Free To Choose Network Sign Up Information

• To view the video segment filmed at a Pink Pistols gun club
• Share a message from Alan Gottlieb, founder of the 2nd Amendment Foundation
• Discuss the basics of safe use of guns for self-protection
• Learn about and have the opportunity to shoot the black powder muskets and rifles used in the revolutionary war.

The 2nd Amendment Family: That’s you, and me, and everyone else who believes the right to bear arms is one of the rights that define a nation of free citizens. We are hunters, target shooters, collectors, and anyone who values the right to live in a civil society of self-responsible free individuals.

We are not lobbyists in the legal or formal sense, but we can play an essential part in preserving gun rights. Those whose job it is to ensure that the 2nd Amendment remains the law of the land, such as Alan Gottlieb and the Second Amendment Foundation, need our help. Of course, they need financial help, but more than that, they need us to be visible. There will always be people who are uncomfortable with guns. And others whose fears are so great that they would sacrifice their freedom for the false security of taking away all legal guns. Policymakers must be constantly made aware of the size of the 2nd Amendment Family Erie PA TV news reported that the Saturday after Thanksgiving, 750,000 Pennsylvania hunters took to the fields for white-tail deer season. If even 100,000 of them showed up at our upcoming Town Hall Meetings on Gun Rights Equality, the message sent to Congress would be powerful.

Don’t be an absentee gun owner. You value your concealed carry firearm. You couldn’t get by without your trusted rifle or shotgun for hunting. And many of you love the art and engineering of your gun collection. But when it comes to protecting those rights, you’re absent. Yes, you may give to those who lobby, but your real power is publicly showing your support. With our 2nd Amendment Family Town Hall Meeting in February and the t-shirts we’ve developed for that occasion, you can give critical public support to the effort to preserve your right to keep and bear arms.

Let’s focus on the message that’s at the core of gun rights – the right to defend one’s self from deadly harm. Freedom is a meaningless phrase if it doesn’t include the right to keep and bear arms. This basic right - to own and become proficient in the means to prevent others from doing you harm when your local policemen cannot reach you in time to protect you – is more important to safeguard than ever.

As we work to defend the 2nd Amendment, we need to keep in mind the underlying principles the Founders were seeking to advance — the freedom of citizens to organize and live their lives with as little government interference as possible.

There are constant cries to revise aspects of the Constitution to meet the so-called “changing times.” New technologies are making our lives drastically different, but the basic rights of individuals are universal and inalienable. The right of the individual to defend themselves and their property is no different now than when flintlock rifles were used to defend those rights. And now, as then in defending the right to bear arms, we are also defending the right to free speech, freedom of religion, and free press. We are engaged in that “eternal vigilance” that’s essential to the preservation of any nation of free individuals.

Our PBS series makes that argument. The Town Hall Meetings, which were organized in partnership with Alan Gottlieb and the Second Amendment Foundation, will make clear the important role of the 2nd Amendment in achieving that goal.

Please join us at one of those meetings and encourage your friends and neighbors to watch A More of Less Perfect Union. To receive notifications about broadcast dates and times in your area, sign up here.

We need you to buy and wear the “Gun Rights Equality/Our 2nd Amendment” T-shirt as often as possible. You can go here and order yours today for only $25. Be sure to join fellow 2nd Amendment supporters at our Town Hall Meetings and wear your shirt to the event.

Alan and I thank you for joining us in this effort.

Bob Chitester,
Chairman, Free To Choose Network

PS. You can contact us anytime for the location of the nearest 2nd Amendment Family Town Hall Meeting.

When there is a mass shooting, we are all horrified. But what we don’t realize is the regular use of violence by citizens who do not respect the lives or property of others. Violence is so common it doesn’t warrant coverage by news media. Yet the scale of one-on-one violence dwarfs mass shootings. It’s a daily deluge of violence that law enforcement seldom succeeds in preventing. We should be equally horrified by the total number of violent crimes occurring each week. Most attacks completed before your local police can respond.

Applying data from Pew Research on violent crime in America, there are approximately 25,000 violent crimes per week in the U.S. We should be as focused on preventing this avalanche of violence as we are on mass shootings. In both cases, private ownership of guns is the first line of defense against such crimes. In our PBS series on the U.S. Constitution, A More or Less Perfect Union, we document the efforts of some in the LGBTQ community who have recognized the importance of gun ownership for self-defense.

In the segment, it’s noted that the Supreme Court in the Heller case ruled that the 2nd Amendment guarantees the individual’s right to bear arms. However, they also ruled that the government could establish reasonable regulation of firearms use. Going forward, we must be vigilant to ensure reasonable regulation does not leave the door open for restrictions that effectively make the right to bear arms meaningless. Yet we do need to support steps to help reduce the frequency of ALL violent crimes.

Gun Rights Equality is a key effort to accomplish these goals. Citizens do have the natural right to defend themselves. In today’s world, an essential means of doing so is privately owned guns, with the right to carry them. Gun Rights Equality is an effort to convince more citizens to exercise those rights and to take the steps necessary to learn how to use a gun safely.

The U.S. Constitution has been rightly called "the greatest secular document ever written." It’s admired around the world, and for two hundred years, nation after nation has tried to copy its success. They have failed. As we work to defend the 2nd Amendment, we need to keep in mind the underlying principles the Founders were seeking to advance. The freedom of citizens to organize and live their lives with as little government interference as possible.

You can go here and order yours today for only $25.

A portion of the profits from the sales of the "Gun Rights Equality/Our 2nd Amendment" T-Shirts goes to the Second Amendment Foundation, which promotes understanding about our constitutional heritage to own and possess firearms privately. They have many educational and legal action programs designed to ensure the 2nd Amendment remains one of our cherished freedoms.

Alan and I thank you for joining us in this effort.

Bob Chitester,

Chairman, Free To Choose Network