by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Facing what could be a very ugly mid-term election cycle, the National Rifle Association’s board of directors approved a bylaw change that will keep its most effective “top gun” in office into 2002.
The bylaw amendment virtually assures that NRA President Charlton Heston will be re-elected to serve a fourth consecutive one-year term. In the past, NRA presidents have been limited to two consecutive one-year terms, under a bylaw that allows a president to succeed him- or herself only once.
But the NRA board, voting unanimously Feb. 3 during their winter meeting in Arlington, VA, made it possible to use Heston’s stature and effectiveness with voters for what many believe will be the most crucial election cycle ever. As NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre noted, electing George W. Bush to the White House was important for gunowners, but retaining and even strengthening Republican control of Congress next year is critical to gun rights.
There is little doubt that Heston was an important resource for rallying gunowners to vote in the November election. Even former President Bill Clinton credited the NRA with turning out the gun vote, which determined several key races, and also denied Al Gore the electoral ballots from his home state of Tennessee.
The Academy Award-winning actor, presiding over the board session, graciously accepted the unprecedented honor. Both he and LaPierre recalled the fall campaign whirlwind tour of nearly two dozen cities in eight crucial states. On many occasions, Heston said, people would travel for two hours to attend the gun rights rallies, only to turn around and drive back to arrive home in time for work. In a few cases, attendance was so overwhelming that it caused traffic jams.
“There were times,” Heston said, “when we had to send one crowd out so another audience could come in, and we’d give the program all over again.”
Nationally, gunowners are being viewed by many political analysts as an important “swing vote” in many important elections. How that translates to what gunowners can expect from the 107th Congress was brought “down to earth” by James J. Baker, director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action.
He cautioned the audience against expecting miracles, noting in an allusion to the Clinton Administration, “They’ve had eight years to foul things up. It’s going to take us more than 20 minutes to fix it.”
Baker also said much hinges on the outcome of the 2002 election.
“The 2002 election will be every bit as important or more so than the 2000 election,” he stressed.
The board later retired to executive session to discuss election strategies.
In other NRA board business:
Director Alan Cors, who serves as president of the NRA Foundation Board, reported that during the last 12 months, Friends of NRA (FONRA) dinners had raised over $8.1 million for the NRA Foundation. This is better than 10 times the amount raised during the first year of FONRA dinners, when $800,000 was raised for the Foundation.
The board selected sites for NRA’s annual meetings into 2007. This year’s session will be held May 18-22 in Kansas City, MO, followed by conventions slated April 26-30, 2002 in Reno, NV; April 25-29, 2003 in Orlando, FL; April 16-20, 2004 in Pittsburgh, PA; April 2005 in Houston, TX; May 2006 in Milwaukie, WI, and May 2007 in Salt Lake City, UT. Precise dates for the latter three conventions have yet to be solidified, NRA Secretary Jim Land explained.