THE POLITICAL BOYCOTT: AN ASSAULT ON THE NRA AND ON NRA MEMBERS’ FIRST AND SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS

Antigun activists seek to dispossess the civilian population of this Country of their firearms. That is the reason for their existence. That is the reason for their being. They will deny this of course. They will tell you they don’t want to take all your firearms away, just some of them. They will also tell you they don’t want to prevent every American citizen from owning and possessing firearms, just some of them. But, when pressed, they will admit they abhor firearms and they will tell you that, in a civilized society, no one needs firearms anymore, anyway. They will also tell you that law-abiding, rational citizens today may become lawless, rabidly insane tomorrow. That is highly improbable, ridiculously so, even if only logically possible in a philosophical sense. But mere possibility is enough, for antigun proponents and activists, to support the elimination of civilian firearms’ ownership and firearms’ possession.Those who espouse the elimination of firearms would like to see civilian ownership and possession of firearms relegated to the dustbin of history. They hope that guns, as with buggy whips and corsets, will become merely a distant memory. But, there is one hitch to the antigun activists’ goal and that hitch is the presence of the right codified in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as categorically affirmed by the high Court in the landmark Heller and McDonald cases.The Bill of Rights and U.S. Supreme Court rulings prevent antigun legislators from instituting wholesale confiscation of guns in the vein of the Australian scheme. So, antigun proponents in this Nation employ an incremental approach. Instead of banning firearms en mass, they attempt to ban categories of guns.The National Firearms Act of 1934 made possession of machine guns and “sawed-off” shotguns illegal. In fits and starts, many semiautomatic weapons, called “assault weapons” by antigun proponents, have become illegal for the average American citizen to own in several States. Antigun legislators also expanded and wish to continue to expand the domain of individuals who cannot lawfully own any firearm.With the murder of students and teachers at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida by a deranged gunman, antigun activists immediately began to harness public outrage at the senseless deaths. Antigun activists directed public anger toward the activists’ perennial favorite targets: guns, gun owners, gun manufacturers and dealers; and toward their arch-enemy, the NRA.Antigun groups might have reasonably directed public anger at Hollywood for producing movies filled with gratuitous, horrific violence and carnage. They didn’t. And, they could have directed the public’s wrath toward manufacturers of violent video games. They didn’t. Nor did antigun groups look at the cultural milieu in which we live as the true root cause of violence in our Nation: broken homes; illicit drugs; criminal gangs running amok; moral relativism; multiculturalism; historical revisionism; bizarre social constructs; gender dysphoria, a mental disorder, masquerading as mere “life choice;” and the rise of atheistic and socialistic tendencies in this Country, belief systems that are incompatible with natural law and incompatible with the idea of a Divine creator in whom an effective normative ethical system derives.No! It is far easier, although absurd in the contemplation, to direct public anger at an inanimate object, the firearm, and toward the NRA, and toward any person or business entity that espouses support for the right of the American citizen to keep and bear arms.One tactic antigun activists employ recently to achieve their ends is the “political boycott.” The way it works, is this: antigun groups attack companies that have partnership arrangements with NRA. Some companies, for example, offer discounts to NRA members. Antigun activists have coerced companies into ending programs offering discounts to NRA members under threat of economic ruin and public shame and condemnation. The purpose of these political boycotts is expressive and coercive, not economic. Antigun activists seek social and political change here, not economic benefit.The use of the political boycott invariably has a First Amendment free speech component, but even those who support the use of political boycotts recognize its danger. “Boycotts are indeed powerful. They do, in fact, have the ability to exact real-world, human costs from those businesses and individuals targeted. The concern over boycotts exists because they have consequences that might have the potential to extend outward from their target to impact a boycotted business's employees or community.” Democratizing The Economic Sphere: A Case For The Political Boycott, 115 W. Va. L. Rev. 531, 534 (Winter 2012), by Teresa J. Lee.Scrutiny of both motives and effects of using political boycotts to achieve political and social ends is warranted, lest our rights and liberties be destroyed.Use of the political boycott by antigun activists against the NRA is legally and morally suspect and, from a historical perspective, incongruous. The reason is that the NRA, as a Civil Rights organization—the original Civil Rights organization—has, as its first stated purpose and objective the strengthening and sanctifying of our sacred heritage:“To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, especially with reference to the inalienable right of the individual American citizen guaranteed by such Constitution to acquire, possess, collect, exhibit, transport, carry, transfer ownership of, and enjoy the right to use arms, in order that the people may always be in a position to exercise their legitimate individual rights of self-preservation and defense of family, person, and property, as well as to serve effectively in the appropriate militia for the common defense of the Republic and the individual liberty of its citizens.”NRA is the only Civil Rights Group that has, as its salient raison d’être, the defense of a sacred right and liberty as codified in the U.S. Constitution. And the NRA is attacked for this! There is something both odd and deeply disturbing in antigun activists’ reliance on the exercise of one sacred right, free speech, to attack an organization whose stated objective is simply to defend a second sacred right: the right of the people to keep and bear arms. See the Arbalest Quarrel article, "NRA Freedom, Join It!"Keep in mind, too, that the political boycott is not merely utilized by antigun activists to harm the NRA; it is an attack on the NRA members, American citizens. Basically, NRA members have their own First Amendment right of free speech, as expressed in their support of the Second Amendment. The political boycott is used by antigun activists, and is meant to be used by antigun activists, to squelch free speech. This is an impermissible coercive use of the political boycott.“To be protected under the first amendment, the boycott advocates' appeal to their listeners must be persuasive rather than coercive. The distinction is crucial. Persuasive speech has always been accorded the highest first amendment protection on the theory that the free flow of ideas is central to our democratic system of government: ‘the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.’ By contrast, speech that deprives its listeners of freedom of choice, i.e., coercive speech, distorts the marketplace of ideas by causing listeners to accept an idea not for its ‘truth’ but to avoid some sanction. Coercive speech also undermines the political process, since a democratic society depends upon the autonomy of those who publicly espouse a point of view and of those who listen.” Secondary Boycotts and the First Amendment, 51 U. Chi. L. Rev. 811, 825 (Summer 1984), by Barbara J. Anderson.There is, though, no autonomy between those who publicly espouse the elimination of civilian gun ownership, ergo de facto repeal of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, comprising antigun activists, antigun legislators, antigun billionaire Globalists, and members of the mainstream media who shriek at and attempt to cajole into submission, the American public and businesses, the listeners, who may happen to harbor contrary views.These antigun influences, some domestic and some foreign, intend to speak to and for the American public and for the business community. For companies that do not willingly accede to the antigun agenda, the political boycott operates as a club to coerce compliance with that agenda. The political boycott is not used here as a mechanism meant merely to persuade.The political boycott is as well, a club wielded against NRA members. Antigun proponents ostracize Americans who are NRA members. But, NRA membership is a legitimate First Amendment expression of one’s Second Amendment right. By attacking a citizen’s membership in NRA, antigun forces seek to control speech, crushing dissent. In a free Republic this cannot be countenanced. NRA members should challenge these boycotts.

 ALERT: CONTACT YOUR REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS NOW!

Tell Congress to enact laws to prevent antigun groups from coercing and threatening retaliatory action against companies that do not adopt the groups’ political views.PHONE: U.S. Senate: (202) 224-3121;PHONE: U.S. House of Representatives: (202) 225-3121______________________________________________Copyright © 2018 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.

AS TRAGEDY STRIKES MARJORY STOMEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL, ANTIGUN ACTIVISTS SHAMEFULLY ENLIST STUDENTS TO CARRY OUT THE ANTIGUN AGENDA.

ANTIGUN ACTIVISTS USE THE HYSTERIA OF THE MOMENT TO PURSUE THEIR AGENDA OF GUN CONFISCATION

With the latest shooting tragedy—this one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—antigun groups wasted little time in singling out a culprit—the AR-15 5.56 NATO / 223 semiautomatic rifle. The mainstream media quickly echoed the sentiment of antigun groups and their fellow travelers in Congress: if Government would just confiscate guns from the civilian population, commencing with semiautomatic “assault weapons,” society would be better off for it and all would be right with the world.In the hysteria of the moment, it is considered anathema to counter this sentiment or to question the underlying assumption. Banning civilian ownership and possession of firearms is proclaimed as a surefire panacea to preventing gun violence. It is recited as a categorical imperative; an irrefutable truth. But is it?Lost in any discussion about gun violence is any mention of one obvious and incontrovertible fact: that the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School would not have happened—could not have occurred—if the School Administration had simply instituted a multilayered set of strategies to harden the school against security breaches. It didn’t. The result, while horrific, cannot and should not be construed as altogether unexpected and inexplicable in the peculiar age we live in.It is an age marked by broken homes and social alienation. It is an age beset by the rupture of core values and the seeding of a new ethos consisting of a hodgepodge of unassimilable multicultural influences, including multilingualism, and moral relativism; a hollowing out of sacred traditions, the denigration of basic Christian virtues, and a perfunctory attitude of indifference over the important role of the traditional nuclear family in shaping young lives: extolling the importance of self-reliance, personal integrity, and courage in dealing with adversity; promoting a love of Country, respect for our National heritage, and instilling a code of morality and a strong work ethic in our children. This is, unfortunately, an age that seeks out and relishes instant gratification. It is an age that redefines anomalous gender diversity and gender dysphoria as a social preference, a life choice, rather than the psychiatric disorder, which it really is. We live in an age of rampant exploitation of and, indeed, promotion of human weakness, that becomes ever easier through advances in technology and communication.We see an endless parade of new, ever more violent, hyper-realistic video games. We see a continuous procession of cinematic “treats” of gratuitous violence offered up by Hollywood moguls, ever willing to exploit and reinforce the public appetite for on-screen depictions of violence and carnage—all to turn a profit. And we see the blatant hypocrisy of Hollywood actors—highly paid individuals who take pride in their onscreen portrayals of psychotic and psychopathic killers, as they engage in over-the-top murderous sprees; pretending to be adept in the use of the firearm props they are taught to handle deftly for the roles they play onscreen. And, then we see these same actors sanctimoniously denouncing guns off-screen, and denouncing, too, the millions of law-abiding citizens who choose to exercise their Constitutional right to own and possess guns for the very real purpose of self-defense—hardly play acting.

WHO OUGHT RIGHTFULLY BE BLAMED FOR THE TRAGEDY AT MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL?

Accusations are flying fast and loose as to whom bears responsibility for the cause of the tragedy. Lest the public forget—over the hailstorm of accusations flying hither and yon—the fact remains that blame for the tragedy falls, first and foremost, on the killer, himself, Nikolas Cruz. This sad, deranged young adult bears ultimate responsibility for the horror inflicted on innocent lives he lashed out against in his mindless rage. But, there are others in the cast of characters that bear a share of the responsibility.The Florida Department of Education and the Superintendent of Broward County Public Schools must share in the responsibility for failing to harden Florida schools against armed intrusions. And, the Governor of the State bears more than a modicum of responsibility for failing to secure schools against armed assault. And, through failure to heed warnings of the real threat posed by the Nikolas Cruz, the FBI, and Florida State and local Police must share in that responsibility.The other day the public learned that an armed Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy, who was assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, cowered outside the School, as the killer stalked the halls inside, undeterred. This unnamed Sheriff’s Deputy displayed abject cowardice. Had he steeled himself, as he was trained to do, as he was purportedly psychologically predisposed to do, he would have certainly prevented the loss of many lives; perhaps he could have prevented the loss of any innocent life, had he acted.

WHO DO ANTIGUN GROUPS WRONGLY BLAME FOR THE TRAGEDY AT MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL?

Antigun activists, antigun politicians, and antigun journalists and news commentators blame, of course, the gun—an inanimate object—as if the gun itself had walked into the school and commenced shooting innocent high school students and teachers. They always do, but this accusation against the gun is ludicrous on its face. Antigun activists also cast blame on the NRA and on the Second Amendment, refusing to accept the fact that tens of thousands of American citizens defend themselves and their families with firearms every year.

NRA IS THE PREMIER CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATION.

Contrary to popular belief, the NRA, not the NAACP, is the oldest civil rights organization. The NAACP was founded in 1909, but NRA was founded in 1871. The NRA has trained millions of individuals and law enforcement in the proper use of firearms for well over one hundred years. As the premier defender of the Second Amendment, NRA is at the forefront in protecting our sacred rights and liberties as codified in the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791. The mainstream media though heralds the NAACP as the premier civil rights organization and condemns NRA. Apparently, the American citizenry is expected to forsake 240 years of history and to adopt EU socialist principles that eschew individual self-reliance as embodied in America’s Second Amendment. The EU itself is a contrivance, thrust on European Nation States through a coup d’état, meticulously and deftly orchestrated in the mid-Twentieth Century, by the same “elites” of Europe that pull the strings of the various antigun groups, antigun politicians, and antigun mainstream Press in our Country, today. See the Arbalest Quarrel article, "NRA Freedom, Join It."

ANTIGUN GROUPS NOW USE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO PROMOTE THEIR INSIDIOUS ANTI-AMERICAN AGENDA.

A new tactic of antigun groups and of their billionaire internationalist EU benefactors involves the recruitment of and exploitation of teenagers as message boards. Taking their cue from cosmetic and clothing companies that hire models to hawk their products to the public, antigun groups realized they could employ articulate, photogenic students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and from other schools, to promote their agenda. We may see these groups using this technique more in the future. They know that no one would dare challenge young adults.Clearly, these students did not simply voice outrage at gun violence spontaneously. They have been carefully coached. How do we know this? Consider what they are saying. They are using phraseology and sloganeering of the antigun activists, of antigun politicians, of antigun media personnel: referring to AR-15 semiautomatic rifles as “weapons of war;” calling for “background checks;” telling the American public to vote pro-Second Amendment legislators out of Office; attacking the “Gun lobby.” They aren’t simply speaking for themselves; they are puppets of antigun political activists and of the wealthy, secretive internationalist benefactors that bankroll antigun groups and antigun legislators. Ruthless forces both here and abroad seek to undermine this Nation’s Second Amendment. They have their own agenda and they see, in these students, a useful tool to be manipulated in efforts to destroy the right of the people to keep and bear arms.Doubtless, the words uttered sound fresh and heartfelt and emphatic, even if there is really nothing new about the messages. These students would not be compelling spokespersons for antigun activists if that were not true. But the messaging derives from antigun group sponsors, not from the students. There is a sophistication in the organization of these students that cannot be reasonably explained away as an impromptu effort by students themselves. These students are dupes for a cause that has nothing to do with the students’ personal safety and well-being and has everything to do with the undermining of our sacred rights and liberties. These students might reflect upon this before allowing themselves to be employed for an agenda that is not their own. But, then, these young adults are in shock. That makes use of these young people by antigun activists even more reprehensible.

ALERT: CONTACT YOUR REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES NOW.

Tell your representatives they must not bow to antigun activist pressure to reinstate semiautomatic weapons and LCM bans.PHONE: U.S. Senate: (202) 224-3121; PHONE: U.S. House of Representatives: (202) 225-3121______________________________________________Copyright © 2018 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.