Lt. Col. Oliver North, the newly named president of the National Rifle Association, told Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning he’ll serve as a “quick reaction force” for an organization that finds itself under attack as it defends the constitutional right to keep and bear arms:

I’m cognizant of the challenge. I’m grateful, humbled by the opportunity. Someone said to me yesterday, do you think you’re Charlton Heston? I said, no. He’s Moses. I’m a U.S. Marine. And it’s a time when you need a Marine at the top of the pyramid at the National Rifle Association. It’s under attack.

Quite frankly, I have never seen anything quite like it. They’ve have hacked into almost everything that they could. They have threatened the officers, the directors, the staff. The harassment goes beyond simply yelling at people. It now includes vandalism. It’s slashed tires and broken windshields and things like that. And there is no place for that in America.

And so my purpose is to– I’m the quick reaction force, I guess is the best way of putting it. We have a message to get out to the American people. It’s a very straightforward message.

The NRA was created in 1871 to teach the safe handling of firearms, marksmanship, and protection of the Second Amendment. It’s very simple. Not out to take anything from anybody. What we want to do is help everybody keep their freedom.

In a May 7 news release announcing that North will take over as NRA president in a few weeks, NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre called it “the most exciting news for our members since Charlton Heston became president of our Association.” Heston, an actor, famously played Moses in the 1956 film, “The Ten Commandments.”

(Courtesy of CNSNews.com)