"Costly legal, legislative and political battles in the last decade have left the National Rifle Association with a $100 million deficit, reopening a bitter debate within the group about how it manages its money. In the past decade the group's efforts have helped Republicans win the White House and Congress and led to laws in more than 30 states banning lawsuits against gun manufacturers. In the last year the N.R.A. helped pay for a losing legal battle against campaign finance legislation, which the Supreme Court upheld this month... Since 2000 - when the organization had a surge of new members - membership has slid about 20%, from a peak of 4.3 million to about 3.4 million... [The NRA is] fighting for national legislation that would prohibit lawsuits against gun makers, distributors and dealers who have sold weapons that are then used in a crime. The N.R.A. has already persuaded more than 30 states to adopt similar policies."

"It is the NRA that is the true purveyor of fiction. In its paranoid world, any measure to make you safer is the first step on the slippery slope to taking away its members' rights: It supports the sale of assault weapons and 'cop-killer' bullets. It opposes closing loopholes that allow criminals, wife-beaters, terrorists, drug addicts and the insane to acquire firearms. It has blocked the CPSC from regulating guns to make them safer, so the commission now can regulate only toy guns, not the real ones. It has opposed measures specifically designed to protect kids, including requiring safety locks or putting indicators on guns to signal that they're still loaded. The NRA has claimed that all we need to do is enforce existing laws. But then it has riddled those laws with loopholes and gutted the agency charged with enforcing them, the BATF. And it has fought to keep Americans from knowing the facts by barring the CDC from investigating the costs and causes of gun violence."

Bob Herbert writes: "The National Rifle Association doesn't call it an enemies list, but deep in the recesses of the organization's Web site is a long, long compilation of the names of groups and individuals that the N.R.A. considers unfriendly. I'm happy to report that I'm on the list, but my name is truly one among very many. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. is there, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The Children's Defense Fund and the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs are there. The United States Catholic Conference, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Y.W.C.A. of the U.S.A. are all there. Among the celebrities on the list are Dr. Joyce Brothers, Candice Bergen, Walter Cronkite, Doug Flutie, Michelle Pfeiffer, Vinny Testaverde, Moon Zappa and the Temptations."

Mark Morford writes: "He is 78 and fragile and suffering from symptoms of Alzheimer's and hasn't made a decent movie in decades, unless you count how he sadly made himself look quite the undereducated, largely unsympathetic, defensive fool in the Oscar-winning 'Bowling for Columbine.' And now, Charlton Heston is stepping down as the High Lord Gunmaster Poobah (or whatever they called him) of the phallically righteous increasingly paranoid adorably manly National Rifle Association. They are sighing in tribute. They are hugging each other and giving reassuring pats though not in an icky scary gay way. They are raising their rifles in salute."

AP reports: "A former gun lobbyist has agreed to testify for the NAACP in a lawsuit alleging negligent marketing practices by gun manufacturers and distributors fuels street violence that victimizes minorities. It will be the first time Robert Ricker, who once worked as an attorney for the National Rifle Association, has testified for gun opponents since he switched allegiance... The lawsuit alleges irresponsible marketing of handguns has 'led to disproportionate numbers of injuries, deaths and other damages among those whose interests the (NAACP) represents'... At trial, NAACP lawyers plan to try to bolster Ricker's claims with records from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms detailing how the agency enlists gun manufacturers to trace the source of weapons used in crimes. The data, the lawyers argue, show the defendants knew which dealers were disreputable but still sold them weapons."

NY Times reports, "A former senior firearms industry executive said in an affidavit filed in court in San Diego yesterday that gun manufacturers had long known that some of their dealers corruptly sold guns to criminals but pressured one another into remaining silent for fear of legal liability. It is the first time a senior official in the gun industry has broken ranks to challenge practices in the business... Dennis A. Henigan, legal director for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said of Robert Ricker's affidavit, 'The consummate insider has now exposed the dirty little secret of the gun industry - that is, the underground market is supplied by corrupt gun dealers, and the industry punishes anyone who tries to stop it'... Mr. Ricker said someone in the gun industry needed to speak up about bad dealers because 'we've got a bunch of right-wing wackos at the N.R.A. controlling everything.'"

You'd think the recent sniper incidents would make Bush and his gun-cuddling NRA cronies wake up and support a sniper-inspired push to compile a database of ballistic "fingerprints". Think again. As shrewd commentator Arianna Huffington points out, Bush is engaging in stalling tactics that she predicts will effectively kill the effort. Arianna asks, "If such a system were only able to save one innocent person from being blown away by a crazed killer, wouldn't that be worth it?" Looks like even one innocent life isn't worth the loss to Bush's campaign coffers of all that gun fanatic money.

How low can they go? The latest issue of Gun News Roundup, the electronic newsletter of the Illinois State Rifle Association, contains this fascinating theory: Maryland has one of the hottest governor's races in the country, certainly hotter than that in Illinois. The central theme of the Maryland race is gun control. Things heat up. There is this off the wall series of sniper killings. Murder made to order for the antigunners. Hmmm, weren't there some other high-profile mass gun killings at strangely convenient times?" And Richard Pearson, president of the Illinois State Rifle Association, has the gall to call gun-control advocates "unscrupulous"!

Jim Philips of the "Athens News" (Ohio) had this to say about the anti-gun control rally recently held in his town, and attended by just 39 very paranoid people. "Gun worship, I found, was a major theme of the rally. Not merely support for Second Amendment rights -- which I share -- but a fervent two-sided belief that A) if citizens don't have guns, they are doomed to slavery, and B) as long as they do have guns, the government can never impose its tyrannical will. Guns equal freedom. No guns equals dictatorship." The main speaker, one Donald Vos sees "enemies" under every bed: NSA, CIA, KGB, the Pope Squad, the New World Order crowd, the commies, and others were named. Philips said "I got an overpowering feeling that the word "Jew" was quivering on his lips, but something held him back. [Vos] did point out significantly, however, that some of the villains in the Freeman standoff had names like Liebenthal and Wiesenthal."

At the UN Small Arms Conference, a wide spectrum of groups presented statements outlining their positions. A review of meeting transcripts reveals that while some entire nations were represented by single statements based on their national policy (as determined by referendums, etc.) the gun lobby folks presented several statements. This is in keeping with their chief strategy: get the most noise from the fewest voices. US pro-gun folk presented statements from Sporting Clays of America, Safari Club International, Firearms Community Groups, Single Action Shooting Society, and other groups. So, while most groups at the conference focused on the deaths, maiming, and misery caused by firearms, the pro-gun folks concerns seemed to be the right to shoot clay pigeons and definitions of just what a small arm is!

The NRA is not about freedom, ideals, or rights. Its all about money, power, intimidation – and sucking in gullible followers with inflammatory propaganda. This week, the group showed its stripes by buying a full-page ad in the "Washington Post" that ranted about how campaign finance reform will "violate free speech." (The usual money = speech propaganda.) The reason for the ad was simple: the NRA helped buy its way into the White House with soft money. So of course the NRA doesn't want campaign finance reform! It is now, God help us all, helping to shape US policy - an Under Secretary of State actually used an NRA quote as a U.S. position "statement" at the recent UN conference on small arms. By the way, a full-page ad in the Post costs more than most of us made in the past 2 years.

In a stunning show of just why most Americans are fed up with the NRA mentality, a spokesman for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms crudely blasted the UN this week. Seems the group was outraged that the UN dare request that the U.S. stop acting like a global gun show, complete with loopholes. Ranted John Michael Snyder, "Congress should cut off the U.S. money spigot unless the UN mends its ways." (as if Snyder would know what anyone's "ways" were, beyond his own arrogant concept of America.) In a crowning show of thuggishness, Snyder bellowed, "It's about time we knocked the living daylights out of the United Nations." A prime example of why we are no longer on the UN Human Rights Commission!

Happiness is a warm gun! That's apparently the new White House slogan. At the NRA convention, which bashed mothers against violence while lauding themselves openly for getting Shrub elected, keynote speaker Gale Norton chatted with Katherine Harris (no doubt snickering over all the crap they've gotten away with this year). Meanwhile, Charlton "Moses" Heston swore to remain NRA ringleader one more year (he likes the role of pontificating ass). There was nary a dry eye as a warm note was read from Shrub, praising the group for its help. Thus, a good ole boy time was had by all.

Nothing could be sadder than to see our nation's children continue to be gunned down - and to realize that we have a gun lobby toady in the White House. This nation's long and tragic love affair with guns comes down to a rather simple question: Are we safer as a country with more guns or fewer guns? The gun industry – and its citizen shills, the NRA – knows that profits only come from more guns. As Sarah Brady has said, if more guns made a safer society, America should be the safest country in the world.

Bush received mega-funding from the NRA. So when another school shooting occurs, he offers some lame attempt at a moral lesson. It's the guns stupid! Ban handguns and dismantle the gun industry that is a leech upon the American public.

Charlton Heston, major domo and chief shill for the NRA, is leading his troops into battle against Gore. Never mind the beer bellies and chewing tobacco, these guys don't vote on any other issue but their guns. At least, that's the conventional wisdom that the NRA wants you to believe. By any standards, however, the word's gone out: If you're a gun lover, vote for Bush. Fine company you're keeping George.