STANDING GUARD
By Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President

Self-Defense Trumps The Elites’ Lies

   "Concealed weapon applicants on the rise"
    Daily News (Bowling Green, Ky.)
   "Demand spikes for concealed‑carry"
    Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch
   "Conceal carry permits could set record"
    St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch

Those recent headlines, mirrored in scores of news outlets across the nation, recognize an undeniable truth: Americans by the tens of millions are taking responsibility for their own safety, their families and their communities by exercising the individual right to self-defense under the Second Amendment.

The dramatic increase in concealed carry, as well as media coverage of the unprecedented purchases of firearms and ammunition, provides a true measure of the political will of the American people. And they stand with the NRA.

It is clear that these ordinary Americans who opt to participate in the self-defense revolution understand that we can never predict where evil will strike. But it can be stopped with a firearm in the hands of a law-abiding, competent person. We’ve seen it time after time: The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

This right to self-defense was not invented by the American Founders, but has roots that are older than civilization itself. It is inscribed on every human heart. It is a sacred responsibility—a choice that most mainstream Americans understand.

That is why in our constant march to victory over the last two decades, the NRA has successfully taken down oppressive laws that required people—in their own homes, or any place they have a right to be—to hide or run away from deadly threats from criminal predators. Under those same laws, victims who fought back have been prosecuted for having the temerity to defend themselves with instant, armed response.

In state after state, NRA-backed Right-to-Carry, Castle Doctrine, "emergency powers," and "employee protection" laws have empowered citizens by recognizing their God-given right to armed self-defense, giving former victims the lawful upper hand over burglars, rapists, robbers, home invaders and carjackers. And now we have secured Right-to-Carry in accord with state laws in national parks.

What it boils down to is this: Instant responders—armed individuals—are always better than first responders—the police—because instant responders can prevent the kind of tragedy that first responders can only clean up.

Everywhere the NRA has fought for self-defense reforms, all of the elitist predictions about "Wild West shootouts" or "blood in the streets" have proven utterly false. And crime has taken a nosedive because criminals fear to chance armed resistance.

But the media elites, the corporate elites and the gun ban crowd always push another lie: "Government will protect you ... Protecting people is the job of the police." The rebuttal to that involves more than pointing to the failure of government to consistently prosecute violent criminals.

The courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have ruled that government has absolutely no duty, no responsibility to protect individuals from violent criminals!

Take the landmark Warren v. District of Columbia case brought by three young women who had been held prisoner, repeatedly raped and brutally assaulted for 14 hours by a home invader while their earlier, repeated calls to police for help were ignored.

The court ruled, "... a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide ... police protection to any particular individual citizen." That edict—based on precedent in dozens of similar cases—was upheld by the D.C. Court of Appeals which ruled: "The duty to provide public services is owed to the public at large ... and, absent a special relationship between the police and an individual, no specific legal duty exists." [Emphasis added.]

That is the law of the land and that truth trumps the lies of the elites. So who protects individual citizens and their families? They protect themselves and provide for the common good.

Every public opinion poll comes down on our side. Name any researcher—Gallup, Roper, Zogby, Reuters. Year after year, more Americans say the NRA speaks more for them than does the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the U.S. Congress, or The New York Times. In other words, if you ask Americans who really "gets it" about our country—about the true meaning of the Second Amendment—more Americans raise their hands for the NRA than for any other group.

In my travels across this nation I encounter thousands of new members who joined the NRA because we are the one organization preserving freedom at a time when other forces in this cultural war seem powerless.

Saving the Second Amendment and the Bill of Rights is a rallying cry for like-minded Americans to join our historic cause, and with that renewed strength—in our fight for truth and justice—we will prevail against those who would destroy our freedom.