Opinion By Larry Keane
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- Our rights as American citizens, like the muscles in our body, require exercise or else they will start to deteriorate over time. When it comes to our right to bear arms, exercising it can be as simple as taking your handgun to the range.
To truly protect our rights, however, we need to have a say in who makes our laws.
When candidates for the most prestigious elected office in our country are proud to say that they want to confiscate the legally purchased firearms that millions of responsible gun owners use recreationally, to hunt or protect their families, America’s gun owners need to vote to make sure our rights are never infringed upon by opportunist politicians seeking soundbites rather than Real Solutions that make our communities safer.
NSSF Keeps You Informed
That is precisely why the NSSF, as the firearms industry’s trade association, created #GUNVOTE. Once you are registered to vote, #GUNVOTE becomes your one-stop shop for everything an American gun owner needs to know about how to make a difference in our elections. First, it is important to arm oneself with knowledge about the candidates that you will vote for and how those candidates will treat our Second Amendment rights.
For instance, the #GUNVOTE candidate tracker keeps a comprehensive, up to date, and detailed list of every candidate running for president and what those candidates have said that could impact your right to keep and bear arms. Over one year away from the 2020 presidential election, many of the presidential candidates’ platforms already call for ill-informed and extremist positions such as firearm confiscation, bans on popular sporting rifles, federal licensing programs, prohibitive ammunition taxes, and more. With #GUNVOTE, you can easily find out who will protect your rights and who is proposing radical agendas that will do nothing to improve public safety.
Get Informed, Go Vote
Once armed with the facts, #GUNVOTE will help you figure out when and where you can cast your vote. Early voting and absentee voting differs from state to state, but #GUNVOTE conveniently lists out all U.S states with links to their respective Secretary of State’s website where more details about the process can be found. For those who wait until election day to cast their ballot, #GUNVOTE will also tell you your polling place so that exercising your right to vote is as easy as possible.
Ultimately, #GUNVOTE is a tool created to ensure every citizen understands the importance of voting to protect America’s firearms freedoms. At the same time, however, #GUNVOTE is a tool that is only as effective as the people who use it. It is our duty as gun owners to use the information provided by #GUNVOTE to ensure that we bring our friends, family, and ourselves to the polls to protect our rights that, once taken away, we will never be able to truly restore.
About the National Shooting Sports Foundation
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 10,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. www.nssf.org