the foundling nation that was to be the “United States of America”. Many of these great visionaries did in fact loose their lives in the war that followed, others lost all they owned to the British. In this day of ‘Political Correctness’ countless people are afraid to let it be known how they really feel about crime and personal freedom. they would let the government take away all of their freedom for just a modicum of promised security. I will provide my own security, thank you, and be damned those who would try to usurp my freedom to choose the weapons I deem fit.

We are proud Americans who believe that our Founding Fathers knew quite well that only the Second Amendment right of “The People”, “to keep and bear arms” would protect the citizens of this country from tyranny “from without and within”. This same right is the only protection we, the citizens, have to maintain all the other rights guaranteed in the “Bill of Rights”. Do you seriously believe that the ‘Free Press’ of the First Amendment would be so ‘Free’ if there was no armed citizenry to prevent an out of control government from censoring it.

History is replete with examples of countries that disarmed their citizens just prior to assuming dictatorial powers which in turn led to massacres of its own citizens when they were disarmed and defenseless themselves. Our own country has in recent years tried, and in many cases succeeded in usurping powers from the states and the people in the name of making all of us safer and /or healthier. We are neither. What we are, is poorer in that we have lost the rights to many things.

We are being told that some guns are worse than others because they “look to dangerous”. All guns are dangerous, anybody with half a brain should know that. Children should not be allowed to ‘play’ with guns, but they should be taught to respect them for what they are, a tool with a legitimate purpose. Both of my children were given guns at a very early age (12), neither has used them for an illegal purpose. However if there was a perceived or actual threat to their lives or families, I believe they have the God Given right to defend themselves, with force, if necessary. My boys both enjoy hunting and shooting, and they are both members of the NRA.