The 2020 general election is still months off, but at every Friends of the NRA event that First Vice President Charles Cotton attends around the country, members are rushing up to him to urge that the National Rifle Association get involved early.

“We’re hearing it now,” he told me at the NRA-sponsored Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Cotton said members are “always” coming up to him to ask, “Are you guys on top of this? We want to help."

"That’s what we’re constantly hearing,” he said.

With liberal, anti-gun Democrats taking the top spots in presidential polls, fans of the Second Amendment are getting the jitters early.

Last night during #SOTU, @realDonaldTrump promised always to protect the 2nd Amendment. He also honored many exceptional Americans!



At the end, Pelosi tore up his speech.



Make no mistake: That is exactly what she and her anti-gun colleagues want to do to the Constitution too! pic.twitter.com/fvoaqSQRtl — NRA (@NRA) February 6, 2020

They recognize that President Trump won by a hair over Hillary Clinton in 2016 when she advocated a new “assault weapons ban.” And they are fearful that if the NRA doesn’t wake up gun owners, complacency will take over as it did in the 2019 Virginia state elections that delivered the General Assembly to Democrats who immediately OK’d gun control laws.

“Every time we have a pro-gun president, it’s easy to think, OK, there’s nothing to worry about,” said Cotton.

But the Virginia vote “has been the biggest wake-up call for the whole country that I’ve ever seen,” he added, laying out the NRA's 2020 agenda.

Not only have state liberals pushed through several gun control efforts, but on Friday, they are taking up a ban on “assault weapons” and large magazines that even some Democrats oppose. The ban's sponsor, Democratic Virginia Del. Mark Levine, has been criticized for being ignorant on guns and how they work, claiming the difference between hunting and sporting guns is how "you hold them." The video is above.

Back in 2016, the NRA endorsed Trump and will again this year. “Trump is in the White House because of what we did in 2016,” said Cotton, who promised to roll out a large “ground game” to help the president this year.

With all 2020 Democrats vowing to ban or control guns, Cotton said that the political gulf in the United States has never been greater.

“If Bernie [Sanders] is the candidate, if any of his ilk are the candidate, for the first time in my life, there will be the biggest gulf on the future of the country based upon a single presidential election,” he said. Ditto for Michael Bloomberg, who funds anti-gun groups.

At the outdoors show just two hours from Washington, several gun-makers agreed that the election will turn white-hot on the gun issue.

“This will be more politicized than before,” said John Hollister of Sig Sauer, the maker of high-end weapons. “A lot of people stock up” in contentious elections, he said, adding, “There is a political motivation.”

Keri McDonald, of the Virginia-based Taylor’s & Company, said, “Election years are always busier.” But she added that the humming economy under Trump has also helped sales. “Our president has improved the economy, and a lot of people can buy.”

And Justin Anderson, the marketing director for one of the nation’s largest gun stores, Hyatt Guns of Charlotte, North Carolina, said that 2020 will push lots of people into buying guns. So much so that he has ordered a record shipment of AR-style rifles.

“We’ll be ready to help those good people who wish to demonstrate their Second Amendment rights,” he said, adding, “Any of the current Democrats vying to run will be good for business!”

