Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Standing Guard | Hillary’s War On Liberty, The NRA And The Second Amendment

Friday, April 1, 2016

Standing Guard | Hillary’s War On Liberty, The NRA And The Second Amendment

In an attack that is unprecedented in our lifetimes, the destruction of the Second Amendment-protected rights of all Americans has emerged as the centerpiece of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. If elected, she vows to make the Obama administration’s illegal, all-out war on our values and liberty look like amateur night. 

Embracing the kind of mass confiscations that disarmed Australians in the 1990s, Hillary intends to take down the NRA, calling us her number one “enemy.” 

Politico summed it up in a December 2015 online article (“Clinton makes gun control a defining cause”) declaring: “Clinton’s embrace of gun control is on the verge of becoming a defining issue in the campaign ... confronting the National Rifle Association and Second Amendment activists across the country.”

In ever-present attacks against the nation’s firearm owners and all who stand with us, Hillary knows that we are liberty’s wall; we are freedom’s safest place. “What stands in the way?” she asked during a campaign stop. “One of the most powerful lobbies in our country. The NRA, that intimidates and bullies legislators and governors into doing what they want. That must end.” Embracing the kind of mass confiscations that disarmed Australians in the 1990s, Hillary intends to take down the NRA, calling us her number one “enemy.”

She’s got it. Except we never intimidate. We don’t bully. We educate and we convince—inspiring tens of millions of Americans who are committed to stand and fight along with us to protect freedom. 

In her campaign against the oldest civil rights organization in the nation, no slander is left unsaid. Try this headline from The Hill: “Hillary compares NRA to Iranians, communists.” It quotes the disgraced former secretary of state as saying, “You know, the NRA’s position reminds me of negotiating with the Iranians or the communists.”

As The Hill described her comments, “The Democratic primary front-runner accused the nation’s largest gun lobby of spreading propaganda to keep its dues-paying constituents paranoid.” 

In Hillary’s world, no allegation is out of bounds or too extreme: “The NRA tries to keep gun owners—the ones who are members—really upset all the time so they can keep collecting their money, because they tell them they’re the only thing that’s going to stop the black helicopters from landing in the front yard and people’s guns being seized. That’s the argument they make. And it works with some people, and it has turned a lot of people into absolutists themselves.” 

But it isn’t the NRA that “upsets” the nation’s firearm owners. It’s you, Hillary. It’s President Barack Obama. It’s the mindset and the actions of every element of the gun-ban movement that has turned ordinary Americans into “absolutists.” 

Absolutists? You bet. When it comes to the defense of our uniquely American rights and the liberty they secure, we proudly accept that title. The Founding Fathers were absolutists in the finest sense. 

This fight is about principle. It is about securing and protecting all of the rights recognized by the Founders and enshrined in the Constitution. 

And a vast number of Americans understand that the National Rifle Association protects their freedom.

In a prescient October 2015 analysis of current public opinion polling, the National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke—in an article headlined “Hillary Is Wrong: The NRA Is More Popular than She Is”—quoted the remarkable results of the Gallup organization’s recent public snapshot of the NRA:

“Despite a year of blistering criticism ... a solid majority of Americans (58 percent) say they have an overall favorable impression of the NRA. This includes the highest recording of “very favorable” opinions (26 percent) since Gallup began asking this question in 1989.” 

Cooke commented: “To grasp just how impressive these numbers are in context, consider that since June 2009 there has been just one week during which the twice-elected president of the United States has been that popular. Per Gallup’s favorability tracker, Obama’s latest approval rating is just 46 percent, 12 points lower than the NRA’s. This is no aberration. Over the last two years, the NRA’s rating has never dropped below 54 percent. Over the same period, Obama’s has never hit 50.” 

Hillary fared even worse. Her favorability rating (42 percent) is 16 points below the NRA’s, Cooke wrote. 

No matter to Hillary. For her, vilification of the patriotic, bedrock values of millions of law-abiding Americans is a stock item. While embracing Australia’s mandatory confiscation and destruction of registered firearms from licensed owners, Hillary called for universal registration of firearms and licensing for American gun owners. 

That’s why “universal” background checks are so important to the gun-ban crowd. It is a system of gun-owner registration. Only with such lists can they begin the business of government “gun collection.” Your guns. My guns. It is the universal first step under the phony guise of curbing the “epidemic of gun violence” that only her “common-sense” gun grab can solve.

In truth, individual Americans have a very practical answer to criminal violence—lawfully arming themselves in unprecedented numbers.While embracing Australia’s mandatory confiscation and destruction of registered firearms from licensed owners, Hillary called for universal registration of firearms and licensing for American gun owners. 

Hillary’s answer is to disarm the potential victims, removing their means of defense of themselves, their families and their communities.

The Huffington Post’s November 2015 coverage celebrating Hillary as the inaugural recipient of the Brady Campaign’s “Mario M. Cuomo Visionary Award” said it better than I can: “Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called gun violence a ‘national emergency’ and urged the public not to give up hope that the gun lobby can be defeated.” 

This attack on peaceable gun owners is Washington politics at its most cynical and dishonest level. While refusing to arrest, prosecute and jail violent criminals, Hillary aims to defeat you and me, our friends and neighbors—all who stand and fight. 

In a campaign television ad, Hillary says, “This epidemic of gun violence knows no boundaries.” That is a lie. The “boundaries” of the huge increase in homicide are limited to cities with the harshest gun control and where federal gun prosecutions have dropped dramatically.

In Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.—places where law-abiding citizens are all but disarmed by every permutation of gun control—the murder rates are appalling. Take Baltimore, which after enactment of Maryland’s unconstitutional new gun laws, is seeing the highest per capita spike in murder in its history. 

All of these urban criminal enclaves are “gun-free zones.” And they are sanctuary cities for felons, drug dealers and repeat offenders. Violent criminals are illegally armed to the teeth because these are “prosecution-free zones,” ranking lowest in the nation for enforcement of federal laws that could take every armed criminal off the streets for at least five years. 

In making gun confiscation the central theme of her campaign, Hillary Clinton has declared war not just on us, but on the very foundation and values of our great nation.

We must work every day to play the deciding role in the presidential elections to hand Hillary the biggest rejection possible at the polling booth and take this country back in the most important battle for freedom we’ll ever fight.

Wayne LaPierre

BY Wayne LaPierre

Executive Vice President, NRA

Since 1991, Wayne LaPierre has led the NRA through a period of unprecedented membership growth and political clout in defense of our Second Amendment rights. And that strength has been put to the good benefit of NRA members and gun owners. In large part because of Wayne's leadership, Right-to-Carry is now the law in 41 states. All 50 states have enacted laws to protect shooting ranges, and all 50 passed legislation to protect hunters from harassment.

TRENDING NOW
Congress Passes the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” Now Headed to President Trump

News  

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Congress Passes the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” Now Headed to President Trump

Earlier today the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” This bill contained a provision that would, among other things, eliminate the burdensome $200 excise tax imposed by federal law on suppressors, short-barreled firearms, ...

One Big Beautiful Bill Clears Senate, and Heads Back to House

News  

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

One Big Beautiful Bill Clears Senate, and Heads Back to House

Earlier today the U.S. Senate passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” This bill contained a provision that would, among other things, eliminate the burdensome $200 excise tax imposed by federal law on suppressors, short-barreled firearms, and “any ...

U.S. House Sends Reconciliation Bill to President Trump

News  

Second Amendment  

Thursday, July 3, 2025

U.S. House Sends Reconciliation Bill to President Trump

NFA Tax on Suppressors, Short-Barreled Firearms, and Other Arms Reduced to $0

U.S. House Passes Reconciliation Bill, Removing Suppressors from the National Firearms Act

News  

Second Amendment  

Thursday, May 22, 2025

U.S. House Passes Reconciliation Bill, Removing Suppressors from the National Firearms Act

Earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.1 the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included Section 2 of the Hearing Protection Act, completely removing suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA).

U.S. Senate Adds Pro-Gun Tax Relief Language Back into Reconciliation Bill

News  

Saturday, June 28, 2025

U.S. Senate Adds Pro-Gun Tax Relief Language Back into Reconciliation Bill

Overnight, the U.S. Senate added pro-gun tax relief language back into the Reconciliation bill after the Senate Parliamentarian struck out an earlier provision.  While this new provision is not as expansive as the language we advocated for which ...

President Trump Signs the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into Law

News  

Friday, July 4, 2025

President Trump Signs the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into Law

Earlier today, on the 4th of July, a day on which our Founding Fathers declared their intent for a free nation, the President of the United State of America, Donald Trump, signed the “One Big ...

Maine: Public University Professor Belittles Student for 2A and Religious Views

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Maine: Public University Professor Belittles Student for 2A and Religious Views

Maine's public education system has recently faced national scrutiny, and it appears things are only getting worse, not better, in the Pine Tree State. 

U.K. Embarks on Fresh Knife Amnesty, Reminds Americans Why 1776 was a Good Idea

News  

Monday, July 7, 2025

U.K. Embarks on Fresh Knife Amnesty, Reminds Americans Why 1776 was a Good Idea

It has been a while since we’ve looked at weapon news from across the pond, but with Americans everywhere having just celebrated the Glorious Fourth and our independence from British monarchy, the timing seems particular ...

United Nation’s Attack on Ammunition Formally Begins

News  

Monday, July 7, 2025

United Nation’s Attack on Ammunition Formally Begins

The recently concluded negotiations on the United Nations’ Global Framework on Through-Life Conventional Ammunition Management (Framework) should be of grave concern to anyone who values the constitutional protections afforded by the Second Amendment. 

NRA and 2A Allies Announce NFA Lawsuit

Monday, July 7, 2025

NRA and 2A Allies Announce NFA Lawsuit

Following the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill”—which eliminates the National Firearms Act of 1934’s (NFA) excise tax on suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and AOWs—the National Rifle Association issued a joint statement along with the ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

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.