Nra Chief Says Legalize Assault Guns But Pro-Gun Lobby May Lack Votes In Senate

The National Rifle Association’s top executive promised Sunday to keep pressing Congress to repeal a ban on assault-style weapons despite heightened concern about violence after the Oklahoma City bombing, but a key senator said the pro-gun lobby lacks the votes it needs to repeal the measure.

Addressing the continuing political fallout from last month’s deadly explosion at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre sought to distance his organization from the actions of antigovernment extremists, disavowing any connection with paramilitary “militia” groups.

Appearing on the CBS news program “Face the Nation” at the conclusion of the NRA’s national convention in Phoenix, LaPierre expressed support for congressional hearings focusing on the activities of citizen militias, which have been thrust into the spotlight by the April 19 tragedy.

At the same time, LaPierre made clear that his 3.5-million-member organization has no plans to abandon its legislative priority of rescinding the prohibition against the manufacture and sale of 19 kinds of militarystyle semiautomatic assault weapons.

Moreover, he vowed that the NRA would seek to defeat President Clinton, who signed the gun ban into law last year, in his 1996 re-election bid.

Despite widespread public support for the ban, LaPierre said his organization would keep pressure on Congress to overturn the measure “because I think that (the ban) has as much to do with crime control as making a wish while you blow the candles out on a birthday cake.”

“The same guns are still being made,” he added. “Criminals weren’t using those guns in crime anyway. So, it’s pretend.”

But the chief sponsor of the ban, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said on the same program that she has rounded up enough support to prevent the NRA’s allies from prevailing if the issue comes to a vote.

“We have more than enough votes in the Senate to stop a repeal,” Feinstein said.

“Things have changed. As I go from member to member and ask about their position today, I have members who tell me even though they didn’t vote for (the ban) the last time around, they would not vote to repeal it because they believe it sends the wrong message.”

Noting that 40,000 Americans were killed by firearms over the past year, Feinstein said the NRA’s preoccupation with the gun ban belies LaPierre’s contention that the law is purely cosmetic.

“Then why is the NRA so upset about it?” she asked.

Still, there is no question that the balance in Congress has shifted since the ban was passed last year.

The NRA gave sympathetic candidates $1.9 million in campaign contributions in 1994, and 32 incumbents who favored gun control were ousted from office. In addition, Feinstein and other Democratic proponents of the prohibition now find themselves in the minority in both the Senate and House.

A repeal is expected to pass the House easily, where the NRA counts 224 strong allies out of 435 members. The real fight is expected to occur in the Senate, where eight of 56 senators who voted for the ban last year no longer are in office.

Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, R-Kan., who is seeking the 1996 Republican presidential nomination, has pledged to work to reverse the ban.

Nevertheless, in the wake of the Oklahoma City attack, GOP congressional leaders have delayed the vote, possibly until next year.

With the bombing focusing public attention on parallels between the NRA and the militias, LaPierre took pains to say that his organization has no direct ties to such outfits.

“We have never had anything to do with any of these paramilitary-type groups you see on television,” he said.

“The organization has never provided financial support, any type of support, for those organizations.”