
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 11, 1995                   TAG: 9505110124
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: HOUSTON                                LENGTH: Short

BUSH PARTS WITH NRA

Former President Bush has dropped his lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association in outrage over its references to federal agents as ``jack-booted government thugs.''

``Your broadside against federal agents deeply offends my own sense of decency and honor, and it offends my concept of service to country,'' Bush said in a letter to Thomas L. Washington, president of the firearm-owners' organization.

``It indirectly slanders a wide array of government law enforcement officials, who are out there, day and night, laying their lives on the line for all of us,'' Bush wrote. ``Please remove my name from your membership list.''

The letter, written May 3, was released Wednesday by Bush's Houston office.

There was no immediate reaction from the Fairfax-based NRA.

- Associated Press

by CNB