These comments are the opinions of the writer David G. Coy. He alone is responsible for them. They do not represent NRA or NRA-ILA policies of legislative priorities. Only the Executive Director of NRA-ILA and the Executive Vice President of NRA may promulgate official legislative positions and issue official commentary on legislative and regulatory issues with which the Association is involved.
Second Amendment Advocacy
My advocacy in strong support of the right to keep and bear the private arms of our choice has taken me many places, including the Board of Directors of the NRA. I have attended many rallies, presented at a good number of these rallies, done radio programs, testified in hearings in Lansing, Michigan, participated in a community forum hosted by Adrian College (right after Sandy Hook) and debated anti-gunners in several less-than-hospitable forums such as the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. Schedule permitting, I continue to be available for any of these types of events. Please contact me.
My writing on firearms and related legislative matters for Trap and Field magazine for over 10 years provided me with a multi-faceted understanding of the stealthy and insidious approaches of the gun-grabbers. The anti-gunners are relentless, and they take many avenues in their efforts to curtail firearms ownership rights and the rights of hunters and target shooters. The devil is in the details of their proposal. As such, the seasoned professionals at the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) work full time to ferret out and expose these gambits.
On the pro-gun side, I am strongly in favor of universal Constitutional Carry, either open or concealed. I trust gun owners to make that choice based upon their own personal life situations. And I think the Hughes Amendment should be repealed and regulations on suppressors, pistol braces and short-barrels rifles should be eliminated altogether.
Also, the following matters require constant attention:
- Defense of and improvement of Firearms Owners Protection Act.
- Defense of the integrity of the Pittman-Robertson Fund and its use.
- Oppose efforts by states and municipalities to circumvent the Supreme Court decisions in Bruen, Heller and MacDonald.
- Defense and improvement of the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
- Defense of and improvements to state level Shooting Range Protection laws.
- Oppose efforts to limit access to federal lands for shooting and hunting activities.
Please visit https://www.nraila.org/ to learn more about NRA-ILA’s activities both nationally and at the state level.
Gambits of the Gun Grabbers
As a youth, in the wake of the assassination of President (and NRA Member) John F. Kennedy, I first became aware of gun control efforts. My Dad (an NRA Life Member) wisely used this as a teachable moment, and he and I had the first of a number of conversations about this subject.
My Dad opposed all forms of gun control, as do I. The main scheme being advanced in the original “Dodd Bill” of 1964 that we talked about was gun owner licensing and registration of all firearms of all types. Dad explained to me – when I was eleven years old – that licensing and registration inevitably lead to confiscation and paves the way for oppressive government and loss of freedom. I have never forgotten that original conversation, which is as true today as it was then.
60 year later, little has changed. The gun-grabbers still push for universal licensing of gun owners and registration of all guns with the ultimate goal of confiscation (without exception) of all privately owned firearms. The gambits they use to further this goal have not changed, either.
Gun Registration and Gun Owner Licensing
The antis have long sought this, and will continue to strive to achieve this goal – their “holy grail.” What is their reason? It’s simple. They want to know who to look for and what doors to knock on to achieve their ultimate goal, which is to confiscate all privately owned firearms (and that means what it says – all – no exceptions). Without the list, they have to knock on all doors, and that antagonizes and alienates the entire public.
Safe Storage Laws
This is backdoor gun owner registration. This is the ultimate goal. While present efforts to mandate this stop short of laws that make you prove that you have installed a gun safe, it is only a matter of time before the antis will demand that an inspector visit to verify that the gun owner is in compliance. Who do they visit? Yep – they need a list to do so. Registration and licensing become mandatory. This is wholly unnecessary. Safe storage is not “one size fits all” and the vast majority of gun owners voluntarily and responsibly employ storage options that are appropriate for their individual life situations.
Red Flag Laws
Don’t like someone? Got a “burr under your saddle” over something your ex did? Make up a lie or two, post it to social media, and make sure the authorities know about it. The targeted individual is in for an unpleasant and wholly unjustified legal encounter based on these lies. This is wholly wrong. It’s outrageous to take away someone’s right to keep and bear the private arms of their choice based upon rumor and innuendo that runs rampant in the banana-republic kangaroo-court of social media, yet this is what the antis seek. Certainly no one, especially responsible gun owners, wants legitimately unfit persons to have firearms. But this requires that a court of law based on real evidence and via fair and impartial adjudication, makes such a determination. In fairness, there MUST BE a guaranteed opportunity that the affected person can seek relief and be granted reversal of such a determination, and restoration of firearms ownership rights by a court of law when their disqualification has been remediated and/or their debt to society served and satisfied in full. And if the original complaint is proven frivolous or intentionally malicious, its perpetrator needs to be punished.
Good Gun – Bad Gun
Your gun is on a government approved list of “good” guns (hunting and sporting) so it’s protected. Yeah – Right. Lists can get changed (read as cut down). And can you add new firearms not the list? Not likely. The Clinton Administration era ugly-scary looking gun list of bad guns was of this model. As those of us who lived through it know, gun makers quickly changed the cosmetics of the affected guns (giving us the horrible thumbhole stocks, among other things), assigned new model numbers to the actions and continued to sell them. Kudos to NRA-ILA for getting the 10 year sunset proviso into this abominable law, and making sure when the ten years was up that it did indeed sunset (and it did).
No one outside of the military needs a military firearm
This gambit preys upon the ignorance of the public in general about military pattern semi-autos. The antis conflate guns that look like current military issue selective fire rifles with non-military look-alikes. And, in case you haven’t noticed, the antis have started using the term “military-looking.” Why is this? Because it is an effective pro-gun sound-bite sized differentiation we have been using to counter their obfuscation. The antis are trying to co-opt it.
Military rifles spit out hundreds of bullets that totally vaporize people! No one needs these kinds of guns and ammunition for any purpose.
This ploy by the antis preys upon a lack of knowledge by the general public of cartridges and their capabilities – and the laws of physics in general. They know that most military cartridges (5.56mm and 7.62 x 39mm) are very underpowered when compared to numerous and common hunting rounds (and close up, shotgun rounds.) Implicit in this gambit is also a stealth effort to sneak past and make illegal a multitude of very common hunting rifles and shotguns that have seen military service. This gambit would ensnare the Winchester Model 70 (which would include pre-1964 collectibles) and the Remington Model 700. Also affected would be the Winchester Model 12, Browning A-5 and Ithaca Model 37 Shotguns. What about these: all 1911’s, Mauser war trophies (both intact and sporterized), all variants of the British Enfield, Springfields and Eddystones, M-1 Garands and M-1 Carbines.
Firearms manufacturing is unregulated. They need to be approved by the Consumer Products Safety Commission before they can be sold.
This statement is blatantly false. No firearm (or any ammunition) is sold in the USA unless it meets the specifications set forth by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute (SAAMI), the firearms industry equivalent of the Underwriters Laboratory (UL). The antis know this, but again, they prey upon the lack of knowledge of the general public about this situation.
For more information about SAAMI, please visit https://saami.org/about-saami/history/
State, Local, and the Courts
At any given time, NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action’s team of state liaisons and attorneys are actively engaged in efforts to promote firearms ownership rights and the lawful use of firearms. Literally, the legislative aspects involve all 50 states. And at any given time, there are between 30 and 40 court cases with which NRA-ILA attorneys are litigating. This total does not include court cases supported by NRA’s Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund (NRACRDF), which provides financial support to outside attorneys who are litigating firearms matters.
A summary of these activities and their statuses are provided to NRA’s Board of Directors at every regular meeting of the Board and are included in the spiral bound copy of the proceedings of that meeting. Copies of these books may be obtained by paying the cost of printing and postage (and this is cost recovery only). Please understand the size of a typical book; the proceedings from September 9, 2023 is186 pages in length. Some previous meetings have proceedings in excess of 300 pages, so the cost is not insignificant. But the information is available to any NRA Member in good standing who wants a copy. Please contact the Office of the Secretary of the NRA at NRA Headquarters. They may be reached at https://contact.nra.org/
Please vote for David G. Coy on your ballot in the March 2024 NRA official journal
I’m honored to be serving as your second Vice President of the Board of Directors. I humbly and respectfully ask for your support and your vote so I can continue the on-going and never-ending fight to keep and bear the arms of our personal choice. Thank you for your consideration.
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