Last week, I spent some time in Southern Ohio on behalf of the Obama campaign. My mission was simple: To assure my fellow gun owners about Obama’s gun record and to talk up the need to focus on conservation:
"As a gun rights organization, we believe gun rights should be protected, and it's a right we feel strongly about," Schoenke said, adding he doesn't believe an administration under Barack Obama would decrease gun ownership rights.
"The Supreme Court has ruled the government can't take your guns away," he said. "Neither party is going to take your guns away."
One thing struck has me about the NRA’s rhetoric this year: The NRA is ignoring that recent monumental Supreme Court decision in Heller v. District of Columbia, which finally held that the right to keep and bear arms is, in fact, an individual right. They are acting like it never happened. It’s another lie -- a lie of omission. My organization, American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), filed an amicus brief in the Heller case. It was historic -- and the result we wanted.
It was widely asserted that the leadership of the NRA never wanted that case to move forward. Now, after gun owners won a stunning victory, the NRA hierarchy is essentially ignoring the result.
Reading through the NRA’s anti-Obama mailings and watching the group’s ads, one would think nothing has changed since the previous election. Every four years, the leaders of the NRA haul out the same old attacks against the Democratic presidential candidate. They don't let facts get in the way. Instead, Wayne LaPierre and his partisan cronies use their members' resources to launch the same old false partisan attacks.
This year, the ads and mailings against Obama from the NRA just don’t hold water according to independent sources. Factcheck.org reported "A National Rifle Association advertising campaign distorts Obama's position on gun control beyond recognition." The Washington Post wrote "The NRA misfires on this one" and awarded the group "three Pinnocchios."
This year should be different. Gun owners got the critical ruling we've long sought from the U.S. Supreme Court by winning the D.C. gun ban case. Our gun rights are protected from Congress and the White House. But, the NRA is acting like that decision never happened and doesn’t really count- but it did and it does-period! That's why the usual attacks won't work this year. Gun owners are more aware of what’s really going on than the NRA leaders think. We know our gun rights now are safe, and now we want to secure our economy and protect our environment getting this country headed back in the right direction.
The leadership of the NRA is living in the past. They're doing a double disservice to gun owners who are fighting for the environment and fighting for their jobs. LaPierre needs a new act because this one has gotten really old. It might make his right wing friends happy, but it's failing the nation's hundred million gun owners miserably.