by James C. Fulmer
Past President, NMLRA
“We will win, but it will require all of us to engage on the issue of our rights, to make our case with the general public, and to keep letting our elected representatives know just how strongly we feel about our rights and our freedoms.”
— David A. Keene (From the book Shall Not Be Infringed)
At the 2007 SHOT Show, left to right, Jim Fulmer, Tom Mason, Buddy Townsend and Winston Roland discuss the United Nations’ proposed Arms Trade Treaty.
The book Shall Not Be Infringed: The New Assaults on Your Second Amendment, was published in 2016 before the US presidential election. The book is written by David Keene and Tom Mason. David and Tom are both pro-gun experts and explain in the book how those hostile to the Second Amendment use polls, studies, and statistics to confuse the unknowing public. It is an easy reading book that gives you the history of the gun control debate in this country.
I got to meet David Keene through John Sigler. When John was president of NRA during the 2007 to 2009 time period, David Keene was the newly elected 2nd Vice-President of the NRA. John and I had become friends years before; we first met at the North South Skirmish Association Championship shoot at the Ft. Shenandoah range at Winchester, Virginia. John was then the 2nd Vice President of the NRA and I was the 1st Vice President of the NMLRA. John and I had something in common other than our love of muzzleloading firearms and history; we loved to duck hunt.
David Keene speaking at a prior opening ceremony for an NMLRA official shoot when he was NRA president.
It was in a duck blind in Maryland in November of 2008 just two weeks after Obama was elected president that David Keene gave my hunting partner, Buddy Townsend, and me a lesson in politics. I will always remember what he said: “It is not just Obama you have to worry about; it is all the people he gets to appoint.” The ducks weren’t flying that day so we talked a lot about the election and what it would bring to the future of our rights and freedoms as gun owners and Americans. It was a good education because I never really knew or ever thought there were so many appointees the president gets to choose.
I have just got an e-mail from the 2nd Amendment Foundation since I started writing this article. It reads “Do you care about your gun rights? Black Robes Matter!” It also goes on to read that “It is estimated President Trump will appoint 38% of all judges on the Federal bench. Currently, 112 of the 870 authorized judgeships with lifetime appointments remain vacant—33 have been vacant for more then two years.” This will be most federal court judges appointed by a first term president in 40 years.
The Second Amendment Foundation is launching a Judicial Accountability Project to help fully vet every individual being considered for these life-time appointments to the federal bench. For more information please visit www.saf.org.
Pardon that relevant interruption. In the book Shall Not Be Infringed, Keene covers many of the ways the gun-control advocacy community and the various politicians want to change what they call the “American Gun Culture.” Keene writes, “During the 2012 fight for new firearms regulations in the wake of Newtown, the four million-member National Rifle Association of America was seen by the President of the United States, Barrack Obama, as the principle obstacle to passing the restrictions the Democratic Congress sought. A major effort was launched to demonize the NRA and render it irrelevant. The President and his supporters alleged that, while the NRA might have once represented hunters and competitive shooters, by 2013 the NRA had become nothing more than a shill for the greedy firearms industry. ‘Not your father’s NRA’ was what they trotted out. As President of the NRA, I asked just how much of our budget was attributable to “industry” contributions, and it turned out to be about 4% of the total, with most of that going to traditional nonpolitical activities through the NRA Foundation.”
John Sigler, speaking at a Friends of the NRA dinner in Pennsylvania when he was president of the NRA.
The NRA is not the only pro-gun group in the country. The World Forum on Shooting Activities (www.wfsa.net)is made up of 43 gun organizations. In the book it says, “Specialty groups like the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association (www.nmlra.org) maintain social and informative membership organizations. [Keene, p.19] The NMLRA has done more and been involved in more than most of its own membership realize. It was at the United Nations that I first met Tom Mason. Tom is the American Executive Secretary for the World Forum on Shooting Activities, which is an official United Nations non-governmental organization.
Mason has represented the pro-gun organizations at every Arms Trade Treaty meeting and conference for two decades. After years of debate, “The Arms Trade Treaty” would eventually evolve into the “Small Arms and Light Weapons Agreement.” It would be the first disarmament treaty in history of the UN that would include civilian firearms as well as the usual military weapons. That is how the NMLRA got involved; it was actually including replica and original muzzleloading firearms in the agreement. When I was at the United Nations, I asked one anti-gun advocate how can you compare a muzzleloader to a full auto military weapon. His answer was “As long as it is loaded, the person is an armed citizen.” I was waiting for more, but there was no more, that was enough, a complete disarmament of the citizenry.
When Becky Waterman was president of the NMLRA, she made the trip to New York, met with Tom Mason, and spoke before the UN on the behalf of all black powder shooters—both cartridge and muzzleloaders. Did it make a difference? Yes it did, when you read Shall Not Be Infringed you will come away with more of an understanding of what has happened to our gun rights and what we need to do to keep them.
June 10th 2017, at Friendship, Indiana, during the NMLRA’s Spring Championship Shoot, David Keene will have a book signing on the range side of the club house 11AM to 2PM.
Lt. Col. Oliver North (USMC Ret.) states that in “ ‘It Shall Not Be Infringed,’ David Keene and Tom Mason have broken the code on the gun grabbers’ plot to make our Constitution’s Second Amendment ‘irrelevant.’ For all who want to protect our precious civil liberties, this book is a mandatory must read!”
