Nra’s Brand Of Hate Must Be Denounced

It took a friend to die for George Bush to get religion on the National Rifle Association.

The question that remains is: How many more federalized friends of politicians must die before all of Capitol Hill excommunicates the NRA?

As president, Bush opposed most gun control measures, including the Brady bill’s waiting period for handgun sales.

But last week, he wrote the NRA to renounce his membership. He said he is “outraged” by the vitriol the NRA has been spewing against the government, both before and after the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. That bombing killed Al Whicher, a former Secret Service agent for Bush.

“Your broadside against federal agents deeply offends my own sense of decency and honor,” Bush wrote. “It indirectly slanders a wide array of government law enforcement officials who are out there, day and night, laying their lives on the line for all of us.”

Before the bombing, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre had sent out a fundraising letter which said federal agents who want to “seize our guns” are “jackbooted government thugs” who wear “Nazi bucket helmets.”

Bush said this insulted both Whicher and Steve Willis, one of four federal officers killed in the raid of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Bush had attended Willis’ wake.

Bush said the NRA’s words also attacked John Magaw, the former head of the Secret Service who now heads the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and FBI Director Louis Freeh, whom Bush had appointed to the federal bench.

The NRA begged Bush in a five-page reply to withdraw his resignation. But Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said, “As you can tell from the tone of the letter, it’s something he feels very strongly about. He doesn’t have to score political points anymore. But he didn’t want this kind of slander, against people he knows and respects, to go unanswered.”

For all the momentary stirrings caused by Bush’s letter, it is far from clear if any active politicians will be inspired to back away from the NRA’s cash.

Chances are they will check their morals at the door and cash the NRA’s checks.

Last year, when Khalid Abdul Muhammad called Jews “bloodsuckers” and the pope a “cracker,” the Senate thought the spread of that hate was so important that it condemned his speech, 97-0. The House condemned it, 361-34. African-American gangster rappers who wail about blowing away the police have been condemned by presidents and vice presidents.

But the biggest gangster rapper of all wines and dines Congress even though its anti-federal-agent mentality repeatedly is being used by religious cults, white separatists and militias to kill and threaten police.

Senate Majority Leader and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole said he will not drop his membership in the NRA. Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, another GOP presidential candidate, continues to chase after the NRA’s treasure chest. Before the Oklahoma City bombing, the NRA had Congress so cowered that Dole wrote the NRA to remind it that he is its man on Capitol Hill who will lead the charge to repeal the ban on assault weapons.

Few politicians, especially in the law-and-order, lock-‘em-up, death-penalty climate of Congress, would be caught dead accepting money from gangster rappers. But they accepted $4 million from the NRA for last November’s elections.

The NRA claimed victories in 19 of the 24 races it said were priorities. It gave the campaigns of new Tennessee Republican senators Bill Frist and Fred Thompson $177,227 each. New Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, also a Republican, received $108,500.

The NRA contributed to 22 of the 35 winners of last November’s elections for the U.S. Senate. Of the 56 senators who voted last year for the assault weapons ban, only 48 are back for the current term.

Of the 87 freshmen members of the House, 60 have received contributions from the NRA. The NRA has given 225 members in the House an “A” rating.

When the House condemned Muhammad, it did so because it considered his speech to be an “outrageous hatemongering of the most vicious and vile kind.”

Now, George Bush has made a stunningly strong statement that he considers the gun-mongering of the NRA to be just as evil.

But the NRA’s grip on Capitol Hill remains firm. Tragedy gave Bush religion, while an unmoved Congress continues to let an outrageous fomenter of anarchy wash its feet. There has been no vote in the Senate or the House to condemn the hateful speech of the NRA.

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