INSTITUTE FOR LEGISLATIVE ACTION
In recent years, the government has grown. The tax burden has increased. Abortion on demand continues unrestricted. But Americans’ right to keep and bear arms has avoided further erosion, and much of the thanks for that must go to the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its Institute for Legislative Action (ILA).
National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre named Chris Cox as the new executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action on May 1. Cox replaced James Jay Baker, who remains a consultant to the NRA. The 32-year-old Cox is from Jackson, Tenn., and an alumnus of Rhodes College.
This past election cycle was a good one for gun rights, said Cox in a recent interview. "Over 90% of our candidates won," he said. "We increased our majorities in both houses. We sent out 15 to 20 million pieces of mail, made millions of phone calls. We held political rallies with [NRA President] Charlton Heston, Wayne, and myself." In fact, he said, gun rights have regained so much popularity among political candidates that "what we saw was some Democratic candidates and a few Republicans with anti-gun pasts running as pro-NRA candidates."
Many political analysts credited opposition to gun rights on the part of Al Gore and his fellow Democrats for pushing many swing voters Republicans’ way in the 2000 elections, and since then, gun control-one of Democrats’ top issues in 2000-has mostly dropped off the political radar screen. Said Cox, "Gun owners are a savvy and committed voting bloc."
Not all of ILA’s candidates won. "The National Rifle Association on Monday announced its endorsement of Republican Bill Simon, Jr. for governor [of California], saying ‘we will do everything we can’ to defeat the Democratic incumbent, Gray Davis," reported ILA October 1. "Chris Cox, the NRA’s chief lobbyist, said Davis ‘has handled the 2nd Amendment about as well as he’s handled California’s energy crisis’."
Cox saw the courts, rather than the Republican-controlled Congress or the gun-friendly Bush Administration, as the biggest threat to 2nd Amendment rights in the near future. "One of the biggest threats to gun owners is lawsuits all over the country against gun manufacturers," Cox said. He endorsed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (HR 2037), sponsored by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R.-Fla.) and Sen. Zell Miller (D.-Ga.), which would provide some protection to gun makers who are now under attack as a "result of harm caused by the criminal or other unlawful misuse of such firearm or ammunition product by any other person." (All bills, including this one, will have to be reintroduced in the new Congress.)
"Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the ‘lobbying’ arm of the National Rifle Association of America. . .," says the group’s website. "ILA’s ability to fight successfully for the rights of America’s law-abiding gun owners directly reflects the support of NRA’s more than 4.2 million members-a number that has more than tripled since 1978."
ILA has 80 staffers in offices in Fairfax, Va., Washington, D.C., and Sacramento, Calif. ILA says it works on a range of issues such as "hunting and access to hunting lands, wilderness and wildlife conservation, civilian marksmanship training and ranges for public use, law enforcement-related issues, product liability, trapping, crime victim rights and criminal justice reform."
Cox said that the "ballistics fingerprinting" idea raised as a result of the sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C., area raises a "privacy concern." And, he asked, "Is the technology actually accurate?" In any case, if guns are registered with the government through "ballistics fingerprinting" or otherwise, he said, "What makes you think that a criminal will buy a gun from a gun dealer?"
Cox explained the success of the defenders of the 2nd Amendment to preserve Americans’ right to firearms this way: "It’s a freedom issue. It cuts across every race, every class. . . . It’s a core, basic right that’s uniquely American. It is a core human instinct and a core American right to defend oneself. Bill Clinton and Al Gore’s Justice Department argued that the 2nd Amendment does not provide an individual right. That’s why Al Gore lost in states like Arkansas and Tennessee."
One major impediment to Americans’ exercise of their gun rights is the lack of reciprocity among states for right-to-carry licenses for concealed weapons. ILA wants Congress to fix that. "We don’t think the right to carry should end at the state line," said Cox. Stearns has a bill (HR 382) to solve the problem, as does outgoing Sen. Bob Smith (S 514).
ILA may be reached at NRA-ILA, 11250 Waples Mill Rd., Fairfax, Va. 22030 (800-392-8683; e-mail: [email protected]; website: www.nra.org).
