NRA On the Record
A customizable database of quotes from leaders of the National Rifle Association
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Member Profile
Charles Cotton
Board Member
Biography
Charles Cotton is an attorney who resides in Friendswood, Texas. He is a competitive action pistol shooter and a life member/consultant with the Texas State Rifle Association (TSRA), an NRA affiliate organization. Cotton is also is the founder of the Youth Action Pistol League, a program for junior shooters. He has served on the NRA Board of Directors for well over a decade and was also elected to the Board of Trustees of the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund.
All Statements (6 total)
- On June 18, 2015, Cotton discussed a mass shooting that took place a day earlier at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on his Texas CHL blog. Writing about South Carolina state Senator Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, one of nine people killed in the shooting, Cotton said, “[Senator Pinckney] voted against concealed-carry. Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue."
2015-06-18
- In February 2015, Cotton took to an online forum for Texas concealed handgun permit holders to comment about a bill offered in the Texas House of Representatives by Rep. Alma Allen (D-131st) that would prohibit corporal punishment in schools. "I'm sick of this woman and her 'don't touch my kid regardless what he/she did or will do again' attitude,” wrote Cotton. “Perhaps a good paddling in school may keep me from having to put a bullet in him later.”
2015-02-08
- Cotton returned from a winter 2013 meeting of the NRA Board of Directors and described the Obama administration’s support for gun reform in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in the following terms: "Americans are not facing merely a legislative battle, but a war on our very culture and way of life." 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary school on December 14, 2012 by a troubled young man wielding a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle with high-capacity ammunition magazines.
2013-01-16
2010-08-11
- On December 15, 2008, Cotton stated on his Texas CHL Blog that, “President-elect Barack Obama certainly does not support [the Second Amendment] … And his voting record in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. Congress has been as hostile to American gun owners as King George III was in 1775. What’s in store for Second Amendment rights come January? Imagine that at Lexington and Concord, British Major John Pitcairn does not shout ‘Disperse you Rebels—Damn you, throw down your Arms and disperse!’…and that the shot heard ‘round the world is not fired.” (GOP)
2008-12-15
- Cotton posted to his Texas CHL Blog one day after a mass shooting at Northern Illinois University that left five people dead and 21 injured. Writing about comments that U.S. Senator Barack Obama had made about the shooting, Cotton observed, “There it is again; ‘subject to common-sense regulation.’ Senator Obama, you cannot hide from your record opposing Second Amendment rights and Americans are not going to be fooled by buzz phrases. Your motives are clear, your rhetoric is unconvincing and you owe it to the American public to abandon self-serving, politically expedient buzz phrases. Americans know you support laws that would deprive them of the right to own and use firearms for self-defense and sporting purposes, so be intellectually honest enough to admit it.” The shooter at NIU, former student Stephen Kazmierczak, had attempted suicide three times, taken eight different medications for mental illness, and been institutionalized on five different occasions. Despite that record, he legally acquired the guns used in the massacre.
2008-03-07
Statements by Category (6 total)
Other
On June 18, 2015, Cotton discussed a mass shooting that took place a day earlier at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on his Texas CHL blog. Writing about South Carolina state Senator Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, one of nine people killed in the shooting, Cotton said, “[Senator Pinckney] voted against concealed-carry. Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue."
Sources [1]
Education
In February 2015, Cotton took to an online forum for Texas concealed handgun permit holders to comment about a bill offered in the Texas House of Representatives by Rep. Alma Allen (D-131st) that would prohibit corporal punishment in schools. "I'm sick of this woman and her 'don't touch my kid regardless what he/she did or will do again' attitude,” wrote Cotton. “Perhaps a good paddling in school may keep me from having to put a bullet in him later.”
Sources [1]
Other Statements
Cotton returned from a winter 2013 meeting of the NRA Board of Directors and described the Obama administration’s support for gun reform in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in the following terms: "Americans are not facing merely a legislative battle, but a war on our very culture and way of life." 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary school on December 14, 2012 by a troubled young man wielding a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle with high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Sources [1]
Other
Sources [1]
Republican Party (GOP)
On December 15, 2008, Cotton stated on his Texas CHL Blog that, “President-elect Barack Obama certainly does not support [the Second Amendment] … And his voting record in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. Congress has been as hostile to American gun owners as King George III was in 1775. What’s in store for Second Amendment rights come January? Imagine that at Lexington and Concord, British Major John Pitcairn does not shout ‘Disperse you Rebels—Damn you, throw down your Arms and disperse!’…and that the shot heard ‘round the world is not fired.” (GOP)
Sources [1]
Conspiracy Theory
Cotton posted to his Texas CHL Blog one day after a mass shooting at Northern Illinois University that left five people dead and 21 injured. Writing about comments that U.S. Senator Barack Obama had made about the shooting, Cotton observed, “There it is again; ‘subject to common-sense regulation.’ Senator Obama, you cannot hide from your record opposing Second Amendment rights and Americans are not going to be fooled by buzz phrases. Your motives are clear, your rhetoric is unconvincing and you owe it to the American public to abandon self-serving, politically expedient buzz phrases. Americans know you support laws that would deprive them of the right to own and use firearms for self-defense and sporting purposes, so be intellectually honest enough to admit it.” The shooter at NIU, former student Stephen Kazmierczak, had attempted suicide three times, taken eight different medications for mental illness, and been institutionalized on five different occasions. Despite that record, he legally acquired the guns used in the massacre.
Sources [1]