Right now, article drafts are quietly being deleted in newsrooms around the country. A number of op-eds and think pieces had gleefully noted that “despite pouring more money into an election that at any point in the organization’s 145-year history, the National Rifle Association was unable to make a difference,” and that the NRA’s five million members were “just paper tigers after all.”

Delete.

Hillary challenged 110 million gun owners and the @NRA.

Oops.#ElectionNight

— Bob Owens (@bob_owens) November 9, 2016

After all, the NRA was the first major organization to stand behind Trump.

I stood and watched in Louisville on May 20 as Chris Cox of the NRA-ILA leadership forum made that endorsement.

https://youtu.be/4Q-xnh_zL6Y

Not all of the NRA was thrilled with that decision—I’ll be honest and admit that I was not based upon Mr. Trump’s prior statements supporting gun control—but the NRA and the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) committed to pouring their efforts into supporting Mr. Trump’s campaign, and defeating Hillary Clinton, who had declared that the nation’s oldest civil rights group and gun safety organization was her “enemy.”

They poured in well over $14 million dollars, more than the largest pro-Trump super PAC, and they clearly made a huge impact on 110+ million American gun owners who saw Hillary Clinton as the threat not to just the Second Amendment, but the rule of law itself.

In electing Donald Trump as president, American voters “sent a loud and clear message” that gun rights are to be protected, the National Rifle Association’s chief lobbyist said.

“In the face of threats against their constitutional freedoms, NRA members and Second Amendment supporters rallied to elect a pro-gun president,” Chris Cox said in a statement. “Trump’s victory repudiates the assertion by gun control advocates that the political calculus regarding the Second Amendment has changed.”

The NRA spent millions in advertisement during the presidential election cycle. A $5 million campaign launched in September highlighted focused on a potential Hillary Clinton presidency and how, the NRA said, her administration would threaten the Second Amendment.

Trump told Cox in September that he planned to nominate Supreme Court justices who will preserve Second Amendment rights.

“Terrorists should not be able to buy guns, legally or illegally. Period,” Trump said. “At the same time, we have to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans. These are not mutually exclusive ideas – we can do both.”

Congratulations, President-elect @realDonaldTrump, on your hard-fought victory! #2A pic.twitter.com/Ju6J9YH43s

— NRA (@NRA) November 9, 2016

The five million men and women of the National Rifle Association told the world that they would “Stand and Fight” against Hillary Clinton and her plans to gut the natural human right to keep and bear arms for self defense.

The stood and fought and won.

This morning, Donald J. Trump is the President-Elect. On January 20, 2017, he will become the 45th President of the United States. He will certainly remember who helped propel him to office, and the promises he made to respect our right to bear arms.

Early yesterday evening, the vast majority of pundits in the mainstream media were cautiously optimistic that the night would bring them both the election of Hillary Clinton and the decimation of the Second Amendment.

They didn’t could on America, and they didn’t count on the NRA.