by Colion Noir - Tuesday, April 4, 2017

This feature appears in the 2017 Annual Meetings issue of NRA Ring of Freedom magazine.

To say that I’m not your typical National Rifle Association member is somewhat of an understatement. But at the same time, I am your typical NRA member.

You see, like you and 5 million others like you, I care deeply about the Second Amendment right of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms. And like you, I’m willing to fight for that right.

Yet we all must come to this realization in our own way. As a younger man, I wasn’t completely against firearms. At the same time, I wasn’t exactly fond of them, either. That all changed when a friend asked me to go to the range with him.

When I picked up the gun and fired it, it was literally love at first shot. And I’ve been chasing that high ever since.

What started as a series of YouTube videos revolving around firearms in general has led to an opportunity for me to truly make a difference for freedom’s future. And as a commentator and series host for the National Rifle Association and NRATV, I’m spreading the message of freedom on a daily basis to Americans both young and old.

I fight for many reasons, and it’s safe to say that none is any more important than the others. There is simply no “main” reason to me. That said, I can’t think of anything more important than having an effective means to protect yourself, especially in a world where we are sold this idea of dependency, but live in a country based on self-reliance and self-sufficiency.We cannot let up in our battle for our right to self-defense, mainly because there are so many people dead-set against it. And many of them are just as adamant at trying to get rid of the Second Amendment as I am at protecting it!

We cannot let up in our battle for our right to self-defense, mainly because there are so many people dead-set against it. And many of them are just as adamant at trying to get rid of the Second Amendment as I am at protecting it!

I also believe that the importance of the Second Amendment in relation to defending our country from a tyrannical government, foreign or domestic, is greatly understated. We live in the freest country in the world, and there’s a reason why.

I don’t believe it is a coincidence that we have the Second Amendment and are, at the same time, the freest country in the world. They go hand in hand. Without our right to keep and bear arms, we would find ourselves in a very different looking country.

Last but not least, I have a passion for guns and a passion for shooting. In fact, I’m headed out later today for a training course, and I’ll be doing it for sheer fun as much as I am to train to be a better shooter.

Remove the Second Amendment and all the political dressing, and I would still have the same passion for firearms because I love to shoot. I love firearms. Just the sheer joy of shooting has forced me to actually get outdoors and appreciate being outdoors more. Shooting has served as a catalyst for that.

For someone accustomed to the scatterbrained nature of living in a big city, I’m thrilled to have this outlet. It’s something I thrive on. For me to lose that outlet would be detrimental to me, and would have a tremendously negative effect on my well-being. Naturally, I’m going to fight for something that has that much of a positive effect in my life.

Through all my activism the past several years, I’ve come under plenty of attack—mainly from liberals who call me an “Uncle Tom” or somehow portray me as betraying black Americans by my advocacy for the Second Amendment. That doesn’t even make sense. Is my entire identity as a black man based on my gun ownership? Some of the most influential black individuals in history have advocated for the use of firearms, so how come when I do it, I’m vilified?

In truth, the Second Amendment is for all Americans. In the Second Amendment where it states, “The right of the people to keep and bear arms,” the “people” refers to all of us—you, me, the white rural resident, the black inner-city resident, and all Americans in between.

I’m thankful to be living in the freest country in the world. And I’ll continue to fight to make sure that those who would diminish the scope of the Second Amendment are not successful in their fight against freedom.

Colion Noir is a gun rights activist, lawyer, member of the National Rifle Association, and the host of the web series “CN Live” and “Noir” on NRA’s live streaming network, NRATV.com.