Wilson Assails NRA in Speech

Gov. Pete Wilson berated the National Rifle Assn. on Thursday, charging that the gun lobby committed an “inexcusable slander” by referring to federal agents as “jackbooted government thugs” in a recent fund-raising letter.

Wilson said he agreed with former President George Bush, who triggered a national tempest last week when he resigned his lifetime NRA membership in a letter expressing outrage that the group had not repudiated its letter.

On Wednesday, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, after earlier defending the group’s letter, issued an apology. La Pierre said the letter was not intended to apply to all federal law enforcement officers, only to isolated actions primarily committed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Wilson still said the group’s action was inexcusable, but he acknowledged its apology in comments Thursday to the annual gathering of hundreds of uniformed police officers from throughout California to honor their slain comrades. The governor’s speech was read by California Highway Patrol Commissioner Maurice Hannigan because Wilson is still recovering from minor throat surgery that he underwent more than a month ago. Wilson was standing nearby.

“Not only is it a grotesque smear, but, in fact, it gives comfort to the real thugs--the brutal animals who take innocent lives,” the governor’s speech said. “It’s an insult to every officer who daily puts on a badge and hits the street to protect our right to life and liberty. The NRA has had the decency to apologize. They are right to recognize that the apology was owed and needed.”

Wilson, who is preparing to officially announce his campaign for the White House, joined some of his fellow Republican candidates in calling the NRA’s language inappropriate. But the California governor’s speech was distinguished by its blunt and angry tone, especially compared to comments from his leading rivals, Texas Sen. Phil Gramm and Kansas Sen. Robert Dole.

On Thursday, Dole said on the Senate floor that he is pleased that the NRA apologized for its statement, adding that “they should not have used some of that language in the first place.”

The Senate majority leader has declined to resign his NRA membership and, previously, he had appealed to the gun lobby’s members by making a controversial promise to seek a repeal of the federal ban on assault weapons passed last year.

*

Gramm is not an NRA member, but he is one of the top congressional recipients of the group’s political donations. He is scheduled to be a keynote speaker at the NRA’s national convention this week. In an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Gramm was asked whether he would repudiate the NRA language.

“I didn’t say it was OK and I didn’t say I agree with it and I certainly didn’t say I support it,” Gramm responded.

In contrast to his rivals, Wilson has not been supported by the NRA in his past California elections to the U.S. Senate or the governor’s office. Aides said Wilson split with the gun lobby on a few major issues, including his support for federal legislation to ban armor-piercing bullets, a waiting period for the purchase of handguns and the ban on assault weapons.

In his speech to the peace officers Thursday, at which the names of 13 recently killed officers were added to a memorial near the state Capitol, the governor reached out to families of victims by describing his own experiences. In the comments read by Hannigan, Wilson recalled that his mother was 18 months old when her father, a Chicago police officer, was killed in the line of duty.

“Pete Wilson’s mother grew up in a fatherless home--Pete Wilson never knew his grandfather--because some young punk with a gun took his life,” Hannigan read.

In the call for a crackdown on domestic terrorism after the Oklahoma City bombing, Wilson said he supports legislation granting more investigative powers to law enforcement agencies. And he repeated his call to build more prisons, toughen criminal sentencing laws and strengthen the death penalty.

“If keeping prisoners locked up means building more prisons, then we must build them,” Wilson’s speech said. “It’s not what we want to do; it’s what we must do.”