Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 10, 1990 TAG: 9006100096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ANAHEIM, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
"They say we must compromise. Our opponents define compromise as `We taketh, you giveth.' This is not compromise my friends. That is surrender," NRA First Vice President Richard Riley told the group's annual convention.
The remarks drew applause from more than 1,000 members on the second day of the three-day event at the Anaheim Convention Center.
The convention comes at a crucial time in the NRA's history. Once considered politically invincible, the gun lobby has recently lost legislative battles in New Jersey, Maryland and California.
Earlier this month, the NRA suffered one of its worst defeats when the U.S. Senate narrowly passed a ban on some assault rifles as part of an omnibus crime bill. The NRA rebounded by helping spark a filibuster on the bill, but both Democrats and Republicans said a compromise is still possible.
The NRA also has lost an estimated 250,000 members over the last four years, and some of those remaining have either grumbled that the group has failed to work hard enough or has lost touch with the rank and file, overwhelmingly hunters and gun collectors.
But Saturday's speeches signaled that the NRA, which still has 2.8 million members, will take a hard line rather than soften its position on handgun-purchase waiting periods and assault rifle bans.
Leaders called on members to stop bickering and mount a unified attack against what they described as misinformed media, liberal police chiefs and soft NRA members.
Members agreed the group must continue to fight. They said they fear today's legislation banning assault rifles could be tomorrow's ban on the kinds of guns most NRA members actually have.
"It's just a matter of time that the next gun they'll be after is the shotgun," said William Smith of Owensboro, Ky.
About 20,000 members of the 119-year-old organization and thousands of non-members came to the convention. In addition to speeches and workshops, there were vendors hawking everything from sunglasses to hunting rifles.
Outgoing NRA President Joe Foss acknowledged in a speech that recent months have been difficult, but said the group is far from dead.
"We haven't lost everything," he said. "What we've lost are some battles, but we'll win the war before it's all over with."
by CNB