http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/natpol/20010520/t000042386.html

Sunday, May 20, 2001
At NRA Convention, a Feeling of Overdue Vindication

By ELIZABETH SHOGREN, Times Staff Writer

    KANSAS CITY, Mo.--The National Rifle Assn.--which spent eight
years in the political wilderness during Bill Clinton's
presidency--turned its annual meeting Saturday into a celebration of
its role in helping George W. Bush restore the gun lobby to
respectability.
    "You have proven that united, you can't be defeated," NRA
President Charlton Heston told tens of thousands of cheering
members. "The will of this body can't be ignored by this country."
    President Bush, while declining an offer to attend the
gathering, sent Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton--herself an
enthusiastic gun-rights advocate--to convey his gratitude to and
support for the group. Her appearance demonstrated the new respect
accorded the NRA after eight years of feeling that it was the
whipping boy for liberal social critics.
    "Many of you helped President Bush win the election; we thank
you," Norton told the crowd.
    "Some people say we can't support 2nd Amendment freedom and
protect our communities and our rights, but my friends, President
Bush is proving them wrong."
    The gun lobby has reason to be pleased: The NRA and its
activists spent about $20 million on the last election, much of it
aimed at motivating its members and other like-minded Americans to
go to the polls to help elect Bush.
    Many political strategists, including Clinton, credited the
organization with making the difference in some states that had
close contests--especially Tennessee, Arkansas and West Virginia,
any one of which could have swung the election to then-Vice
President Al Gore, Bush's Democratic opponent.
    Under normal circumstances, NRA members would greet a videotape
of Clinton with jeers. But Saturday, they erupted in applause when
they were shown a tape of Clinton after Bush emerged as the winner
of the nation's closest presidential election in history.
    "You've got to give it to them, they did a good job," Clinton
said, referring to the pivotal role the NRA played.
    In speech after speech, NRA leaders praised their members for
making the difference in November. But the praise from Heston, a
father figure to the group, seemed to resonate most: "And by your
works, history shall know you. You proud, you courageous, you
glorious 21st century patriots."
    Many NRA members said they felt great relief having in the
White House a man who, as Texas governor, promoted and signed
legislation giving residents the right to carry concealed firearms
for the first time in 125 years.
    "I think everybody felt that, for the eight years of the
Clinton administration, we were denigrated and bashed and blamed for
every social evil," said Mark Hoeppner, 38, a family farmer from
Lexington, Mo. "With Bush in the White House, we feel better."
    During the break between the morning session and the evening
banquet, thousands of members flocked to a huge hall at the Kansas
City Convention Center, where scores of gun makers were showing off
their wares. Carol Cation eyed a sleek rifle called a Tikka Hunter.

    "I feel less threatened now than I did before the election,"
said Cation, a car dealership bookkeeper from Savonburg, Kan., who
likes to shoot at targets in her backyard.
    NRA leaders urged the rank and file Saturday to redirect their
efforts toward two new targets: defeating the landmark campaign
finance reform bill that the Senate approved last month and blocking
proposed legislation that would require background checks for
purchases of firearms at gun shows.
    The NRA and its members were the sixth-most generous group or
corporation to national Republican Party committees in 2000,
donating $1.5 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for
Responsive Politics. Andrew Arulanandam, an NRA spokesman, said the
group's total investment was closer to $20 million--including its
issue ads, get-out-the-vote efforts and contributions to individual
candidates.
    Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, told
members that if the measure prohibiting groups such as theirs from
airing advertisements during the eight weeks before an election had
been in effect in 2000, a different man might now be in the White
House--and their gun rights might be imperiled. He called the
legislation an attack on the 1st Amendment right to free speech.
    "We won't be silenced," he exclaimed. "If we have to, we'll
launch the 'good ship NRA' and drop anchor in international waters
just off the coast and broadcast the truth from our own TV towers."
    LaPierre cautiously aimed his rhetoric at Sen. John McCain
(R-Ariz.), a sponsor of the Senate campaign finance reform bill and
a legislative proposal requiring background checks at gun shows.
    "An anti-1st Amendment John McCain and an anti-2nd Amendment
John McCain will put John McCain on the wrong side of the Bill of
Rights," LaPierre said, referring to the 2nd Amendment right to bear
arms.
    Norton's appearance gave the group another reason to believe
that they have an ally in the new administration. She thanked them
for the $465 million in excise taxes from their purchases of
ammunition and firearms that fund wildlife habitat enhancement
programs, praised the group's conservation programs, and declared
her determination to be partners with them.
    "You are America's unsung conservation heroes," she said.
    But gun control advocates were outraged by Norton's decision to
address the group, calling it one more sign that a top NRA official
was right in February 2000 when he said that if Bush won, the NRA
would "work out of" the White House.
    "By sending a member of his Cabinet to represent the Bush
administration at the NRA's annual convention, President Bush is
endorsing the dangerous agenda of the gun lobby," said Michael D.
Barnes, president of Handgun Control.
    White House deputy counselor Dan Bartlett, while saying that
the president does not share this concern, underscored that the NRA
does not have an office at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
    The NRA had no record of a Cabinet secretary's addressing any
of the previous 129 annual meetings, but President Reagan spoke to
the group twice while in office. former President Bush did so once.

Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

It is interesting that the NRA has noted how essential gun owners were in getting Bush elected and ar-15.com members here so far, have seemed to be content to have just have "no new gun laws"... I wish big oil and energy companies would have been content to keep things as they were.

But seriously, if no one wants better laws or old laws repealed, then they are content with the present laws and one must conclude that those laws are reasonable... but there has always been a lot of whining about present laws, was that whining to whine or does someone have a better idea of what the laws should be.  

Guess I am just confused, it seems people are complaining about the laws and are getting out the vote to support gun rights, but once they are in power they are satisfied with the present laws and see no need to change them, just enforce them... right??

I would like to remind everyone that the House of Representives has passed a bill to repeal the Fed '94 Assualt Weapons ban under Newt Gingrich.  We will have to stay tuned to see what Mr. Bush does.

Supposedly, the NRA wrote a letter to AG Ashcroft about his position on the Second Amendment.  Ashcroft's reply stated that his position, and thus that of the DOJ, is that the right to keep and bear arms is a personal right, not limited to state militias.
Anybody want to place a bet on Emerson now?

Kharn
(I this on TFL: [url]http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=67335[/url])

You know that scene in westerns when the settlers circle their wagons and the Indians are riding around the perimeter?  That's what the Clinton administration was like for gun owners.  

MT-car, I am a member of the NRA and last year I donated alot of money to it. I look at my NRA membership as a VERY NECESSARY GUN ACCESSORY that protects my guns from Democrats. I feel proud of the little part I played in protecting all our guns from the Democrats in the last election. I also realize that there is a political reality and sometimes keeping what you have is a big win. How would you like to have the Democraps in office? You would already be turning in your ARs,10/22s and favorite hunting rifle too, if it is a magazine fed repeater. It's time to get out my check book AGAIN, the congressional elections are not that far away. Klintonsky [@:D]and the bug loving Democrats had 8 years too deal with the gas problem, blame him!

That is a point I have been bringing up for years. I truly believe that some people are so indoctrinated to tow the party line that they cheerfully accept gun control just as long as it were from their candidate.

A blade through the heart, or death by a 1,000 cuts. The result is always the same.

The Republic is lost.