Not sure if any of you caught the Today Show's segment with Katie Couric and Sarah Brady (June 10th, 2004) in which they used the passing of Ronald Reagan as the opportunity to push their twisted anti gun fanaticism. This stuff really torqued me to the point of writing a letter to the Today Show's Executive Producer Tom Touchet tom.touchet@NBC.com. See my letter below and please send a message to Mr. Touchet to express your displeasure of their shameless plug for the gun control fanatics. mack

Mr. Touchet,

Shame on you and your staff of the Today Show for putting on the piece with Katie Couric and Sarah Brady which attempted to capitalize on the passing of Ronald Reagan to push the Brady campaigns gun ban agenda.

Exploiting tragedy for political gain is nothing new for the media and the Brady Campaign, but this morning's appearance on NBC's Today Show reached a new low. Katie Couric and Sarah Brady used the tragic occasion of President Reagan's passing to shamelessly forward the gun-ban agenda with deliberate misinformation. Led by carefully crafted questions from Couric, Sarah Brady claimed that President Reagan wasn't actually an NRA member, and that he "worked hard" for passage of the so-called "assault weapons" ban.
In fact, President Reagan, the owner of an AR-15, was a strong and consistent supporter of the Second Amendment and the NRA. He was a long time member who actively courted the NRA's endorsement in both of his presidential campaigns, and was the first presidential candidate in history to receive that endorsement. He appeared on the cover of NRA magazines four times. In 1983 he was offered, and accepted, an NRA Honorary Life Membership, the highest honor bestowed by the NRA.

He was the first, and to date, only, sitting president to speak at our Annual Meetings, saying, in part, "The NRA believes America's laws were made to be obeyed and that our constitutional liberties are just as important today as 200 years ago. And by the way, the Constitution does not say Government shall decree the right to keep and bear arms. The Constitution says 'the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'" In 1986, President Reagan signed the landmark Firearms Owners Protection Act (FOPA), and he never blamed law-abiding gun owners for the actions of criminals.

The backward thinking of the anti gun groups and politicians is ridiculous at best in that the criminal element cares nothing about laws. Ignoring laws is what makes them criminals, whether they are gang bangers, drug pushers, terrorists or common street thugs banning any kind of weapon for law abiding citizens makes no sense what so ever. If anything allowing law abiding citizens to own and carry will trim the criminal element greatly, as the criminals will no longer have that comfort factor of knowing their targets are unarmed. This has been demonstrated time and again by way of the states that allow their residents to carry. In those states crime has always dropped significantly.

Though I am a gun owner, I am by no means a fanatic as some gun owners are. I do however strongly believe in my second amendment constitutional right to keep and bear arms and that neither the government nor any pro gun ban fanatic has the right to amend or change that constitutional right. Disarming law abiding citizens is in my opinion a surefire way to increase crime and drag our great country deeper into a dictatorial state.

I strongly believe that I have the right to defend myself, my family, friends, and property against any possible harm and that if I feel that any of those things are threatened with deadly force I will not hesitate to use the same deadly force to neutralize that threat.

Regards,

Well said, mack. And thank you for posting the link to Mr. Touchet; we need to let him know our feelings and that we are aware of how they will exploit any possible opportunity to twist the facts for their own gain. Do they not realize that a gun is only a tool, just like a golf club, or baseball bat, or hammer, or car, or?? I can use a golf club for fun, or to kill someone. Same with the baseball bat, or hammer, or car, or whatever....its all dependant on how its used. I guess i just don't understand......what do they personally hope to gain by banning guns?? Do they get paid for every gun that isn't built? Do they get paid for every job that's lost if the firearms industry shuts down?? Or are they just lemmings that will hop on whatever "cart" seems to be heading towards "the cliff" for the notoriety?? If guns are banned, will they then be able to come up with the extra funds to employ a much larger police force to provide the security that RTC states now have?? I'd sure like to hear their plan for that........

Message sent informing them they have lost a lifelong viewer of NBC.

As an NRA Endowment member, I felt particularily outraged that Sarah "this advocacy provides me with a great personal income" Brady used the death of a most respected and revered President to promote her lies about gun control, especially belittling his membership in the NRA.

Think EVERYONE ought to jump on this one and lambast Mr. Touchet for allowing such an attack on the 2nd Amendment on the death of President Reagan.

Didn't think such protests had much of an effect until recently. Found out Michillan (sp?) tires were giving the proceeds of the sale of the Michillan Man bobblehead to a segment of Fund for the Animals. When I called an 800 number and spoke with one of their customer service rep's, he took note of my displeasure as a sportsman and assured he would pass along my comments. Figured that was like urinating upwind in a windstorm. Lo, and behold, a few days ago learned Michillan informed Fund for Animals the program would be discontinued.

Enough protests do work and get the attention of those responsible. Send in your email!!!

Thanks for the address. I sent a short email informing him as to my feelings on the content, and to tell him that I would also be contacting each sponsor of the Today Show.

DC

This information was posted over at the Marlin Owners Form yesterday. At which time I sent an E-Mail to NBC expressing my displeasure with their conduct, and informed Mr. Touchet that he owed the public and especially the Regan Faimly an Apology for their Blatent and deliberate misinformation, and their attempt to portray a great President as anything exept a staunch supporter of the Constitution and the Office of the President.

Lee L.

I wrote 2 short emails from differnt addresses both expressing my opinions in differnt words, hopefully they will take a cue from this and watch who they put on their shows from now on! i also wish that the Reagan family gets an appology!

I wrote 2 short emails from differnt addresses both expressing my opinions in differnt words, hopefully they will take a cue from this and watch who they put on their shows from now on! i also wish that the Reagan family gets an appology!
I just noticed that though I added some of my own comments, my post did not show that the main message was courtesy of the NRA Alert network. I apologize for not catching that prior to posting the message.