Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 16, 1993 TAG: 9304160090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
NRA LAUNCHES NEW ANTI-CRIME OFFENSIVE
The National Rifle Association plans to open a major new office to support nationwide efforts to stiffen criminal penalties and fight for victims' rights.The "Crimestrike" project, based in Phoenix, will be headed by Steve Twist, who campaigned on a similar anti-crime platform in his unsuccessful bid to become the Republican nominee in the 1990 race for Arizona attorney general.
He said the project would be an effort to "put more energy" behind traditional NRA support for mandatory sentencing for those convicted of using firearms in the commission of a crime.
Critics said the program was an effort by the NRA to rehabilitate its public image.
"They are trying to recast themselves in a time in which they are seen as being out of touch even with gun owners," said Susan Whitmore, a spokeswoman for Handgun Control Inc. "They are looking for a way to get back in the good graces of the American public."
The NRA has suffered a series of debilitating blows at the legislative level. This year, Virginia, one of the strongest pro-gun states in the nation, passed a law that limits a resident's gun purchases to one a month.
Twist, who works primarily in Washington, said he did not view the Crimestrike program, which he proposed to NRA leaders last year, as a public relations campaign.
"There is such an utter collapse of the criminal justice system in this country," he said. "We calculated that [those convicted of committing] 60,000 violent crimes . . . every year get probation."
The NRA board of directors granted a $1.8 million budget for Crimestrike. The Phoenix headquarters will have 12 employees; Washington gets a smaller office.
Crimestrike will be "going after judges who are gutless in not giving out long sentences to violent criminals. We'll be going to legislatures to press for tougher laws on sentences and stop the revolving door of parole," Corbin said.
Twist said NRA organizers would go into states to push for passage of victims' rights initiatives, such as the one passed in Arizona in 1990, designed to give crime victims a larger role in the trial and sentencing of the criminals who wronged them.
Crimestrike also advocates truth-in-sentencing measures, mandatory-sentencing guidelines, limits on plea bargains and elimination of parole.