This is it. This is the last Point Blank you will receive before the November election. And this is your last chance to influence the outcome of that election.

How can I do that? How can I act to protect my right to keep and bear arms? What can I do to preserve that right for my children and my grandchildren?

The two major parties have made it easy for us this year. Their platforms both addressed the gun issue. The Democrats want to license gun owners and register guns. They want to bring guns under arbitrary and nebulous “consumer safety” rules, rules that would price many citizens right out of the self-defense market, rules that would significantly degrade the reliability of the firearm you choose to protect your family.

The Republicans have reaffirmed the right of self-defense. They have called for the prosecution of criminals, not of honest, law-abiding gun owners. And they have called for gun safety education in our schools, the only true method of “gunproofing” our children.

The top ticket candidates have made it equally easy. Al Gore and Joe Lieberman have never met a gun control law they didn’t like, support, and vote for. On the other hand, as Governor of Texas, George W. Bush has supported – and signed – every pro-gun bill presented to him by the state legislature, and told legislative leaders not to bother forwarding anti-gun bills. Dick Cheney’s voting record on the gun issue while he was in Congress is right up there at the top of the list, an A+.

The next President of the United States is going to be Al Gore or George Bush, not Pat Buchanan, not Ralph Nader, not some other fourth, fifth or sixth party candidate.

The Clinton-Gore Administration has stated its position on the Second Amendment in courtroom testimony in the Emerson case and in letters to legislators: they say it does NOT protect an individual right, just the right of the states to form militias. That gives them clear sailing in enforcing any gun control law they can push through Congress. Is that YOUR interpretation of the Second Amendment?

VOTE! Get to the polls on November 7 and VOTE. Or get that absentee ballot in the mail BEFORE Election Day. Make sure your spouse has voted. Adult children? Be sure they vote, too. Co-workers? Hunting buddies? Make sure they know the issues, and encourage them to vote.

The polls being published as this is written indicate this will be the closest election since the 1960 John Kennedy-Richard Nixon race. EVERY vote counts. Your future, your children’s future, your grandchildren’s future is at stake. VOTE.