Many pro-gun-rights groups say they're promoting a Gun Appreciation Day on Jan. 19.
Organizers say it's planned for two days before President Obama's second inauguration to send a message to Washington about gun policies.
They say they want Americans to "show their support for gun ownership by turning out en masse at gun stores, ranges, and shows from coast to coast."
The event will come a little a month after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting brought a resurgence in calls for a ban on assault weapons.
A website promoting the pro-gun day says it's sponsored by a coalition that includes the Second Amendment Foundation, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Special Operations Speaks, Revolution PAC, Citizens and Country, Social Security Institute, Committee to Draft Judge Andrew Napolitano, Conservative Action Alerts, Women Warriors PAC, Conservative Action Fund, and Political Media, Inc.
The news release says:
"The Obama administration has shown that it is more than willing to trample the Constitution to impose its dictates upon the American people," said Gun Appreciation Day chairman Larry Ward, president of Political Media, Inc. "If the American people don’t fight back now, Obama will do to the Second Amendment what he has already done to the First with Obamacare — gut it without a moment’s thought to our basic constitutional rights."
Second Amendment Foundation Chairman Alan Gottlieb said:
"We need to ban politicians who assault our rights, not firearms that are used thousands of times a day to protect lives and property from criminal attack."
And Ward added:
"We have never had a president who so callously disregards the Constitution, Congress, the courts, and the will of the American people. And that’s why this outpouring of public support is so important for our constitutional safeguards to keep and bear arms. If, as this president claims, the American people are at risk from murderous rampagers, the logical solution is to arm, not present a docile target."
Many other groups, including some conservative voices, support a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as more oversight of those who buy guns.