Membership Angry at NRA for Losing Vote on Gun Ban

The National Rifle Assn., stung by an unexpected Senate vote to limit the sale of assault weapons, received hundreds of calls Thursday from outraged members demanding to know how a lobbying group legendary for its political prowess lost on such an important issue.

“Our main reaction has been to try and calm our membership,” NRA spokesman Dave Conover said. “It’s one thing to rant and rave to us, and another thing to write their senators and to express their displeasure over voting the wrong way on this issue. That’s what we’re telling them to do.”

Meanwhile, gun-control advocates celebrated the Senate vote as proof of the gun lobby’s receding influence. They said that senators formerly faithful to the NRA have issued their declaration of independence from what critics characterize as the NRA’s strong-arm tactics.

The Senate action could improve the prospects for passing other gun-control bills, they noted.

“This was the worst legislative loss they’ve ever suffered,” said Susan Whitmore, a spokesman for Handgun Control Inc., a gun-control advocacy group. “I think this vote shows that (members of Congress are) less afraid of the gun lobby than they used to be.”

Nevertheless, both gun-control advocates and opponents cited the presence of a relatively new lobbying group--a coalition of the nation’s police chiefs and sheriffs--as the driving force behind the Senate’s 50-49 vote banning 14 military-style firearms.

Law enforcement officials, concerned about the proliferation of the lethal weapons among drug dealers and other criminals, pressed the senators to vote for the ban. Equally important, the police officials promised to defend lawmakers who voted for the ban against any attempt by the NRA to inflict political revenge.

“We’re tired of passing out flags to the widows of officers killed by drug dealers with Uzis,” said Col. Leonard Supenski, a Baltimore County Police bureau chief.

Supenski, a spokesman for the Major City Chiefs of Police and the Police Executives Research Forum, national organizations composed of law enforcement executives, said one of the groups’ primary purposes is to assure supportive lawmakers of protection from the NRA. “We sent a clear message to the congressional people that we will support them,” he said.

“The police were all over the Hill,” Tom Korologos of Timmons & Co., a public relations firm that represents the NRA, conceded. “When you get the local sheriff and the local chief of police from your district calling on your guy, you’ve got a problem. They know these people and don’t think of them as gun-control nuts, plus they can come out and campaign for them in their districts.”

Conover said that the NRA miscounted the Senate vote because some “six or seven senators voted against their very firm commitments on the issue.” Those senators--mostly rural and Southern--were swayed by the appeals from police officials, he said.

“In a contest between the perceived needs of the law enforcement community on the one hand and the perceived needs of the target shooters and hunters on the other hand, we can’t win that fight,” Conover said.

Jim Baker, the NRA’s chief lobbyist, was equally blunt: “We never expected to lose. We knew it would be close, but we didn’t expect it to be that close.”

But Baker attempted to downplay the significance of the vote. “I wouldn’t say it was our biggest defeat,” he said. “The 20,000 state and local gun laws on the books are bigger defeats.”

He noted also that the Senate ban on assault guns is only a part of a larger omnibus crime bill sponsored by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.). The Senate has deferred a final vote on the crime package until after it returns from its Memorial Day recess.

“The Biden bill hasn’t passed yet,” Baker said, vowing to fight the issue all the way to the White House if necessary. “There’s a long way to go yet.”

The military-style firearms subject to the proposed ban approved Wednesday by the Senate are: Norinco, Mitchell and Poly Technologies Avtomat Kalashnikovs (all models); Action Arms Israeli Military Industries UZI and Galil; Beretta AR-70 (SC-70); Colt AR-15 and CAR-15; Fabrique Nationale FN/FAL, FN/LAR and FNC; MAC 10 and MAC 11; Steyr AUG; INTRATEC TEC-9, and Street Sweeper and Striker 12.

Although it surprised many people on both sides of the issue, the Senate vote extended a recent string of setbacks for the NRA.

In the last three years, Congress has voted to ban both armor-piercing “cop-killer” bullets and plastic handguns, which would be difficult to detect with X-rays.

Meanwhile, California, New Jersey and Maryland have enacted laws limiting the sale and possession of some firearms. In each of those cases, the NRA has been an outspoken advocate and financial backer for the losing side.

NRA executives said Thursday that the organization’s membership of about 2.8 million has remained static over the last five years as the public debate has shifted away from the NRA’s strict interpretation of Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms.

“The NRA doesn’t carry as much weight anymore because they’ve gone over the edge,” said Nancy Coffey, a spokesman for Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), who was targeted by the gun lobby as its “No. 1 foe” during his 1988 reelection campaign.

“They have subscribed to the camel’s-nose-under-the-tent theory on guns for so long, it has become a hysterical view,” Coffey said. “Many Americans are deciding it’s just a ridiculous position.”

But Coffey said that does not mean the NRA has been fatally wounded. “They’re still a formidable foe,” she said.

On that point, NRA officers and their opponents share common ground. Between fielding calls from members, NRA leaders were busy Thursday planning strategy for future elections.

“Gun groups are springing up today all over the West,” Korologos said. “It might not be all bad to have had this happen. The fence-sitters are going to wake up.”

Added Conover: “Do gun owners feel betrayed? The answer is most definitely yes, and we’ve been hearing it all day long. Gun owners are going to make their opinions known.”