KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Charlton Heston, the movie star turned spokesman for America's gun enthusiasts, said on Saturday he has changed his mind and will not step down as president of the 4.3-million-member National Rifle Association.
Standing under a banner that read ``The Second Amendment: America's First Freedom,'' Heston told members at the NRA's 130th annual convention: ``Until recently, I'd planned for this to be my farewell address as your president. But I've been asked, and I've agreed, to stand for a fourth term.''
Some 40,000 NRA members of all ages, devoted to the ``right of the people to keep and bear arms'' cited in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, are attending this year's meeting, which began on Friday. Many of them gathered in the Kansas City Convention Center on Saturday morning to hear speeches by Heston, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, Georgia Republican Congressman Bob Barr and others.
Heston praised NRA members for their overwhelming success in electing pro-gun candidates in November: The group says 86 percent of the 10,000 candidates it endorsed in state and federal races won
``Freedom-loving Americans begged us to make the difference in the most closely contested election in the nation's history,'' he said. ``Liberty was on the line, and God bless you, you who made the difference.''
The NRA's clout appears to be running at an all-time high. Membership is record large, thanks to an increase of several hundred thousand in the past year alone. Fortune magazine recently declared it the most powerful lobbying group in Washington, displacing the much larger but politically neutral American Association of Retired Persons.
NO RESTING ON LAURELS
But the convention speakers urged members not to let down their guard.
``It's tempting to declare victory, sit back and rest on our laurels,'' LaPierre said. ``But we can't do that. Despite our successes, your rights are in more danger today than a decade ago.''
LaPierre made headlines in 1995 when he referred to government agents as ``jackbooted thugs'' in a fund-raising letter, a move that inspired former President George Bush to surrender his life membership in the NRA. But he pointed to last year's victory by Bush's son as an NRA triumph.
NRA supporters take credit for President Bush's victory over Al Gore in West Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas.
``Winning the election is a beginning, not an end,'' said James J. Baker, the head of the NRA's lobbying arm. ``Our enemies are hiding in plain sight, deep within the bowels of every federal bureaucracy, and in the back rooms of offices occupied by anti-gun politicians,'' Baker said.
Speakers also attacked a bill by Sens. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, to tighten background checks on weapon purchasers at gun shows.
After Heston's speech, LaPierre presented the actor with a long-barreled Revolutionary War-era flintlock.
Heston, in a reprise of his performance at last year's NRA meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, raised the antique weapon over his head and announced he had only five words to say: ''From my cold, dead hands,'' a reference to an NRA slogan about gun owners' resistance to giving up their weapons.
OUTRAGE FROM MOMS
Across the street from the convention, about 200 people gathered in a sun-soaked plaza to hear speeches by NRA opponents. Speakers took to a stage that held 10 vacant child-sized chairs, meant to represent the 10 children that are killed by guns on an average day in America, according to organizers.
Stacey Newman, co-president of the St. Louis chapter of the Million Mom March, said her group wanted to promote ''common-sense gun legislation.''
``The NRA is a front for the gun lobby, and their whole goal is to sell more guns,'' Newman said. ``Our goal is, we've got to save our kids' lives. There are people being shot every day, and we've got to stop putting guns in the hands of kids.''
Demonstrators held signs referring to some of Heston's movie roles. ``Send Charlton Heston back to the Planet of the Apes,'' said one. Another read: ``Hey Charlie, We loved you in the Nine Commandments (Thou Shalt Not Kill excluded).''
Back across the street at the convention center, signs on the doors read: ``No personal weapons allowed in the building.''
More on the NRA2001 Convention
By all accounts 2000 was a very good year for the National Rifle Association.
Membership blossomed to 4.3 million. Fund raising hit record heights -- $200 million in direct contributions. And many -- including former President Bill Clinton -- credited the NRA with playing a key role in Al Gore's loss to George W. Bush in the presidential election.
NRA leaders celebrated all that Saturday in a series of speeches at the group's annual membership meeting at Bartle Hall.
But they also warned their members of peril. Warned them that the United Nations is trying to take their guns away. Warned them that campaign-finance reform would help their enemies take their guns away. Warned them that the slightest complacency would allow gains in other efforts to take their guns away.
In an effort to fight that complacency, leaders tossed oratorical challenges to the 4,000 or so in the audience, painting a picture of a gunless future ruled by foreign powers.
"Behind closed doors around the world, private groups funded by billionaires have been meeting for years under the auspices of the United Nations to control ownership of firearms," said Wayne LaPierre, the group's executive vice president. "This July, at the U.N.'s long-anticipated gun-control summit, they'll propose banning civilian ownership of firearms worldwide.
"The great minds at the U.N. have outclassed our Founding Fathers. A bunch of foreign governments have dreamt up a better idea than the Bill of Rights."
Later, Charlton Heston, actor and NRA President, brandished a Revolutionary War-era musket over his head and spat out in his best "Planet of the Apes" rasp: "From my cold, dead hands." That was a reference to a popular gun-rights slogan: "I'll give up my gun -- when they pry it from my cold, dead hands."
Members greeted the move, a repeat from last year's meeting in Charlotte, N.C., with a wild standing ovation, whistling and cheering.
Heston, 77, also said -- to equal enthusiasm -- that he would run for a fourth term as NRA president.
"Because they asked me, and because I've come to feel that I could do some good for them," Heston told reporters afterward in explaining his decision. "A pretty face will carry you a long way....My main contribution is my public identity. But that's a pretty useful contribution."
The election is Monday, and Heston is expected to win. "Who'd run against Moses?" asked Bill Powers, an NRA spokesman, referring to one of Heston's signature film roles.
The Saturday meeting was not all fire and brimstone, however. It also celebrated the NRA's vision of what is good and true in America.
LaPierre introduced the youngest (born last month) and oldest (born in 1905) life members in attendance, with Heston kissing two babies onstage (including one named Charlton). The exploits of a champion BB-gun team from Norton County, Kan., were recounted.
Heston's speech followed that feel-good vein. "You are no better or worse than any other American, except that the sweet face of Mother Liberty smiles more broadly upon you, and as this millennium unfolds, she needs you more than ever, to govern the currents of history in her favor," Heston said.
Other speakers took swipes at New York City and urban dwellers in general, at the media and at old enemies like Clinton and Gore.
To keep the momentum going, new enemies were identified. Besides the United Nations, they included U.S. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, both of New York, and Dianne Feinstein of California, all Democrats.
Even Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, came under fire. McCain is a leader in the congressional fight for campaign-finance reform.
Activities of well-financed advocacy groups like the NRA would be severely curtailed in the days before an election should McCain's proposed reforms become law. Opponents of the measure say it is an attack on the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech.
McCain also has worked to fashion a compromise on legislation that would control firearms sales at gun shows.
"Is it possible that John McCain is willing to take the point in an anti-freedom offensive?" LaPierre asked. "I won't go that far yet. But I will say that an anti-First Amendment John McCain, and an anti-Second Amendment John McCain, will put John McCain on the wrong side of the Bill of Rights."
NRA member Donald Roy of Newkirk, Okla., said he appreciated the renewed call to arms that the speakers offered. "In a lot of respects, it was preaching to the choir," Roy said. "It's a good message for those of us who are here. We have friends and neighbors who aren't here, who maybe aren't members. We need to keep informed and try to encourage them to join."
Backstage, LaPierre expressed confidence that things would continue rolling the NRA's way.
He noted the popularity of the group's hunter-education and shooting-safety programs. The high-profile foes like Hillary Clinton, who help keep the dollars flowing in and the members energized. And the knowledge that in the last election, NRA members were able to make a difference in key states such as Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee -- states won by the NRA-friendly Bush.
"They're tremendously proud of what they accomplished together," LaPierre said of the NRA's members. "This coming together in defense of their freedoms. I've never seen the pride that you have flowing throughout people....I've got to admit, I'm more encouraged than I've ever been. It's been a banner year for the NRA."
Still More:
MAY 20, 10:49 EST
From the AP Wire at the RTD
By JOSH FREED
Associated Press Writer
Heston holds up a colonial musket at convention AP/Jim Barcus [17K]
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Igniting a stomping, cheering ovation, Charlton Heston thrust a Revolutionary War musket above his head Saturday after predicting he would again be re-elected as president of the National Rifle Association.
Later, Interior Secretary Gale Norton called NRA members ``America's unsung conservation heroes'' and praised them as important partners in President Bush's plans to reduce gun violence.
Heston told NRA members at the 130th annual convention that he had intended to give his farewell speech this year, but was asked to serve an unprecedented fourth one-year term. The NRA's board of directors will elect a president Monday.
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``Of course, we can't predict the outcome of the election, but chances are pretty good I'll postpone my farewell address another year,'' Heston said to the standing, cheering crowd.
Heston congratulated NRA members for helping elect Bush, the group's top political goal last year, and portrayed them as defenders of freedom.
``You are of the same lineage as the farmers who stood at Concord Bridge'' at the start of the Revolutionary War,'' he said.
Presented with a mint-condition musket from that war, Heston held it above his head and said, ``I have only five words for you: From my cold, dead hands.'' The crowd roared.
Norton, a former attorney general from Colorado, told an audience of 4,000 that the NRA and the president shared a common goal of reducing gun violence by enforcing existing laws.
``As a former prosecutor, the best way to end violent crime is to lock up the criminals who commit violent crime,'' Norton said, drawing a loud ovations.
She said the NRA and the Interior Department had a long history of working together to protect public lands and make sure they are available to everyone. She also drew applause talking about going skeet shooting with the president at Camp David.
``He's a pretty good shot,'' Norton said. ``I, on the other hand, am a work in progress.''
Michael D. Barnes, president of the Washington-based group Handgun Control Inc., criticized Norton's appearance, saying it was ``more proof that the NRA — true to the NRA's boasting during the 2000 elections — is, indeed, working out of the White House.''
The NRA has consistently landed on Fortune Magazine's list of most powerful lobbying groups in Washington. Eighty-six percent of the 10,000 candidates the NRA endorsed last year won their elections, according to Chuck Cunningham, the group's director of federal affairs.
Other speakers Saturday night took aim at the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, which would limit political advertising by groups like the NRA within two months of an election.
NRA Executive Director Wayne LaPierre called McCain-Feingold an attack on the free-speech guarantees of the First Amendment, and thus a threat to the gun rights of the Second Amendment.
``If we have to, we'll launch the good ship NRA, and we'll drop anchor in international waters just off the coast, and we'll broadcast the truth from our own TV towers,'' LaPierre said.
LaPierre also criticized Sen. John McCain for sponsoring a bill requiring criminal background checks for gun show purchases. The bill is cosponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and supported by a gun control group called Americans for Gun Safety.
``John, what're you doing hanging out with that crowd?'' LaPierre said.
Gun enthusiasts crowded an exhibit hall to get a look at gun- and hunting-related products, including offerings from Smith & Wesson, which raised the ire of many gun owners when it agreed with the federal government last year to install safety locks on its guns in exchange for being dropped from lawsuits against the industry.
Smith & Wesson sales fell by half, and the company was sold last week to Saf-T-Hammer, a small trigger-lock company.
James Baker, the NRA's chief lobbyist, signaled some forgiveness when he told members, ``Now that Smith & Wesson was purchased from its British holding company last week, we can also hope to restore its future.''
Gene Pelter of Fort Wayne, Ind., wasn't so sure. He made a point of walking by the Smith & Wesson booth without going in.
He said he won't buy a Smith & Wesson gun because of the agreement. He conceded he may reconsider ``five, 10 years down the road, if they have proven themselves.''
Outside the convention, more than 100 people gathered in support of gun control at a ``Rally for People Over Profits.''
Mary Wertsch, executive director of Missourians Against Handgun Violence, claimed a victory because the Missouri legislature adjourned Friday without loosening restrictions on permits to carry concealed handguns.
Barnes, of Handgun Control Inc, noted the new gun safety proposal Bush unveiled earlier this week focuses on enforcement and ignores prevention.
``While we fully support strong enforcement of our gun laws, we recognize that we must adopt a multi-faceted approach in order to win the fight to prevent gun violence,'' he said.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: AP reporter Steve Brisendine also contributed to this report.
Troutstalker takes on the Mommies:
Saturday was the big day for for the NRA convention in Kansas City. The annual meeting started at ten o'clock and the attendence was announced at over 50,000 (the media is sticking with 40,000 in their coverage, are you surprised at that?). The mood was upbeat in the wake of Gore's defeat in the election, but also vigilant and determined to keep the fight going and not become complacent. We are repeatedly exhorted to each recruit at least one new member and to volunteer to support NRA activities.
Charlton Heston was re-elected as president to an unprecidented fourth term (after his unprecedented third term), although I missed that part of the meeting, as well as President Heston's signature "From My Cold Dead Hands" with musket held high.
I left the meeting to join fellow FReepers and friends to counter the "Mini Mom March" at Barney Allis Plaza. Many had already arrived by the time I showed up and were actively picketing at the entrance of the Plaza. Since the Mommies had a permit for the event, we were prohibited from carrying our signs onto the Plaza during their show. I did, from time to time, leave behind my sign (Gadsden Flag actually), and go heckle them. I didn't have any problem doing that, however one of the Western Sport Shooters Alliance was evicted by the police for heckling. The cop later came over while I was talking with the evictee and apologized, saying it was nothing personal. We had no problems with the police (they knew we were on their side) and cooperated with their requests. It seems most police are conservative, and start to become more liberal if they rise to high rank and have to deal with politicians a lot.
FReepers who were there to support the NRA include (in no particular order, my apologies for any ommissions): ~Kim4VRWC's~, barker, CarolAnn, alfa6, Wolverine, mjf, TroutStalker, Mrs. TroutStalker, Free State Four, Matthew James, Just Another Joe, Conservative.
Also counter-protesting were the Second Amendment Sisters, Western Missouri Shooters Alliance and the Missouri 51st Militia.
The commie mommies had a stage and sound system set up on the Plaza complete with 4' cutout letters spelling "PEACE" and a cart decorated with toy weapons. At several different times one of us would go and count their actual numbers and we usually came up with 140-150 at most. Of course the press reported 300 and the MMM's initially said they would draw 500-1000. It was a rather pitiful looking group actually with mostly women, children and seniors.
Before were were told we couldn't occupy the stairs accessing the Plaza, we were in close proximity with several of their group. A couple were young fellows who didn't really seem to know if the believed in anything (I saw later the one with colored hair on the TV news), and a woman who kept asking people to come and join them and not be intimidated by us. She kept repeating the same thing over and over and was determined to ignore any and all questions I posed to her (especially about the mommie who shot the wrong kid in DC last year).
I estimated our numbers to about equal what the mommies had except we were spread out around the four entrances to the Plaza. Several times we marched around the block with me in the lead flying the yellow banner with the coiled rattlesnake bearing the legend "Don't Tread On Me". Several school busses passed us and the kids all were enthusiastic supporters; I hope none were expelled for saying the word gun.
It was a fun day and we met a lot of new friends as well as seeing all our old ones. Next order of business for the KC Chapter: Picnic!
Outside the National Rifle Association's national convention at Bartle Hall on Saturday, some 300 gun control advocates gathered at Barney Allis Plaza for an anti-gun rally. Or what they called a mini-Million Mom March.
Inside, NRA members called it the Misguided Mom March.
At the rally, anti-gun forces held placards: "Guns are Made to Kill People."
Nearby, gun owners, too, held placards: "Freedom isn't Free."
At the "Rally for People Over Profits," speaker after speaker, predominantly women and most of them mothers, decried the NRA and gun manufacturers for putting guns and profits before laws that they said could save the lives of children and others.
NRA supporters responded.
"I think their intentions are good. Their intention is to keep kids safe," said Rick Hawkins of Grain Valley, commander of the Missouri 51st Militia, "But gun control is not the way to do it."
Despite heated passions and opinions on both sides, the protesters and counterprotesters remained controlled and, though hardly pleasant, reluctantly tolerant of each other's presence.
Stacy Newman, co-president of the St. Louis chapter of the Million Mom March and one of many speakers, said: "We're in this for one reason, that is to keep our kids safe and our children alive."
Among the ways to do that, the protesters said, would be making handguns less available and less easy to use by mandating safety locks, limiting the sale of guns at gun shows and requiring more thorough criminal background checks for gun purchases.
Counterprotesters consider such measures to be infringements on their Second Amendment right to bear arms.
NRA supporter Tim Cline of Grandview said, "If you want a free country, you've got to have an armed citizenry."
NRA officials estimate the convention, which ends today, will draw about 40,000 gun enthusiasts.
"It just saddens me," said Ronna Holloman, a mother and Kansas City criminal defense attorney whose brother was shot and killed in 1987. "I know we can do better than this as a society."
To reach Eric Adler, feature reporter for The Star, call (816) 234-4431 or e-mail him at eadler@kcstar.com.
Women and the Shooting Sports
Lee Totzke likes to shoot handguns. And rifles.
The Lee's Summit mother of two even took a weeklong course in shooting, in Columbia. Every Tuesday she and her husband shoot together at Crossfire Recreational Center in Independence -- the couple's date night.
"It's like our bowling league," she said.
But at her PTA meetings, Totzke, 39, doesn't mention her passion for guns. Or at church. Or at her job. At least, not very often.
When she tells others that she belongs to the National Rifle Association, she is not sure how they will react. Often it is with a laundry list of stereotypes.
"They'll think I'm a zealot, a conservative, a fundamentalist Christian, against abortion, vote Republican, a cheerleader for (President) Bush, all because I like the sport of shooting," Totzke said. "Even though I do believe many of those things, I resent being labeled just because I believe in the Second Amendment."
As more than 40,000 people pass through Kansas City's Bartle Hall for the NRA's 2001 convention this weekend, many of those in attendance reflect a trend: More women than ever are interested in shooting.
"It used to be that fathers and grandfathers would take their sons hunting and teach them to shoot but leave their daughters and granddaughters at home," said Stephanie Henson, manager of the NRA's women's programs. "Most women never got the chance to learn, never had any mentors to teach them and never felt support to do it. Women members in the NRA asked for more classes for women.
"NRA isn't doing this to be more politically correct; this is something happening that the NRA is reacting to."
Not everyone is convinced America needs more people who love guns. Linda Spence is appalled by the idea. Spence is the local chairwoman for the Million Mom March, an anti-gun group.
The women-and-guns trend, Spence thinks, stems more from a simple fact of business: Women have money.
"The NRA is not stupid," she said. "They've been studying the census data and seeing the shift toward single-parent households, single moms. They're looking to take advantage, create a new market."
The NRA did not have a breakout on the number of its female members. A 1996 survey by the National Shooting Sports Foundation estimated 47.2 million women would "definitely or probably" go target shooting -- if someone would just invite them.
Women are learning how to shoot either for defense or for recreation, learning how to hunt and bonding in a sport traditionally the domain of men, Henson said.
Since 1998 the NRA has offered shooting programs for women, even providing grants to gun clubs interested in being host of an event. Women on Target is a series of classes and events encouraging female gun enthusiasts who want to gain experience and have fun shooting.
The classes are held in 26 states, including Missouri and Kansas, as daylong events such as a group hunt, shooting teams that raise money for charities, and beginning target-shooting courses. Last year, 1,000 women participated in Women on Target programs.
"The classes are growing," Henson said. "Since early May, we've already reached a thousand women with more programs scheduled." The closest program, offered Aug. 4-5, is at the Ravenwood Lodge Sporting Clays & Hunting Resort in Topeka.
This afternoon at the convention, the NRA is offering a leadership seminar titled "Women Calling the Shots," followed by a women's reception.
Reaching out to female shooters bothers anti-gun activists such as Spence on several levels.
First, she points out, new customers, men or women, are bound to be less familiar with guns, so they are unlikely to understand the safety issues as well.
"Yet the gun is just as lethal," Spence said.
Beyond that, she thinks the sales pitch being used on women is dishonest.
"We've all seen the ads of a woman, home alone or home with her daughter, and the intruder is breaking in to come at them. They're using the fear of assault, the fear of rape."
Women Against Gun Violence cites a 1993 study from The New England Journal of Medicine, which found in part that a gun in the home is 43 times more likely to be used against a family member or a friend than an intruder and triples the risk of homicide.
Ann Riess-Lane, founder and chairwoman of the California-based group, added that gun makers had been focusing on women for a decade.
"They've made mauve guns and bras that double as holsters," she said. "It's been a strange marketing campaign, if you ask me."
And not one that's been overly successful, she suggested. Riess-Lane noted that tracking the number of women buying guns is difficult. The sex of a buyer is not included on most gun-purchase questionnaires. So the numbers -- pure guesswork -- indicate that less than 10 percent of gun buyers are women.
Money, however, appears to be driving some of the interest in female shooters.
Gun manufacturers are building lighter guns with smaller pistol grips -- not youth-sized, but proportioned for a woman's more-slender build. Gun pulls are being designed to require less strength to cock and load. Even clothing is beginning to appear in catalogs so that women hunters no longer have to cinch their husband's gun vests.
Since 1989 the 21,000 circulation magazine Women & Guns has featured articles and advertising aimed at women: ads for lightweight handguns, holster purses, books and videos.
Totzke has subscribed for years.
"What so many women don't realize is that shooting is really fun," she said. "I hope I never have to defend myself with a gun, but I could if I needed to."
Totzke does not worry about what others think of her so much as she worries about the children her boys play with who know nothing about guns. Or the parents who may not be as careful locking away guns from their children.
When she does talk about guns to other women, they always ask her the same thing: As a mother, don't guns scare you?
"We taught our children early what to do if they ever saw a gun," she said. "We taught them to not touch it and to run and tell an adult.
"As a mother, I believe it's important to teach our kids about guns to take the mystery out of them."
The Million Mom protesters and the women gun enthusiasts are on the same side when it comes to safety, Totzke insists.
"We both love our kids."
To reach Lee Hill Kavanaugh, call (816) 234-4420 or send e-mail to lkavanaugh@kcstar.com.
To reach Matthew Schofield, call (816) 234-4303 or send e-mail to mschofield@kcstar.com.