NRA goes nontraditional: Sandra S. Froman
Date: Apr 13, 2005 7:52 PM
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3131898

HoustonChronicle.com — http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section:
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April 13, 2005, 6:01AM

NRA goes nontraditional

The group’s likely 2nd female president plans to focus on self-defense

By RACHEL GRAVES
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

RESOURCES

SANDRA S. FROMAN

Now the first vice president of the National Rifle Association, Froman
is expected to be named president after the group’s annual convention
in Houston.
? Education : Bachelor’s degree in economics, Stanford University; law
degree, Harvard University
? Professional: Private legal practice, 30 years
? NRA affiliation: Life member, 20 years; Benefactor member since 1994;
elected to board of directors, 1992
? Personal: Widowed, no children

Perhaps the most enduring image of the National Rifle Association is
Charlton Heston, brandishing a rifle above his head, stirring the crowd
with his oft-repeated, “From my cold, dead hands!”

It is a tough act to follow.

Sandra S. Froman, the NRA’s first vice president, is expected to be
elected president by the NRA’s board of directors on Monday, after the
group’s annual convention, which begins Friday in Houston.

She will not be trying to outdo the man who played Moses.

“Every president of NRA brings to the office their own skills, their
own personality,” Froman said Tuesday, shortly after arriving in
Houston to prepare for the convention.

Heston, suffering from Alzheimer’s, stepped down in 2003 after five
years as a dynamic head of the organization.

“He was charismatic, well-known, I mean, a movie star,” said one of the
NRA’s harshest critics, Peter Hamm, a spokesman for The Brady Campaign
to Prevent Gun Violence. “He served the organization’s wrong-headed
goals well.”

Kayne Robinson, who became president immediately after Heston, leaves
office next week after a quiet and brief tenure.

Froman plans to use the position to emphasize women’s issues,
especially self-defense.

“Being a woman and a nontraditional, if you will, president of NRA, may
bring some attention to the organization,” said Froman, who will be the
group’s second female president.

The first was Marion Hammer, who was elected in 1996.

While Heston spent a career in front of cameras, Froman is a novice in
the media spotlight.

She carefully chose a chair facing away from a window so that she would
not be distracted during an interview Tuesday.

“It’s new to me,” she said. “It’s not something that I’ve had a lot of
experience with, but I’ll do whatever the job requires.”

Froman, a lawyer who lives in Arizona, bought her first gun about 20
years ago, after someone tried to break into her home in Los Angeles.

Froman was going through a divorce and living alone at the time.

She was just falling asleep when she heard a noise downstairs and went
to investigate.

“I looked out of the little peephole of my front door, and there was a
man with a screwdriver,” she recalled.

She banged on the door to try to scare him away and called the police.
Eventually the man left.

“The next day I went to a gun store,” Froman said.

She took gun safety classes, tried shooting several types of guns and,
a few weeks later, bought a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol.

“It was a serious gun,” Froman said.

She now hunts, shoots competitively and has guns for self-defense.
Froman did not want to give exact numbers, but said she owns pistols,
rifles and shotguns.

“What do they say? I have more guns than I need and less guns than I
want.”

Froman’s second husband, who was a special agent supervisor with the
California Department of Justice and an NRA supporter, died in 1995.

“I honor his memory by serving in the NRA,” she said.

Not even elected yet, Froman has already attracted her first criticism.

Shortly after the Minnesota school shootings, she said, “I’m not saying
that that means every teacher should have a gun or not, but what I am
saying is we need to look at all the options at what will truly protect
the students.”

NRA Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre clarified the following week
that the NRA is not advocating arming teachers and supports the federal
law that bars most guns from schools.

On Tuesday, Froman seemed to retreat from her initial comments.

“The only people that ought to have firearms in the schools are law
enforcement and trained security personnel,” she said.

Froman, who did not grow up in a family of hunters, is a recent convert
to the taste of game.

Her kitchen is stocked with deer salami from a Missouri hunting trip,
and she is perfecting a posole recipe made with a javelina she shot in
Arizona.

She is hoping to find a game cookbook at the convention this week to
expand her repertoire.

“I really enjoy eating the animal that I shot,” she said.

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