Calling all gun owners to vote!

(Editor's note: This month marks the 10^th anniversary of Chuck Norris' weekly column at WND.)

Our Second Amendment rights have never been in more jeopardy than they are through this Nov. 8 election.

In June, President Obama enacted 10 more executive orders restricting gun purchase and use.

Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, was absolutely right when he explained that Obama "doesn't have a basic level of respect or understanding of the Second Amendment and law abiding gun owners in this country."

Obama's ignorance and disrespect were clearly seen as far back as his presidential campaign in 2008, when he quipped: "You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. … And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion … as a way to explain their frustrations."

Tragically, at the same time that Obama's administration has increased gun regulations and restrictions, crime – and violent crime in particular – has continued to escalate, particularly over these last two years.

The FBI reported in January 2016 that there are "significant increases in violent crime categories. Homicide was up 6.2 percent across the country, while rape was up 9.6 percent," as the Washington Post reported.

A University of Missouri study of 56 major cities conducted for the Justice Department reported that: "homicides were up 17 percent on average. Forty of the cities saw homicides increase, and 12 of those cities saw them increase by more than 50 percent."

The Major Cities Chiefs Association report concluded that, in the first half of 2016 alone, "homicides are up 15 percent over 2015. Non-fatal shootings (up 4 percent) and aggravated assaults (3.4 percent) both jumped in the first half of the year as well."

Moreover, according to an analysis by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health and Northeastern University, the rate of mass shootings in the U.S. has tripled from 2011 to 2014.

To add insult to injury, we just learned that President Obama recently commuted 98 more inmates, 42 of whom had life sentences. He has granted 872 commutations in his time in office, and he's not done. What that means is that Obama has already and singlehandedly overruled judges and juries to set free more prisoners than 11 preceding presidents combined!

The Obama administration is proof that more gun regulations and criminal liberality don't reduce violent crimes, but only cripple law-abiding citizens from their rights and abilities to defend themselves. And to boot, his increased gun-free zones further enable criminals to know where innocent Americans abide for indefensible open warfare.

Has the average American no recourse of protection? Americans absolutely do! It's called the Second Amendment. Its 27 words are clear and concise, needing no further commentary or regulation: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Could it get any clearer?

There are no two greater amendments to protect with our vote than the First and Second Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The first is about our free speech and religious liberty. The second is about our freedom to bear arms. The first is backed with bullets of the second.

God and guns are what our country was founded upon. Any new student of the Revolutionary period quickly learns that. They are what keep us strong, or what should keep us strong. Like our great military, and men and women in blue, they are there for our defense, too.

With licentiousness and lawlessness running amok in our cities, and a desperate need for more law and order, now is the do-or-die time to stand strong for the Second Amendment by voting on Nov. 8, before progressives further suffocate our rights to bear arms by strangulating the barrels of our guns through further legislation and restrictions.

Knowing that the next president will appoint from two to four new justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, the roughly 100 million firearm bearers in this country – nearly one-third of America – have a right to be concerned.

Our great governor of the Lone Star State, Gov. Greg Abbott, said in our brand new joint public service announcement: "From the White House to the Supreme Court, your gun rights are at risk. But if you vote, they will hear us loud and clear in Washington, D.C."

Our friends at the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre and Chris W. Cox, who are supporting Donald Trump for president, explained it well on Thursday in their latest letter, titled, "The importance of the upcoming election": We need to vote not only for a new 2nd amendment-supporting president, but also "work to protect our pro-gun majorities in the U.S. Senate and House. President Barack Obama would have inflicted far more damage on our liberties if it were not for our friends in Congress who opposed his anti-gun agenda. We need to protect those majorities in this election."

Click here to compare where the presidential candidates land on your Second Amendment rights as well as on crime and justice, national security, the military, the war on terror, etc. Please, also go to Gov. Abbott's and my new website: Guns.vote, and see our new PSA here.

You and I both know our Second Amendment rights are on the line this election. It is imperative that we take action now, lest we doom and encase our posterity's right to bear arms only to a constitutional piece of paper that sits under glass in the National Archives.

Gov. Abbott and I want to encourage all gun owners to get out and vote this Nov. 8. Send in your early voting ballots by mail, or stand in line to cast your ballot at the box. But whatever you do, stand tall as Americans by standing strong with us for the Second Amendment!

Chuck Norris provides real solutions to our county's problems and a way to reawaken the American dream in his best-seller, "Black Belt Patriotism."