shallit@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Jeff Shallit) (01/06/85)
>> = Jeff Shallit > = Karl Kleinpaste >> The NRA USED to be a responsible sporting organization. >We still are. In the words of President Reagan at an address to the 1983 NRA >annual convention: > >"No group does more to promote gun safety and respect for the laws of this >land than the NRA." [October 1984 *American Rifleman*, page 7, Carter's HWS >column.] > Pardon me while I chuckle. Quoting Ronald Reagan on the responsibility of the NRA is a little like quoting Adolf Hitler on Goering's humane treatment of the Jews: the response you'd get is quick, predictable, and deliberately fashioned to mislead. For chrissakes, Reagan is a MEMBER of the NRA (since 1972). Of course he thinks the NRA promotes gun safety and respect for the laws--he also thinks Ed Meese would make a good Attorney General. Look, the man got shot in the chest with a bullet from a gun aimed by a man with a psychiatric history--a gun the man could NOT have purchased so easily if we had strict Federal controls--and still was able to say with a straight face that handgun control is bad idea. If so, then NO handgun control is an even worse idea. The NRA likes to portray itself as a **sporting organization**. This is the propaganda it feeds to its 2.8 million members, and they believe it. The truth is, 15 years ago it used to be such an organization. Since 1968, however, it has spent a dramatically increasing percentage of its budget on lobbying and political activites, which are decidedly NOT the function of a sporting organization. Item: 22% of the NRA's $53 million in yearly expenditures go to the lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action. Item: NRA's president, Neal Knox, has said that the NRA would support repeal of ALL gun laws, but it's not politically feasible at present. The NRA has FIVE fulltime lobbyists. Item: The NRA has very strong ties to the handgun manufacturers, who make 2.6 million handguns annually. Here are five paragraphs from "Guns Don't Die--People Do" by Pete Shields: In early 1977, some old-guard members urged the NRA to move out of Washington and reestablish itself out west. Colorado was the favored site. Some cited the high-crime rate in Washington as the reason for the move, while others mentioned the need to become better identified (re-identified?) as an organization of sportsmen. The proposal resulted in increasing bickering between the hardliners, who felt the NRA's chief responsibility was to fight gun legislation, and the old guard, who wanted the NRA to return to early, less-acrimonious days. Only those life members who actually attend the annual convention are allowed to vote--which works out to roughly a thousand of the 1.8 million members. [Now about 2.8 million -- JS]. It is not hard to see how a strong, yet tiny faction could actually control the organization. Indeed, that's exactly what happened in 1977 when a group of hard-line members took over, ousting the old-guard group. Since 1977, the organization has been rabidly anti-control. As the Washington Star put it, in its recent series: "The old leaders, accused of being a bunch of environmentalists and bird-watchers who had become soft on pistol control, learned that the issue could be as hazardous for them as it could for the members of Congress on the NRA's political hit list." Regarding the strange election setup, the Star quoted an officer of the California Rifle and Pistol Association, who was ousted in the 1977 purge, on the point that the largest number of members ever to show up at a convention was 1,248 in 1980--which represented less than half of one percent of the eligible voters. "The way they've set it up," said Michael Opsitnik, "they can take over a $50-million organization with 625 votes. The Federation says this is election by the members. We say...if they call this election by the members, they must have studied politics in Russia." So much for the "sporting" activities of the NRA. Its 2.8 million members have little control over the rabid, hard-line policies of its leadership. I feel sorry for Karl. He is a victim of propaganda, and doesn't realize it, much as members of the German Army had little or no idea what genocide their leaders were participating in. He has a choice, though. He can read the news and become better informed. Jeff Shallit University of Chicago
rjb@akgua.UUCP (R.J. Brown [Bob]) (01/11/85)
Mr Shallit,
Is it really necessary to bring up that scumbag Hitler
and compare him to RR on the issue of gun control ?
Do you swat flies with a nine pound hammer ?
Bob Brown {...ihnp4!akgua!rjb}