A quarter of a millennium ago this July 4, John Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. He wrote his name flamboyantly with big loops, underlined it, and placed his signature in the center of the parchment, knowing this act made it more likely he would be hanged by the British for treason.
Hancock’s brave gesture gave us variations of the cheerful line “put your John Hancock here,” as Americans have always celebrated those willing to stand boldly for our freedom.
Now we are 250 years into this experiment of individual liberty and America is still the light of the world. We are not perfect, but our nation under God has stayed mostly true to the ideal that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” as Thomas Jefferson so eloquently put it.
Part of the reason this great nation has mostly stayed the course of individual liberty is that, in 1871, the National Rifle Association was formed to keep alive our freedom won in revolution. When and where this nation has failed to live up to this ideal, we have gone to the courts and legislatures to expand and win back the freedom protected from government infringement in the U.S. Bill of Rights.
In keeping with this passion for individual liberty in a world in which authoritarianism was, and still is, the norm, about eight years before the NRA was founded, President Abraham Lincoln wrote and gave the Gettysburg Address in November 1863.
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” began Lincoln.
Lincoln knew we are all part of a unique nation “conceived in Liberty,” but that this individual freedom can be lost by any generation. Therefore, he knew it is our responsibility to both understand the nature of our liberty and to protect it from all who would take it from us.
Notice that Lincoln said those words about a year and a half before the U.S. Civil War ended in April 1865. Like John Hancock, Lincoln did not then know when or if victory would come; in fact, in both cases, the outcome was far from certain.
Still, the idea that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” as Lincoln articulated the glorious struggle, was so good and true it perhaps had an air of inevitability within it—if, that is, Americans both understood and rallied behind the bold idea that founded this nation.
Today, many of the politicians and activists who would take the Second Amendment from us don’t like that President Donald Trump (R) and his administration understand the critical nature of our freedom so well that, just after retaking the oath of office, Trump signed an executive order requiring the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to review all regulations or “actions by the Biden administration regarding firearms” and “to eliminate all infringements on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.” This executive order led the DOJ, and its sub-agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, to release 34 notices of final and proposed rules to eliminate infringements on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
These freedom-enhancing changes are a direct result of voters electing a pro-Second Amendment president. Indeed, as members of the NRA, we are part of this American lineage both celebrating and protecting this basic human right from government infringement. We stand together as free patriots; we shoot together at ranges and in NRA competitions; we gather at our NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits and at many other events; we teach others about the fragile nature of this liberty; we vote for our freedom; and now, we enjoy new resources you funded with your membership in our new NRA mobile app, and so much more.
We live in a time when, thanks in part to your NRA, much of our freedom has been won back, but also when our Second Amendment-protected rights continue to hang in the balance of every major election.
Too many citizens today have been misinformed, sent astray, or not taught that the basis of our unique freedom is individual liberty. Our equal rights would disappear, as they have in other nations, if we lost the ability to defend our own lives, and thereby all our other rights, with arms.
Keep this in mind as you watch the bright and exploding spectacle of Fourth of July fireworks on the 250th anniversary of this great nation. The Fourth is a celebration that we, as individuals, can freely follow our pursuits of happiness. This will remain true as long as we stay strong.
God bless you, God bless America and God bless the NRA!
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