| WASHINGTON
- October 20 -"Now, (Al Gore is) saying 'I'm with you guys on guns.' In any
other time or place you'd be looking for a lynching mob." The crowd
responded with "let's do it" and "I've got a rope."
-- The Grand Rapids Press, October 17, 2000 quoting NRA president
Charlton Heston and describing audience reaction.
Handgun Control released a new report today, "The Gun Lobby and
Race: Thinly-Veiled Bigotry," revealing the extremist message of
the gun lobby. The report shows a clear pattern of appealing to
violence, racism and bigotry through National Rifle Association
(NRA) official speeches and literature. Just this week NRA
president Charlton Heston used words tinged with racist overtones.
Despite often bragging of his presence at the 1963 March on
Washington with Martin Luther King, thinly veiled hateful and
racist arguments have been a staple of his public appearances for
several years. In a 1997 speech titled "Fighting the Culture War in
America," Heston provided some insight into the NRA's apparent
message:
"Mainstream America is counting on you to draw your sword and
fight for them. These people have precious little time to and
resources to battle misguided Cinderella attitudes, the fringe
propaganda of the homosexual coalition, the feminists who preach
that it is a divine duty for woman to hate men, blacks who raise a
militant fist with one hand while they seek preference with the
other..."
Heston's words were even quoted on former Ku Klux Klan Wizard
David Duke's Web site.
In response to Heston's statements Sarah Brady said, "Heston's
incendiary remarks, tantamount to calling for the lynching of a
sitting Vice President of the United States, are incredibly
frightening and dangerous. Heston speaks a language of violence and
hate. Do the leaders of the NRA feel they need a message riddled
with hate to accomplish their extremist legislative agenda? When
the gun lobby ties racism and hatred to their political and
legislative agenda, America loses. My husband was seriously
wounded in an attack on President Ronald Reagan. Incendiary words
often have violent results. I call on George W. Bush to denounce
the violent and abhorrent language of his supporters directed
against the Vice President of the United States. "
James Jay Baker, the NRA's top lobbyist, has publicly said that
Governor George W. Bush has never denied the NRA any of its agenda.
Bush has eased restrictions on carrying handguns while presiding
over lax enforcement of gun laws and tolerating armed felons. Bush
heeded an NRA call to allow handguns inside places of worship,
hospitals and nursing homes. And Texas ranks number one in the
country for gun shows, providing criminals with easy access to
guns. In the words of Nina Butts of Texans Against Gun Violence,
"What the NRA wants, Bush gives. What the NRA doesn't want, he
defeats."
Paul Blackman, NRA director of research, has written that
inner-city violence, which kills predominantly young black males,
is good for society. In his 1994 paper, "The Federal Factoid
Factory on Firearms and Violence: A Review of CDC Research and
Politics," Blackman dismisses public health researchers who have
decried the $20-billion-a-year medical costs and loss of
productivity costs of firearm violence, arguing that since young
homicide victims are "frequently criminals themselves and/or drug
addicts or users," he argues their deaths offer "net gains" to
society.
In a startling statement, Jeff Cooper, NRA board member and
columnist for the NRA's flagship publication, the American
Rifleman, noted in 1991 "the consensus is that no more than five to
ten people in a hundred who die by gunfire in Los Angeles are any
loss to society. These people fight small wars amongst themselves.
It would seem a valid social service to keep them well-supplied
with ammunition."
Heston is calling his crusade "a holy war." George W. Bush,
according to the NRA's Baker, has been only too eager to answer
Heston's call. In the words of NRA vice president Kayne Robinson,
"If we win, we'll have a president where we work out of their
office."
Handgun Control, chaired by Sarah Brady, was founded in 1974 by
Dr. Mark Borinsky and N.T. "Pete" Shields, two victims of gun
violence. Based in Washington, D.C., HCI works with law
enforcement, public health, religious, and community groups across
the country to strengthen and protect federal, state and local gun
control laws, but does not seek to ban all guns. HCI has more than
400,000 members nationwide, making it the nation's largest
citizens' gun control lobbying organization. More information about
HCI and its sister organization, the Center to Prevent Handgun
Violence, can be found on our Web site at http://www.handguncontrol.org
and
http://www.bushandguns.com
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