THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 22, 1995 TAG: 9507210019
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
I'm a life member of the National Rifle Association and I'm not resigning! William A. Brobst (Another View, July 11) is free to do so if he wishes, but he ought to come up with some more original reasons than parrotting Congressman Schumer and Sarah Brady.
Former President Bush's resignation bothers me not at all. His membership was obviously politically motivated, because his actions as candidate and as president made it painfully clear that he was not a friend to its membership.
It's all too obvious that although he won the endorsement of the group in his 1988 election, he didn't get it in 1992 because he had failed the membership. As a payback, he waited till the group was vulnerable and kicked sand in our face.
Mr. Brobst claims to be a target competitor of long standing, yet he denounces so-called ``assault weapons of awesome firepower which have no credible value as target or hunting weapons.'' The AR-15, proscribed under the Clinton Crime Bill, is and for decades has been one of the standard military-style rifles, along with the M-1 and M-1A, used in National Match competition. How, as a ``Distinguished Rifleman,'' could he not know that?
As for support of self-styled militias and encouraging them to become ``even more paranoid and active in anti-government, militant and separatist activities. . . ,'' the NRA has never supported such activities and condemned them as far back as 1964. That condemnation was reaffirmed in a resolution earlier this year.
The NRA, rather than being extremist, as Mr. Brobst alleges, is about as mainstream as Mom and apple pie. No organization has done more to support this nation's law-enforcement community. But when certain elements within that community go bad, we should all be complaining.
The revelations of the past week regarding the FBI's second in command, Larry Potts, and the goings on at Waco and Ruby Ridge simply indicate that rather than maligning some members of the federal law-enforcement community, the NRA simply recognized the facts and publicized them before the general print and electronic media.
ROBERT H. O'MEARA
Virginia Beach, July 14, 1995 by CNB