In a press conference Thursday, May 18, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris Cox announced a two-part initiative to ensure that the forcible confiscation of lawfully owned firearms—such as occurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina—never happens again. As Wayne LaPierre aptly noted, “When the Second Amendment is only as good as your mayor or your police chief says it is, the NRA must take action.”
The first part of this important initiative consists of the nation’s mayors and police chiefs signing a pledge promising the citizens for whom they work they will never forcibly disarm them. Signing this pledge should be an easy task for these officials, as they already swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. This recognition of citizens’ Second Amendment rights should serve as a reaffirmation and acknowledgement of their oaths.
Second, NRA-ILA will be working to pass state and federal legislation to make it a crime to forcibly disarm law-abiding citizens. Penalties for violating this law will not consist of a slap on the wrist, a fine, or admonishment from a judge, but rather, arrest and hard prison time. In fact, yesterday, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed H.R. 5013. This legislation, sponsored by Rep. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), would prohibit the confiscation of lawfully owned firearms during states of emergency and guarantee legal recourse for victims of illegal gun seizures. H.R. 5013 is expected to be considered on the House floor next week. Please continue to contact your U.S. Representative and urge him or her to support H.R. 5013. You may call your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121. For additional contact information, please use the “Write Your Representatives” feature at http://www.NRAILA.org/.
In speaking directly to the law enforcement community, Chris Cox noted, “Don’t let anyone tell you this is NRA against police. Nothing is further from the truth. This is about NRA stopping your police chief or your mayor or any bureaucrat from ordering you to do what you know is wrong….Law enforcement officers should never be ordered to violate the Second Amendment by breaking into peoples’ homes and confiscating their guns.” No one—neither those who make, nor those who enforce the law—is above the law.
Our nation’s mayors and police chiefs will now have a choice—sign this pledge and stand with the law-abiding citizens in their community, the Constitution, and the Second Amendment—or abuse the power of their positions to erode, rather than protect, the freedom of those they serve.
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View and download the pledge (PDF format, 1.3 MB)
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