Publicola speculated a while back that the NRA was willing to (again) sell gun owners down the river for the gun immunity bill. Now, information supports that speculation:

Even more interesting is the fact that the NRA doesn’t speak for even its most diehard members. NRA leaders such as Wayne LaPierre and Kayne Robinson are pragmatists. Others, such as NRA board member and former Georgia congressman Bob Barr, are pure right-wing partisans who care more about electing Republicans than protecting gun rights.

The tension between pragmatic NRA leaders and the minuscule number of diehard right-wing board members played itself out in the debate over the immunity bill. According to insiders, LaPierre was willing to accept a renewed assault weapons ban in exchange for passage of gun industry immunity. But when the far-right factions of the NRA found out, Wayne’s world came crashing down. The NRA was forced to issue a statement denying any deal and ultimately had to oppose final passage of the immunity bill with the assault weapons ban and gun show amendments attached.

More:

Now, because the assault weapon issue is front and center, tensions are boiling over within the NRA in a more public way. Diehard pro-gun advocates tend to be more libertarian than conservative, and many are organizing against Bush because of his position on assault weapons — much to the dismay of LaPierre and other pragmatic NRA leaders. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has advised that if the president were to publicly call on Congress to pass the assault weapon renewal bill, it would happen. The NRA board of directors knows this and recently sent a ham-fisted message to Bush: no NRA presidential endorsement until after the assault weapons law expires in September. Bush knows that no recent Republican candidate for president has been elected without the NRA endorsement.

The author (Robert Ricker of WashingtonCeasefire) concludes with:

Given this dynamic, my advice to Bush is: Stop dancing with the devil. Leaders in the Senate did. They knew the correct course of action to take. The gun lobby doesn’t have the power to protect you if you let new American-made Uzis, AK-47s and Tech-9s (sic) flood America’s streets. Voters won’t buy a “blame Congress” excuse. They’ll blame you.

This, of course, is total misinformation and feeding hysteria. No AK47s or Uzis will flood the streets because they’ve both been regulated by executive order since the 1980s. A Tec-9, of course, is just a handgun.

Posted in uncategorized on June 10th, 2004 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |