On May 5 David Frum tweeted that the message of Cinco de Mayo is that repelling a tyranny requires a “proper army” rather than “a bunch of NRA members.”

His tweet:

Message of CInco de Mayo: if your country is invaded by tyrants, you want a proper army to stop them, not a bunch of NRA members — David Frum (@davidfrum) May 5, 2013

Frum sent this tweet exactly one week after numerous speakers at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum reaffirmed our Founding Fathers’ intention that U.S. citizens were armed to repel a tyranny. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) stressed this message when reminding NRA members why the right to keep and bear arms is so important.

Cruz said:

When the Second Amendment was drafted it wasn’t about hunting. Hunting is a lot of fun. In Texas I enjoy hunting. Target shooting is great fun. The Second Amendment is not about target shooting either. The reason the Second Amendment is in the Bill of Rights is because the Second Amendment reflects the fundamental right of each and every one of us to protect our homes and our families and our children from anyone that would seek to do them harm. And the Second Amendment was also designed as a check on government tyranny. That an armed citizenry is a free and independent citizenry empowered to defend our fundamental liberties.

Cruz’s words are a reflection of James Madison’s message in Federalist 46, wherein Madison explained that Americans are exceptional because armed, and the citizens’ right to bear arms ensures that they can band together to repel tyranny from an overreaching central government.

Looked at in another light, Frum’s tweet is reminiscent of the kind of haughty statements made by British military leadership during the American Revolution. After all, that was a war in which new world colonists–largely unorganized and without military training, particularly in the South–rose up to defeat a well-ordered and fully militarized British Army. Their motivation was freedom through victory; they were determined to cast off the yoke of King George III, with its myriad taxations and the subsequent deprivation of liberty.

The NRA’s fight is likewise a fight for freedom–and it is one they are winning. Commentators like Frum and would-be despots who believe the American people are willing to trade their freedom for an overbearing government have missed, not only the last 10 years of the NRA’s expansion in members and power, but law-abiding American gun owners’ determination to live in liberty’s shadow.

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.