by Dave Workman
Senior Editor

Click here for the results of the balloting at the Annual Meeting

Leaders of the National Rifle Association are calling it the second-largest annual meeting in the organization’s 130-year history, and perhaps even more successful than the record-breaker held last year in Charlotte, NC.

Academy Award-winning actor Charlton Heston was unanimously re-elected to an unprecedented fourth term as NRA president by the association’s board of directors at the May 21 board meeting. And NRA Secretary Edward J. “Jim” Land announced that the official turnout was 47,522 members and guests. Heston’s term will run through the 2002 annual meeting, scheduled for April 26-30 in Reno, NV.

A fired-up crowd jammed the annual meeting on Saturday, May 19 to hear Heston and NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre declare that the battle to secure gun rights is far from over, and this is not the time for gunowners to let down their political guard.

In speeches that aroused an audience of about 4,000 members during the annual members’ meeting, Heston, LaPierre and James J. Baker, director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, declared partial victory over anti-gunners in last fall’s presidential and congressional elections, but also warned that the 2002 election could tilt the balance of power back toward those who would subvert the individual right to own a gun under the Second Amendment.

Later, LaPierre told Gun Week that the membership momentum is continuing when, traditionally, after an apparently successful election, members go away until they feel their rights are threatened anew. Membership estimates range between 4.3 and 4.4 million members, and in Kansas City, an estimated 3,154 people either joined NRA, or upgraded their memberships, according to figures supplied by Land.

During the board meeting, Baker noted that the “biggest challenge is the 2002 election.” He said more gun rights supporters are up for election than are anti-gun senators and representatives. Faced with that scenario, NRA activists need to be organizing their grassroots efforts right now, because many campaigns are likely to start shaping up before the end of this year.

He also noted that with legislation pending on education and other issues, “There is always going to be the possibility to get anti-gun amendments.”

LaPierre reported that “I think people in this country are looking on this organization differently.”

Small wonder, since the NRA was recently declared the most influential organization in the country by Fortune magazine, even more than the American Association of Retired Persons.

Of all the reports during the Saturday members meeting, the one that seemed to have been significantly overlooked came from NRA First Vice President Kayne B. Robinson. A former assistant police chief in Des Moines, IA, and recently-retired head of the Iowa Republican Party, Robinson is an avid waterfowl hunter. He said anti-gunners are also out to destroy hunting.

“Those who would destroy the Second Amendment have targeted hunting,” Robinson warned.

He cautioned the audience that anti-hunters and environmental extremists have actually been attracted to positions with state fish and game agencies, and that they are steadily working at making hunting too complicated and too expensive for average persons. Robinson insisted that fish and game agencies should be “graded on their attitude toward hunters.”

“They want to price us out, and wear us out, register guns and gunowners,” he declared. “There is a torrent of new demands for data from hunters…We must never allow bureaucrats to bully hunters into dropping out.”

Robinson said the end result would be to “blacklist” sportsmen from using public lands for consumptive pursuits.

“Hunters like you form the vital pillar of our Second Amendment rights,” he stated.

But Robinson warned that some hunters have become something of elitists, and that he is ashamed when he hears a hunter say that getting people to drop out is a good thing.

“That kind of elitist view will kill hunters,” he said.

Robinson concluded his rousing pro-hunting speech by noting that anti-hunters and anti-gunners may have been beaten back like a wolf at the door in last November’s election, but the wolf has not gone away.

“He’s still at the door, and you are the silver bullet that’s going to send him down the road, howling, with his tail between his legs,” Robinson said.

‘Media-Created Panic’
Other highlights of the members meeting included NRA Director of General Operations Craig D. Sandler telling attendees that, “the media has created a panic in the schools” with sensational coverage of school shootings, “when the schools are the safest places to be.”

NRA Second Vice President Sandra Froman noted, “Freedom is what we here in this room are all about.”

She added, “If there are 80 million gunowners in America, there are 80 million reasons for owning guns, because gun ownership is an individual right.”

Froman, who originally hailed from California, recalled how Golden State gunowners trusted their state government when they were told some years ago that registration of their semi-automatic rifles would never lead to confiscation. Those Californians were lied to, state government changed the law, and now gunowners face a frontal assault on their rights, she explained.

“If someone’s rights in California are diminished,” she said, “all of our rights are diminished.”

Baker brought a roaring response from the audience when he announced that the agreement between Smith & Wesson and Andrew Cuomo, former head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Bill Clinton, “has been declared a ‘dead letter.’ ”

US Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), a member of the NRA board of directors, publicly promised to fight for gun rights on Capitol Hill.

Joe Foss, Medal of Honor winner, former governor of South Dakota and past NRA president, reminded the audience that every vote does count in an election, as demonstrated by the razor thin margin that helped President George Bush win Florida.

Norton Delivers Message
Interior Secretary Gale Norton delivered the keynote address during the annual NRA banquet, held Saturday evening, May 19, after the members’ meeting. She told the audience that she is not nearly as good a skeet shooter as President Bush, who recently hosted Norton for some shotgunning at Camp David.

Norton told the audience that under the Bush Administration, public lands will not be closed off to outdoor recreation, and those lands will also not be spoiled, even while the nation explores for new energy sources.

She read a message from Bush, thanking the NRA and its members who helped him win the White House and delivered key states, including Tennessee, West Virginia and Arkansas—all traditionally Democratic strongholds. In that message, Bush also observed that the NRA’s interest in protecting gun rights will not be lost amid rhetoric about safe streets.

“Some people said we can’t protect Second Amendment freedoms and … protect our communities. My friends, President Bush is proving them wrong,” Norton said.

One thing that was not included in the banquet was the traditional awarding of a handsome flintlock rifle to the keynote speaker. Gun Week was told that the presentation took place in advance, during a private reception for members of the head table, because Heston and his wife had to depart early.

Another surprise guest at the banquet was Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. She received a rousing standing ovation for her courageous conduct during the election fiasco. Harris, who did not speak, had been savaged by media pundits during the ballot challenges, but stood firm and saw that contested ballots were counted under the letter of Florida state law.

Singers Pam Tillis and Lee Greenwood also entertained, along with comedian T. “Bubba” Bechtol, who nearly brought down the house. The banquet concluded with Greenwood’s “Proud To Be An American,” which brought all 4,000 diners to their feet, applauding and singing along.