Marching for the Second Amendment

Source: FOX News
Published: 20 May 2000

Marching for the Second Amendment
Sparring with President Clinton in recent months and facing off against hundreds of thousands of protesting mothers last week in Washington seemed Saturday to have only rallied the NRA, which drew record attendance to its 129th annual convention in Charlotte, N.C.

With NRA President Charlton Heston chanting “The NRA is back!” to the crowd assembled inside the Charlotte Convention Center, about 400 gun advocates took to the streets of Charlotte, marching in support of the Second Amendment. With signs reading “What Part of the Second Amendment Don’t You Understand?” and t-shirts emblazoned with “Guns Save Lives,” the marchers were trailed by a lone bagpiper to within six blocks of the convention.

According to the organization, about 5,000 attendees showed up in Charlotte, marking the NRA’s largest convention ever. The NRA said Friday it has signed up more than 200,000 new members and raised about $10 million in donations in just the past six weeks alone.

“All of this spells very serious trouble for a man named Gore,” said Heston. The NRA sees a direct link between the resurgence of their group and the popularity of the 75-year-old actor, who is expected to be re-elected to a third term Monday.

Heston said the NRA has accomplished all but one of his initiatives during his first two terms as president, including increasing its chest and membership.

“That leaves me with one mission undone,” he said, “winnning in November. ”

He ended his speech by holding up a vintage rifle and repeated his frequently-invoked rally cry: The only way his gun will be taken away is from “cold dead hands.”

Though Heston and others speakers had harsh words for the Clinton-Gore administration’s gun control efforts ? claiming licensing and registeration initiatives are just the first steps toward eliminating the constitutional right to bear arms ? Gore’s Republican presidential opponent, Texas Gov. George. W. Bush, was not mentioned.

“This will be the most important meetings in our history,” Heston said in a taped message played Friday. “Our gun rights are truly in peril. When the sun comes up on Nov. 8, who wins the election will determine our freedoms into the next century.”

Most of the marchers outside were middle-age white men, but Marie Wieglib of Troutman, N.C., was pulling a wagon carrying her two young sons and bearing a sign that read “We’re an NRA family.”

“I’m doing it for them,” Wieglib said, nodding to her sons Reid, 5, and Jess, 4. “I’m saving their inheritance.”

Thousands of people on Friday milled around the hundreds of exhibits by gun-makers, hunter associations and collectors.

Smith & Wesson, the nation’s largest gunmaker, got a mixed reception, with some people shunning its exhibit because it agreed to put childproof locks on its pistols.

“I think it’s important for the people of this country to stand by their Second Amendment rights,” said Diane Peroutka, attending the convention with her three children. She said she would avoid the Smith & Wesson exhibit, where more than 100 handguns were displayed.

Earlier this year, Smith & Wesson announced it would install locks on all the firearms it sells to safeguard them from children, introduce “smart gun” technology within three years and prohibit the sale of its weapons at gun shows without a background check.

NRA leaders and other gunmakers sharply criticized Smith & Wesson for jeopardizing gun owners’ Second Amendment rights, but said the company still was welcome at its convention.

“Some manufacturers aren’t happy,” said Ken Jorgenson, a spokesman for the Springfield, Mass. gunmaker. “But we’re still talking.”

Smith & Wesson also will be the preferred gun retailer for law enforcement officials in 190 communities that have joined the Communities for Safer Guns Coalition. Seven other gun-makers and an industry group have challenged the arrangement in court alleging illegal conspiracy to restrict trade.

On Friday, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre described the group’s plan to open a megastore in New York City’s Times Square containing retail space, a restaurant and virtual shooting ranges.

Meanwhile, NRA opponents launched a slate of vigils and marches with a news conference at which Michael Barnes, president of Handgun Control and the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence in Washington, D.C., pledged to “remind the public of the NRA’s hypocrisy when it comes to preventing gun violence.” ?The Associated Press contributed to this report

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