Ronald Reagan: ‘Those Who Seek to Inflict Harm Are Not Fazed by Gun Control Laws’

Reagan at NRA
AWR Hawkins

During his 1983 speech to the NRA Annual Meetings in Phoenix, Arizona, Ronald Reagan noted that “those who seek to inflict harm are not fazed by gun control laws.”

Reagan stood before an applauding NRA crowd and reminded them that he, too, was a member of the NRA. He praised the NRA for the work it was doing to defend the right to keep and bear arms and pointed out that a large portion of the group’s two and a half million members had rallied to defeat gun control in California in November 1982.

He then said, “It’s a nasty truth, but those who seek to inflict harm are not fazed by gun control laws.” He added, “I happen to know this from personal experience,” referencing the assassination attempt on his own life in March 30, 1981.

Reagan then said, “I’ve always felt a special bond with the members of your group. You live by Lincoln’s words, ‘Important principles may and must be inflexible.'”

He added:

[The NRA’s] philosophy put its trust in people, so you insist [that] individuals be held responsible for their actions.  The NRA believes that America’s laws were made to be obeyed and that our constitutional liberties are just as important today as 200 years ago. And by the way, the constitution does not say that government shall decree the right to keep and bear arms. The constitution says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Reagan gave his NRA speech in 1983 and no president followed suit until President Donald Trump. The NRA announced that Trump will speak at the Annual Meetings on April 28, 2017, in Atlanta.

NRATV is celebrating Trump’s coming speech in a video that features snippets of Reagan’s 1983 speech, then segues to candidate Trump speaking at the Annual Meetings in 2016, when the NRA endorsed him. The video then anticipates the pro-Second Amendment comments that President Trump will make at this year’s Annual Meetings and the work he and the NRA will continue doing to protect the right to keep and bear arms.

The video is titled, “It’s Morning in America, Once Again.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

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