The National Rifle Association has unleashed a multimillion-dollar TV advertising campaign that its longtime leader says is aimed at messaging beyond gun rights and reaching middle-class mothers, minorities and other Americans “who believe our country is off the rails.”

The gun lobby’s campaign, launched in the last 10 days, uncharacteristically delves into issues far beyond the Second Amendment to explore the IRS scandal, media elitism and security vulnerabilities, with a call to return “good guys” to power.

“This campaign is a gathering of shared values that gives a sense of right and wrong,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told The Washington Times in an interview. The collection of issues the ads confront are representative of the conversations Mr. LaPierre said he has had throughout the country with NRA members and concerned citizens.

In Mr. LaPierre’s 36-year career as a policy activist, he feels the American public has never been more worried about this country’s future.

“They’re worried the character of the country is at risk. It’s all collapsing,” Mr. LaPierre said. “They care about their Second Amendment freedoms but understand that all freedoms are connected.”

The first ad in a 16-ad series lays out a simple question to the American public: “Do you still believe in the good guys?”

It continues: “It takes courage to be free — a special kind of backbone to reject the world that surrounds you, to sign your name where everyone can see it, to believe that there is always a right choice and an honest consequence,” three narrators — an African-American man, a white man and a woman, who are all NRA members — explain. (more…)