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Senators Targeted Because of Pro-Gun Votes Need to Hear From You--NOW!

Friday, May 10, 2013

Last month, the Senate rejected the gun control agenda being pushed by President Obama and a host of anti-gun legislators, including Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.).  These anti-gun legislators failed to pass a single anti-gun proposal, leading one political commentator to call the Senate votes the "biggest loss" of Obama's presidency.

The centerpiece of the underlying bill being debated--S. 649, by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.)--was the "universal background checks" provision authored by Sen. Schumer.  Because Schumer's legislation was too severe to have any chance of passing, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) joined with Schumer and proposed a compromise measure.  When voted upon, the misguided Manchin-Toomey-Schumer proposal was defeated.

Almost immediately, our opponents began to attack some of the senators who supported our Second Amendment freedoms by voting "no" on the Manchin-Toomey-Schumer measure. 

Anti-gun New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, organized protests at a number of senators' local offices, based on the senators' opposition to the anti-gun proposals. 

It's only a matter of time before the "universal background checks" provision receives a cursory revision and is brought to another vote.  And the anti-gunners' campaign to bully the senators who voted right on this issue has only increased. 

In an effort to pressure senators to change their votes, MAIG recently began running attack ads on some of these same pro-freedom legislators.

In response to one egregious ad targeting Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), NRA-ILA released its own ad, setting the record straight. 

It is important that these targeted senators--and all of the senators who stood on the side of freedom and voted pro-gun last month--immediately hear from you as well.  Please contact them right away and thank them for rejecting the anti-gunners' agenda, and ask them to not waiver when they are asked to vote again. Tell them how important it is to you and to our country's future that they hold the line against this attack.  Then, contact those senators who voted in favor of restricting our gun rights and tell them they were wrong to do so, and that their actions will be remembered when they come up for re-election. For the roll call on the Manchin-Toomey amendment, please click here.

As we all know, the fight is certainly not over.  Our efforts to protect and fully vindicate the rights of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms for self-defense and all other legitimate purposes will continue as long as those rights are attacked. NRA members and other Americans who support these rights have come together like never before, letting their elected representatives know that they stand in support of the Second Amendment, and against taking away law-abiding Americans' rights under the false rationale that lawful citizens should lose some rights because of the misdeeds of madmen and criminals. We will not abandon that cause.

Please contact your U.S. senators today.  You can find contact information for your senators by using the "Write Your Reps" feature at www.NRAILA.org, or you can reach your senator by phone at 202-224-3121.

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Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.