For the pledge of NRA support, a candidate need only step forward at appropriate moments to decry gun-control activists as dupes or traitors, and, of course, recite on cue that guns don’t kill people, people do. (Babe Ruth hit home runs, too, but the Bambino would have been a bum without a bat. Oh, what’s the use?)

If a political hopeful doesn’t mind doublecrossing his intellect and shredding what may pass for his morality, the NRA (membership: 3.3 million) offers a pretty good deal. Hell, chances are the pol isn’t going to personally know anyone who gets snuffed by a Saturday Night Special or wasted when the full moon prompts the next whackinola to play Tet offensive at a fast-food joint. To reward candidate Joe Blow’s loyalty, NRAers rally the troops on election day and thereby keep the country safe for democracy–and the owners of AK-47s. As Abraham Lincoln said, it is quite possible to hoodwink some of the people all of the time. On this premise do the NRA and its political footmen survive and, often, flourish. (more…)

Guns. Exactly. And herein lies the heart of the matter. The attempt to repeal the assault weapons ban is really part of the overall effort of the gun lobby to chip away at gun control in general, including the Brady Law. On Feb. 28, the first anniversary of its enactment, Rep. Charles E. Schumer of New York spoke of what he termed our “anti-gun control Congress,” which, he said, is poised to reverse not only the assault weapons ban, but also the Brady Law. The latter mandates a five-day waiting period for background checks before the purchase of firearms; it is aimed at weeding out convicted felons, mentally disturbed people …

National parks in the United States are being held hostage by an armed gang–the National Rifle Association. If the NRA has its way, there will never be another national park until we give up a century-old ban on hunting in our most popular wild areas, an idea supported by some nature enthusiasts. With twice as many armed members as the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines combined, the NRA has made itself the principal roadblock to the proposed Mojave National Park in the Southern California desert, which the Sierra Club has fought to establish for the past eight years. The result is a clash of the titans of grassroots …

The NRA, the Washington-based gun lobby that boasts nearly three million members and the power to make or break legislators, has taken aim at the Brady bill, arguing that it infringes on the Second Amendment right “to keep and bear arms.” But the bill has won the support of law enforcement associations and big-city mayors across the country and, in March, it received an unexpected endorsement from a longtime NRA member–Reagan himself. Even President George Bush has said that he would forgo his threatened veto of the measure if Congress, in return, agrees to pass his anti-crime package, which would expand the number of crimes punishable by the death penalty …

On the grounds of the Fairfield Sportsmen’s Association, about 35 km northwest of Cincinnati, Larry Rowe looked wistfully at his Colt .45 semi-automatic pistol. With 2,400 members, Fairfield is the second-largest gun club in the United States, and usually the complex would resound with the din of shotgun fire from skeet- and trapshooters and rifle and pistol fire from target shooters.

That morning, however, an unaccustomed silence hovered over the firing ranges, which lay under several feet of water due to flooding from the adjacent Miami River. The economics looked horrible. Rowe, a competitive pistol shooter and president of the Ohio Rifle and Pistol Association, took the temporary setback in stride. But with firearms-related deaths increasing and gun-control groups calling for stricter laws, he talked about his concerns that the government (more…)

There is something thrilling to an American about the notion of force and velocity, of distance conquered, of speed and blinding light, of sound and fury. Space shots continue despite an expenditure of greenbacks that, if applied, say, to education, would make us the Japan of the 21st century, or the America of the 19th, take your pick. We are partial to auto races in which men and, these days, women, too, roar around oval tracks in scant sheaths of metal and fibre glass challenging the laws of physics and every standard of good sense. Fire someone from a cannon, and we will be there to cheer. Fill the skies …

“BANG!. . . BANG! You’re dead!” Maybe those words used to be part of a harmless children’s game. But no more. For more than 500 kids last year, those words might well have been the last words they heard. Five hundred is the average number of kids accidentally killed by guns each year. Most of the kids died when they played with guns they found at home.

Everyone agrees that such deaths are unspeakably tragic. And everyone also agrees that the 11,000 intentional gun deaths that occurred in the United States last year are another national tragedy.

Something has to be done to stop the bloodshed. But what should it …

The Yes on 676 campaign was captained by two respected and experienced Washington State political consultants: Diane McDade, who had worked on the gun issue for a number of years and who coordinated the strategy and media team; and Blair Butterworth, a Democrat whose firm, FDR Services, had handled Locke’s successful gubernatorial campaign. Tom Wales, an assistant U.S. Attorney from Seattle, served as spokesperson for Washington Citizens for Handgun Safety.

The anti-676 campaign was spearheaded by the NRA’s Tanya Metaksa, a tough political operator and seasoned campaign strategist, who commands the organization’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). She also directs the Political Victory Fund, the NRA’s political …

“When the news media are reduced to insults and vicious attacks, that suggests they have very little logic to defend their position,” says Gary Mauser, a professor of business at Simon Fraser University and a director of the B.C. Wildlife Federation (BCWF).

It was to a crowd of 300 at the federation’s annual convention in Prince George on April 13 that Mr. Heston delivered his controversial speech.* In it, he acknowledged that his views made him unpopular with many “gun haters,” as he called them. “Even today, the president of the United States refers to me as Moses,” he said. “But not with much reverence, I’m afraid,”

Mr. Heston, who …

Fortune magazine’s most recent ranking of the power of Washington lobbying groups shows that the American Hospital Association is getting noticed by the inside-the-Beltway elite.

The AHA vaulted from No. 31 to No. 13, right behind the American Medical Association, in the time since Fortune conducted its last ranking in 1999.

Since then, of course, the AHA has been part of a broad coalition of groups including this one that has pressed to reverse Medicare and Medicaid spending caps enacted under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, to the tune of $50 billion in projected new spending for all providers from 2000 to 2005. That surely must have gotten the attention of the 397 public officials, lobbyists and trade association executives who responded to the survey that was used to develop the list. (more…)