Stand up to the NRA.Byline: The Register-Guard These are heady days for the National Rifle Association National Rifle Association (NRA) Governing organization for the sport of shooting with rifles and pistols. It was founded in Britain in 1860. The U.S. organization, formed in 1871, has a membership of some four million. Both the British and the U.S. . Anything it wants from Congress or the White House, it gets. And anything it doesn't want gets dropped in its tracks like a deer in the sights of a well-aimed Winchester. Despite voicing support for an extension of the nation's decade-old ban on assault weapons, President Bush last fall stood meekly by and allowed Republican leaders in Congress to allow the ban to expire. Now, anyone can stroll into a gun store across the nation and buy an AK-47, UZI, Kalashnikov, Tec-9 or other military-style weapon of mass murder. That's progress, NRA NRA (National Rifle Association of America) organization that encourages sharpshooting and use of firearms for hunting. [Am. Pop. Culture: NCE, 1895] See : Hunting style. At the urging of the NRA, the Bush administration and gun-rights supporters in Congress have repeatedly blocked efforts to use the FBI's national gun-purchasing database as a tool for law-enforcement investigators. Last month the Government Accountability Office The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress, and thus an agency in the Legislative Branch of the United States Government. released a study documenting firearms purchases by more than 40 suspected terrorists on federal watch lists. Now, the NRA is supporting bills in both the House and Senate that would give gun manufacturers and dealers broad immunity from liability in civil lawsuits. Lawmakers, including the many who have received hefty campaign contributions from the NRA's political action committee, should grow spines and reject both of these bills. There is no compelling reason - other than the industry's profit-driven self-interest - why gun manufacturers and sellers should be free of legal responsibility when guns are used to harm people. If the bills, both of which are on the fast track for approval, are approved, even a reckless dealer who sold guns to criminals could hide under an umbrella of immunity from civil lawsuits - an umbrella that Congress has not provided to any other industry. Conversely, victims' families would be unable to seek compensation from even egregiously e·gre·gious adj. Conspicuously bad or offensive. See Synonyms at flagrant. [From Latin irresponsible dealers. Most dealers are law-abiding, but the few who aren't do not deserve protection. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has estimated that half of all guns used in crimes are sold by 1 percent of dealers. The bills even include provisions that would bar the ATF ATF Molecular virology Activating transcription factor A cellular protein that stimulates transcription of adenovirus E4 transcription unit, which acts early in infection at any of several 'enhancer' binding sites from conducting administrative hearings to investigate and regulate chronically careless or unscrupulous dealers. Surely, even the most NRA-compliant lawmakers in Congress can't justify supporting a law that would provide such sweeping protections. For the past five years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time NRA has had a sweet ride under the Bush administration. It's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a for the ride to end and for lawmakers to put the American people An American people may be:
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