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NRA has its own homeland security plan
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
NRA has its own homeland security plan
Group suggests arming pilots, IDing and detaining noncitizens
Robert Salladay, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, April 28, 2002
Reno -- The National Rifle Association leadership offered a scathing critique yesterday of two of President Bush's most prominent actions -- beefed-up airport security after Sept. 11 and campaign finance reform -- even as they took credit for getting Bush elected.
Tens of thousands of NRA members, mostly from California and Nevada, crowded into the convention center for their annual gun-and-gadget show and political rally. The response to Sept. 11, NRA leaders warned, allowed the federal government to erode freedom, particularly when boarding airplanes.
To huge applause, Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, told the crowd that commercial airline pilots should be allowed to carry guns, and that the government should identify and stop noncitizens, not ordinary Americans, at airports.
"The first target of homeland security shouldn't be the people of our homeland," LaPierre said. "It should be the kinds of people who are not citizens of the homeland, who don't belong in our homeland."
Although LaPierre did not advocate allowing passengers to carry concealed weapons on airplanes, he warned the crowd that the new government rush to install metal detectors in public buildings could creep into other areas such as malls and theaters -- until the only place to carry a gun will be "your backyard."
LaPierre also railed against campaign finance reforms signed by Bush because they would restrict his group and others from running TV ads two months before a general election supporting a specific candidate. The NRA is challenging the law in federal court.
Bush was never singled out for criticism, however, and NRA President Charlton Heston invited Bush to speak next year -- so he could thank them for getting him elected.
And, finally, LaPierre went after a new crop of gun-control advocates who he called "political terrorists." He singled out Andrew McKelvey, the wealthy founder of Monster.com and Americans for Gun Safety.
LaPierre said McKelvey has a lot in common with Osama bin Laden, describing him as "an extremist billionaire with a political agenda using personal wealth to train and deploy activists, looking for vulnerability to attack, fomenting fear for political gain and funding an ongoing campaign to hijack your freedom and take a box cutter to the constitution."
McKelvey could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The biggest applause of the day came for Heston, who narrated an eight- minute video honoring Ronald Reagan. Heston, 78, said he would seek another term as NRA president -- board members vote tomorrow -- and offered a five- word speech everyone was waiting for.
"From my cold dead hands," said Heston as he raised an 1874 Sharps rifle.
The year's conference took place in Reno, which is about as close to California as the NRA -- which has 4.2 million members -- probably wanted to get. Those attending represented the conservative core of white suburban and urban America, give or take a rock star or two.
While taking a break from signing his cookbook, "Grill It and Kill It," Ted Nugent made an analogy:
"Sept. 11 was the culmination of a hippie mind set that you shouldn't resist when confronted by evil," said the rocker. "When I was growing up, women were actually told that they should not resist when raped. I threw up when I first heard that, and it ultimately led to Sept. 11."
Nugent, who leads paid hunting expeditions with his wife, Shemane, said people have been taught to be defenseless.
"I wonder if that came out of a Deadhead concert. 'Give peace a chance' is a laugh. The only way to peace is to eliminate those who would challenge peace. "
Nugent finishes by recommending people bring two heavy hunting socks and an eight ball on airplanes.
"I've taken to your music," 76-year-old Walter Gray of Cottonwood told Nugent as the rocker signed his other book, "God, Guns, & Rock 'N' Roll."
There was, of course, a lot of talk about freedom and the Second Amendment. But many people said they also came to look at the new gadgets, from Leica binoculars to reboring equipment and cleaning rods, to special optics, camouflage and holsters.
Beretta, the Italian manufacturer, has come out with a 9mm handgun honoring Operation Enduring Freedom. For the truly lazy hunter, Kawaski offered a camouflaged golf cart with cute wheel covers in camouflage fabric. The NRA also offered life insurance.
For the best home defense, the Starnes family from Winchester, Kentucky, recommends its line of AR-15 guns, one of the most popular semi-automatic weapons in the world. The AR-15, a version of which was used in Vietnam, is illegal in California.
"That's because you have idiots for politicians," said Jack Starnes, who was attending with wife Teresa and son, Jesse.
E-mail Robert Salladay at bsalladay@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/04/28/MN228901.DTL
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Group suggests arming pilots, IDing and detaining noncitizens
Robert Salladay, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, April 28, 2002
Reno -- The National Rifle Association leadership offered a scathing critique yesterday of two of President Bush's most prominent actions -- beefed-up airport security after Sept. 11 and campaign finance reform -- even as they took credit for getting Bush elected.
Tens of thousands of NRA members, mostly from California and Nevada, crowded into the convention center for their annual gun-and-gadget show and political rally. The response to Sept. 11, NRA leaders warned, allowed the federal government to erode freedom, particularly when boarding airplanes.
To huge applause, Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, told the crowd that commercial airline pilots should be allowed to carry guns, and that the government should identify and stop noncitizens, not ordinary Americans, at airports.
"The first target of homeland security shouldn't be the people of our homeland," LaPierre said. "It should be the kinds of people who are not citizens of the homeland, who don't belong in our homeland."
Although LaPierre did not advocate allowing passengers to carry concealed weapons on airplanes, he warned the crowd that the new government rush to install metal detectors in public buildings could creep into other areas such as malls and theaters -- until the only place to carry a gun will be "your backyard."
LaPierre also railed against campaign finance reforms signed by Bush because they would restrict his group and others from running TV ads two months before a general election supporting a specific candidate. The NRA is challenging the law in federal court.
Bush was never singled out for criticism, however, and NRA President Charlton Heston invited Bush to speak next year -- so he could thank them for getting him elected.
And, finally, LaPierre went after a new crop of gun-control advocates who he called "political terrorists." He singled out Andrew McKelvey, the wealthy founder of Monster.com and Americans for Gun Safety.
LaPierre said McKelvey has a lot in common with Osama bin Laden, describing him as "an extremist billionaire with a political agenda using personal wealth to train and deploy activists, looking for vulnerability to attack, fomenting fear for political gain and funding an ongoing campaign to hijack your freedom and take a box cutter to the constitution."
McKelvey could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The biggest applause of the day came for Heston, who narrated an eight- minute video honoring Ronald Reagan. Heston, 78, said he would seek another term as NRA president -- board members vote tomorrow -- and offered a five- word speech everyone was waiting for.
"From my cold dead hands," said Heston as he raised an 1874 Sharps rifle.
The year's conference took place in Reno, which is about as close to California as the NRA -- which has 4.2 million members -- probably wanted to get. Those attending represented the conservative core of white suburban and urban America, give or take a rock star or two.
While taking a break from signing his cookbook, "Grill It and Kill It," Ted Nugent made an analogy:
"Sept. 11 was the culmination of a hippie mind set that you shouldn't resist when confronted by evil," said the rocker. "When I was growing up, women were actually told that they should not resist when raped. I threw up when I first heard that, and it ultimately led to Sept. 11."
Nugent, who leads paid hunting expeditions with his wife, Shemane, said people have been taught to be defenseless.
"I wonder if that came out of a Deadhead concert. 'Give peace a chance' is a laugh. The only way to peace is to eliminate those who would challenge peace. "
Nugent finishes by recommending people bring two heavy hunting socks and an eight ball on airplanes.
"I've taken to your music," 76-year-old Walter Gray of Cottonwood told Nugent as the rocker signed his other book, "God, Guns, & Rock 'N' Roll."
There was, of course, a lot of talk about freedom and the Second Amendment. But many people said they also came to look at the new gadgets, from Leica binoculars to reboring equipment and cleaning rods, to special optics, camouflage and holsters.
Beretta, the Italian manufacturer, has come out with a 9mm handgun honoring Operation Enduring Freedom. For the truly lazy hunter, Kawaski offered a camouflaged golf cart with cute wheel covers in camouflage fabric. The NRA also offered life insurance.
For the best home defense, the Starnes family from Winchester, Kentucky, recommends its line of AR-15 guns, one of the most popular semi-automatic weapons in the world. The AR-15, a version of which was used in Vietnam, is illegal in California.
"That's because you have idiots for politicians," said Jack Starnes, who was attending with wife Teresa and son, Jesse.
E-mail Robert Salladay at bsalladay@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/04/28/MN228901.DTL
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878