The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s (NSSF) Joe Bartozzi addresses recent media “hit jobs” on the NSSF and its efforts to work for the industry.
Media outlets are recognizing something that’s not really new “news” about what NSSF – the Firearm Industry Trade Association – and has been doing for decades: fighting for the firearm and ammunition industry to serve those exercising their Second Amendment rights. Without the firearm industry, the right to keep and bear arms does not exist.
We do this by fighting at all levels of government on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who work in the firearm industry to ensure millions of law-abiding Americans can exercise their Constitutional right to purchase, possess, and safely and responsibly use a gun.
I’ve got a message for media attempting to smear our mission, the gun control politicians advocating for more restrictions while ignoring criminals, and gun control groups never satisfied until the Second Amendment is abolished: The NSSF won’t apologize for our efforts or our successes. We are proud to represent nearly 400,000 Americans who are equally proud to work in the firearm and ammunition industry.
In The Halls
NSSF is relentless when it comes to safe and responsible firearm ownership. We are in the halls and committee rooms in Washington, D.C., and every state, advocating for the firearm industry and legislative policies that safeguard the Second Amendment. We battle against wrongheaded policies that do nothing for public safety and only hamper the ability for those who obey the law to access the gun counter.
We’ve fought for, and won, legislation prohibiting states from entering into taxpayer-backed contracts with banks that implement discriminatory policies against gun owners and the firearm industry. Similar legislation is promising in Congress. In several states, NSSF has fought against unconstitutional mandatory firearm storage laws, and expanding so-called “red flag” laws that deny Due Process rights. When gun control politicians in Massachusetts tried to ram through the most egregious gun restriction law ever considered by a governing body in America, NSSF helped lead the charge to force its delay. In Connecticut, NSSF – myself included – successfully testified against a proposal to mandate unworkable and flawed microstamping technology. In Colorado, NSSF secured a win when a so-called “assault weapon” ban failed to even gain approval in committee, let alone receive a full vote on the floor.
These accomplishments are just a few examples of NSSF efforts coast-to-coast. We recognize the work is not nearly done.
In The Courts
The firearm industry knows gun control efforts don’t stop when they fail legislatively. Gun control proponents use the courts as an end-around when their proposals fail, including at the ballot box. NSSF proudly meets those assaults in the court room, too. NSSF is leading with numerous legal challenges in state and federal courts.
Those include legal battles in Oregon, where NSSF is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that the restrictive Measure 114 was Constitutional. We disagree, as policies banning entire classes of commonly-owned firearms (Modern Sporting Rifles or MSRs) and standard capacity magazines are not, in fact, Constitutional.
We’re challenging Illinois’ Attorney General Kwame Raoul, over the state’s ban on MSRs there. Another challenge was filed after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law expanding the public nuisance law to allow frivolous lawsuits to be filed against firearm retailers and manufacturers by activist politicians, gun control lawyers and greedy trial lawyers. The federal bipartisan Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) was enacted to prohibit just these types of egregious courtroom attacks. NSSF also filed a motion for preliminary injunction last month against a similar industry attack by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
We most recently filed an amicus brief in response to a request for an advisory opinion submitted by Mexico to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), arguing the Court should reject Mexico’s long-running attempts to use the Court to bolster their erroneous $10 billion lawsuit against U.S. firearm manufacturers for the violence and crime committed by drug cartels within their own borders.
Bringing Real Solutions
A significant reason why NSSF is unabashedly proud of our work for the firearm industry is because we know it’s the industry that truly works toward real gun safety and responsible ownership. Our Real Solutions. Safer Communities® initiatives get little news mention but are proven, results-driven programs that have undeniably reduced both intentional criminal activity and unintentional firearm tragedies.
Project ChildSafe® has distributed nearly 300,000 free firearm safety kits, that include gun cable locks, throughout the country just since January 2022 through partnerships with over 15,000 local law enforcement agencies in all 50 states and five U.S. territories. That number totals more than 40 million free kits and locks distributed in the program’s history. The Don’t Lie for the Other Guy™ initiative, recently launched in Philadelphia, Chicago, Phoenix and Richmond, Va., strives to reduce illegal firearm straw purchases. The firearm industry-led FixNICS® campaign changed the law in 16 states and at the federal level to get all disqualifying records into the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System so the background check system is more complete and works as it was intended to. ATF data shows firearm burglaries and thefts from firearm retailers have trended down over the past few years thanks to the ATF and industry’s partnership in Operation Secure Store®. We work directly with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to distribute free literature and educational materials to reduce the tragedy of suicide, especially among military veterans. Thanks to NSSF and industry safety initiatives, the number of unintentional firearm fatalities and accidents have reached the lowest levels since data was first recorded in 1903.
These efforts, and the work fighting against gun control’s false narratives and empty promises, never cease. We won’t either. It’s why we do what we do, fighting for the men and women who make up our industry.
It’s why we’re proud of our work, proud of the results we get and proud to stand with everyone in the firearm community.
— Joe Bartozzi
Bartozzi is President and CEO of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF)
