Duane Liptak is executive vice president of Magpul Industries and a member of the NRA board of directors. He’s published an open letter to the gun community at Ammoland making the case for unity and continued support of the National Rifle Association by those of us who value our gun rights.
As some have said here and in other venues, the pro-gun community is fractious and can frequently be its own worst enemy. Given the latest efforts to enact gun control legislation at the federal level — “assault weapons” bans, red flag laws, universal background checks, bump stock bans — it’s more important than ever for those of us on the pro-2A side to be pulling in the same direction.
I get that some folks will call me full of it, or claim “the NRA is in full damage control” or whatever, but this isn’t an NRA statement. This is a statement from me, a very, very zealous advocate for extreme libertarian gun rights, with an understanding of the current political landscape. Take it as you will, but please put aside your prejudices for just a moment to read, because if we can’t get everyone pushing in the same direction, we can’t beat the disarm-America-movement, because they are more than willing to get together to achieve our ruin.
In any of this commentary, I’m speaking for myself, not for the NRA.
I have to use that disclaimer, as I’m speaking out of turn, and this is MY PERSONAL understanding of the events and information, not official NRA position. I suppose some of this information could also be potentially damaging to future efforts because it lays out some reasoning and strategy, but it’s to a point right now where people need to understand some things. The NRA is not just your best defense, they are your ONLY defense. FPC does fantastic legal work, as does SAF. GOA is great at grass roots email activation and they file some amicus briefs and lawsuits. All of them have ZERO capability to interact with lawmakers in a meaningful way more than me running up to DC, which I do a couple times a year. No one else does, period, and that’s why I’m on board with helping to steer the NRA rather than bash it.
As readers here know, the NRA has come in for much criticism on the pro-2A side for its stances on a bump stock ban and red flag laws. Liptak addresses all of that and more.
Standing up and shouting “Not one more inch!” isn’t always the most effective approach in the long game that is defending and extending Second Amendment freedoms. He makes a persuasive case why — love ’em, hate ’em, or somewhere in between — the National Rifle Association is still the best chance gun rights supporters have of fending off the latest feeding frenzy of anti-gun legislation at the state and federal levels.
Be sure to go to Ammoland and read the entire post.