Wednesday, I wrote about Representative Virgil Goode's (R-VA) letter to the White House, urging Bush to direct the Department of "Justice" to withdraw its Heller brief. That brief basically says, you'll remember, that while the "right of the people to keep and bear arms" is, indeed, a right of the people (the Brady Bunch's Dennis Hennigan notwithstanding), "shall not be infringed" actually means . . . well, nothing, apparently.

In an update, I finally caught up with the fact that another Virginia congressman, Representative Eric Cantor, had already spoken out against that brief, and is circulating an online petition along similar lines.

Now, Gun Owners of America asks that we urge the NRA to step up the pressure on members of Congress to sign Rep. Goode's letter.

As you know, Rep. Virgil Goode is rounding up other members of the U.S. House of Representatives to join with him on his letter to the President asking him to withdraw that brief.

Gun Owners of America has taken the lead in building public awareness of the Solicitor General's action, and the need to urge all members of Congress to support Rep. Goode's efforts.

We know it is imperative for the NRA to encourage their members to weigh in with their representatives on behalf of Rep. Goode.

It would be very helpful if you -- and as many gun owners as you can recruit to help -- would call the NRA and urge them to publicly encourage members of Congress to join with Rep. Goode by signing his letter to the White House.

The toll-free number to call at the NRA is 800-392-8683. To maximize your effort, please call rather than e-mail.

For your information, the GOA press release that explains what is wrong with the administration's brief is here.

While I agree with the GOA that a phone call probably has more impact than an email, I see no harm in contacting the NRA by both methods--their email address is ila-contact@nrahq.org.

Gun Owners of America catches a lot of heat for being unwilling to play nice with the NRA. Perhaps there is some merit to such criticism. In this case, though, GOA is implicitly acknowledging the NRA's importance in the fight to defend the Second Amendment.

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