By Nick Massal S.C.O.P.E. President

“If we do not hang together, we will most assuredly hang separately!” Sound familiar? Those words were uttered by Ben Franklin almost 250 years ago. What is the significance of those words today?

The NRA is having internal problems with the board and about spending money – where have we seen this before? The NRA is also under attack by the governor of New York and his attorney general. If you did not already know it, Governor Andrew Cuomo hates gun owners! He also hates Christians and conservatives (he said so himself) and declared that they have no place in New York.

So, what do we do about it? Roll over and die? I’m sorry but that’s not the way I roll (pun intended)!

We have a Democratic party that for the most part is turning socialistic and the Republican Party seems to be sitting back, not answering the call and appears to be fragmented (look how many do not support the President). The President is an outsider. He does not “owe” people in politics a lot of favors so he cannot be controlled that way. Despite not being one of the “good old boys” he has more public support than most of them.

Perhaps it’s the news media that is not bringing the whole story of both parties to the light of day so we can all see what is going on – most of us are sick and tired of “their” spin and would like the news straight up. The media is out to sell stories and advertising. That’s how they make their money and stay in business. Both sides of the media put out a headline to catch our attention regardless of what the underlying story is – human nature.

What can we do? We as 2nd Amendment organizations need to support one another as much as possible in any way possible – we are all in this together and we must stick together. Yes, we have differences. We always will, but fundamentally we are all fighting for the same thing: to stop the encroachment on our God-given rights – the “Right to keep and bear arms”. The government did not give these rights to us. We already had them and the 2nd Amendment merely affirms this right and is a restriction on government not to infringe upon them.

Give what you can to the NRA and other organizations including our own. Call your NRA reps and tell them what you think and why. If you feel the that the executive vice president needs to go, tell them why. If you are a voting member of the NRA, know your board members and vote for those that will do the right thing. These organizations represent you and me. We need to speak up or things will not change for the better.