By Attilio A. Contini 

   I just finished reading the December issue of IMPRIMIS.  I am sure many members of SCOPE also get the Hillsdale College publication.  This month it had a piece entitled “Three Lessons of Statesmanship”, written by President Larry P. Arnn.  He talks about Winston Churchhill, the stage leading up to and after WWII, of course Statesmanship, and the situation we face today here in the United States.  His point that draws me to refer to the article is: That the majority of people here in the US today say that they are afraid of our Government.  Truer words have never been said! Why does SCOPE exist?  Because we fear what our State Government has been doing for the past fifty years.  The problem has grown sublimely and reached a point on 1/19/2013 (The SAFE ACT) that some of us believe is a crisis.  We tried to stop and reverse the situation.  For practical purposes we have failed miserably.  Cuomo and his henchmen secretly and quickly passed The SAFE ACT in a couple of days.  It will have far reaching consequences very soon.  Even most of our so called friends in the State Legislature have been ignoring us for almost four years now.  Some of our worst fears will be falling into place in the coming months.  

   Like Churchill in 1940, will we have to take an “absolute stand for our homeland” (our Constitutional Rights) “knowing that utter defeat is possible”.  Churchill and Great Britain, had a savior; the United States of America.  Who do we have?  We have the numbers: Four million strong. But, we don't seem to have the will, motivation, sense of urgency, or leadership.  I thought SCOPE was that leadership but we seem to have fizzled out.  After almost five years most of our numbers don't seem to know what is going on.  Only last week I was talking to a very astute 78 year old friend, a gun owner, who didn't have a clue about the SAFE ACT and his need to re-certify.  On top of that he never votes.  What are we waiting for?  Some people seem to think we are going to magically defeat Cuomo in November 2018 and elect a pro Constitutional Rights, pro gun Legislature.  I don't think so!  The Republican Party doesn't even have a candidate to challenge Cuomo.  I doubt they will have candidates to primary all the RINO's in the Senate and Assembly.  To add insult to injury even if they did, it will be very hard to reverse the impact of the results of the SAFE ACT being implemented between now and January 2019.  

   We cannot and should not accept defeat to a minority.  Like Churchill warned, Our Government has grown totally unaccountable.  We need a “Strategy For Commitment and Freedom”.  Like it or not we have a war on our hands in this State.  We need the “protection of the rights of We the People to control our Government”.  We need it now and fast otherwise we will lose it forever.  We desperately need someone to step forward and be a leader like Winston Churchill was.  We need to unite, sit down, redefine our plan of action, mobilize, and make that plan work!