Speech: And They Ask Us Why We Fight... And They Ask Us Why We Fight... by Mrs. Tanya K. Metaksa Executive Director, NRA Institute for Legislative Action A speech to the volunteers and members of Southern California's NRA-ILA Members' Councils November 11, 1995 The flier for this event tells you that, tonight, you're going to learn what the future holds for gun owners and the Second Amendment. I'm prepared to give you a glimpse of the future. I only hope you're prepared to see it. Because if we put binoculars to our eyes to "glass" our future, we'll be looking at the past. If we look to the east, we will see North Carolina. We see the city of Monroe. The year is 1957. The Monroe chapter of the NAACP feared intimidation and violent attack at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan. Bravely, the Monroe NAACP members continued their role in the civil rights struggle. They exercised their civil liberties. Their voting rights. Their right to speak out. To assemble. Their right to associate with one another. But the Ku Klux Klan not only kept intimidating these people. They started shooting these people. In retaliation for a resistance effort mounted by this NAACP chapter, the Klan started driving through black neighborhoods, firing guns at the homes of peaceful citizens whose only desire was freedom. They targeted particularly the home of chapter vice- president Dr. Albert E. Perry. The Monroe chapter of the NAACP found the solution to this problem of violence. They found the solution not in the words of politicians, not in their government, and not in the media. They found the solution to the problem of violence in their Bill of Rights. They decided to exercise another of their civil liberties. The right to keep and bear arms. In 1957, sixty members of the Monroe chapter of the NAACP affiliated with the National Rifle Association of America. The NRA provided firearms training. And sixty new NRA members posted themselves at the home of Dr. Perry, their vice-president. When the Klan motored in for another night of tyranny, the violent hate group came face to face with the Second Amendment. Listen to this eyewitness account from one of your fellow NRA members, "An armed motorcade attacked Dr. Perry's house which is situated on the outskirts of the colored community. We shot it out with the Klan and repelled their attack and the Klan didn't have any more stomach for this type of fight. They stopped raiding our community." And they ask us why we fight... We fight, because, without the NRA, good people are shackled by chains of terror. We fight, because, with the NRA, good people break those chains, stand up to criminal aggressors, and fight their way to freedom. And we will continue to fight, because the struggle for freedom in Monroe is not just NRA's past. It is NRA's future. If we look to the South, we will see Louisiana. We see the city of Shreveport. The year is 1995. Philip Russell Coleman worked past midnight in a Shreveport liquor store. It was a rough section of town, with its own peculiar code of conduct. When criminals went into stores, it was expected that clerks look the other way while the gang-bangers took a six-pack or a carton of cigarettes. It was a street version of a protection tax. You allow some petty theft, and we won't rough you up. It was understood, but Philip Coleman didn't understand. He stopped the petty theft. He refused to pay the protection tax -- and nobody ever got away with that. So, Philip Coleman had good reason to fear criminal attack. He expected the tax collectors to pay him another visit. So, he purchased a gun under the Brady five-day waiting period. His purchase was denied. He objected. He was wrongly denied. But unlike the sixty NRA members of the NAACP chapter in North Carolina, Philip Coleman will never speak out again. He will never vote again. He will never enjoy the freedom of association again. Philip Coleman's gun purchase was re-examined and finally approved August 15, 1995 -- three days after his last midnight shift at the liquor store, when he was shot and killed. And they ask us why we fight... We fight, because, without the NRA, good people are denied the fundamental right to defend themselves. We fight, because, with the NRA, good people can organize against nonsense government schemes that "save just one life" -- and cost many, many more. And we will continue to fight, because Shreveport is not just the NRA's past. The struggle for the right denied that man is not just NRA's past. It is NRA's future. If we look to the west, we see California. The city of Fresno. The year is 1995. After spending six years in prison, Robert Rutledge was paroled and promptly returned to his career of crime, but burglary of unoccupied homes wasn't enough for Rutledge. He preferred contact sport, raiding occupied homes, especially homes occupied by the elderly. Police say that before he paid a visit to a home in Fresno, Rutledge committed as many as twenty home invasions throughout Northern California. He was the target of a CrimeWatch Alert, but police couldn't find him. Sacramento authorities said his crimes included the vicious beatings of one woman, aged fifty-three, and two men, one seventy-eight and the other eighty-three years old. In Fresno, Rutledge invaded the home of Earl and Lena Tiller. Both in their eighties, the Tillers seemed to be easy pickings. With one exception. Since the 1940s, Earl Tiller was a member of the NRA. Rutledge burst in and began wrestling with Earl. Lena ran down the hall. Rutledge caught her and dragged her back to the bedroom. 8----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Amiga Channel BBS - 804-733-5596 - USR Dual Standard 6----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 From: 2Los Gatos #1 @5080 WWIVnet Re: Speech: Fight 2 0R: net33: @6125 (via @6001) [04:33 11/22/95] 0R: net33: @6001 (via @4001) [23:46 11/21/95] 0R 34 11/19 23:20 WWIVnet 2003->4001 0R 35 11/19 00:52 WWIVnet ->2003 0R 35 11/18 23:24 WWIVnet ->12001 0R 35 11/18 23:01 WWIVnet ->5080 -------------------- defense wasn't banned, courtesy of Earl Tiller's NRA. So-called "reasonable" gun control didn't stop a vicious criminal who delights in torturing old people. So-called "reasonable" gun control didn't protect the Tiller family. In fact, "reasonable" gun control didn't do anything. A reasonable gun did everything. Something else didn't save the Tiller family. That something else is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC. The Tiller attack came just as the media were on their knees praising the latest junk science from CDC -- biased research aimed at eliminating your Second Amendment rights, slipshod "studies" funded by taxpayers like you. As Earl Tiller was aiming his so-called "Saturday Night Special" that special Sunday night, the media was busy praising another taxpayer-funded CDC "researcher." This one, Arthur Kellerman, was asserting that, while lots of folks kept guns for protection from home invaders, they rarely used them for that purpose. The study missed all those cases where criminals' fear of an armed victim encouraged them to invade another house. The study missed all those cases where the criminal fled, because a potential victim warned the invader that he was armed. Above all, the study missed the Tillers of Fresno, California, and millions of Americans like them who believe, as you do, that, when all else fails, one right prevails. The Tiller attack occurred at the same time a California legislative committee was considering a bill that would make self- defense too expensive for the Tiller family. The proposed ban is the poison fruit of Dr. Garen Wintemute. This taxpayer-funded CDC "researcher" wants to ban the exact make and model of the gun used by Earl Tiller to save his life, his wife's life and put a career criminal out of business. Earl Tiller is all the reason NRA needs to put CDC out of the gun ban business. And they ask us why we fight... We fight, because, without the NRA, good people can't afford to defend themselves against abject cruelty. We fight, because, with the NRA, good people, when they pay their taxes, won't be making a political contribution to eliminate their constitutional rights. And we will continue to fight, because Fresno is not just the NRA's past. The struggle to safeguard every law-abiding citizen's constitutional rights is not just NRA's past. It is NRA's future. If we think we are close to securing our rights, if we think we are a few years away, even a decade, we are deluding ourselves. You were promised a glimpse of the future of Second Amendment rights. There is a future -- a future of struggle -- a long struggle. Without you in that struggle, the Second Amendment will not prevail as it did in 1957 to stop criminal terrorists. Without you in that struggle, Second Amendment rights will be systematically denied, as they were to Phillip Coleman in Shreveport, Louisiana. Without you in that struggle, the Bill of Rights will be buried, not just by private dollars, but by tax dollars. And nowhere is the Second Amendment more threatened than in the courts. The courts are hostile to this precious right, and anyone here who values civil liberties should not be surprised. Certain jurists have an aversion to certain rights. I call it the Murphy's Law of American civil rights. The courts may think they rule, but the courts aren't always right. Imagine this nation if we all agreed, without exception, that the courts were always right. Then, we must all agree with a Supreme Court which, years ago, was hostile to the civil rights provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. We must all agree that people of different races should not be treated equally by their government. >From the 1890s until after the Second World War, the Supreme Court basically refused to enforce the equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment and the voting rights provisions of the Fifteenth! The court was wrong, but the people prevailed. How? Because the civil rights movement recruited members. Because the civil rights movement made friends. We were all thrilled a few years ago when an article by author Jeffrey Snyder appeared in the scholarly journal Public Interest. It was a tough-minded piece called "A Nation of Cowards." Listen to this excerpt: "Crime is rampant because the law-abiding, each of us, condone it, excuse it, permit it, submit to it. We permit and encourage it, because we do not fight back, immediately, then and there, where it happens...The defect is there -- in our character...We are a nation of cowards." Tough talk. But for all his tough talk, Snyder's prescription for success might surprise you. He doesn't tell you to bring a baseball bat to political debates. He doesn't tell you to out-shout the opposition at public meetings. He doesn't tell you to be rude and boorish with lawmakers. What does Snyder recommend? "Ultimately, it is the support and esteem of our neighbors that we must win, for it is upon them that the continued enjoyment of our rights depends." Are we winning the support of our neighbors? Or are we doing the same thing the media does to us? Label us. Libel us. Spread false rumors about us. Earlier this year, when NRA pushed Right to Carry in Virginia, we realized that we would never win without the support of Democrats in Virginia's Democrat-controlled legislature. We sought the support where support was vital -- from Richard Cranwell. He is not just a delegate in the Virginia General Assembly. He is the majority leader. 8----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Amiga Channel BBS - 804-733-5596 - USR Dual Standard 6----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5