-=Continued from previous post=- 
     Former ILA Director Robert Kukla, in Gun Control, his
history of GCA '68 (edited by Harlon Carter), quotes from a June
19, 1968 Chicago Daily News article which says "Five gunslinging
movie stars urged citizens Tuesday to ask their senators and
congressmen to vote in favor of gun control laws."
     The "statement distributed to newsmen" stressed that
President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King were killed
by rifles.  The actors were pushing GCA '68's addition of long
guns and ammunition to the just-passed handgun law.
     When Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre was on Ken
Hamblin's "Black Avenger" radio show to explain Heston's "AK-47's
are inappropriate" statement (Hamblin also called me) Wayne
claimed that the NRA Vice President "got his tongue tangled in
one interview on one little radio station."
     In fact, Heston precisely repeated his statement three
times, as if reading from a script.  The station, KGO San
Francisco, is one of the most powerful in the West.
     At Philadelphia, with many thousands of NRA members
gathered, and reporters and television cameras there in force,
Chuck Heston can pave the way for a near-unanimous crowning as
NRA President by resoundingly declaring when and why he converted
to the pro-Second Amendment side.
     And the members, including this one, will cheer.  For then
Charlton Heston can become not only an eloquent speaker, but a
credible spokesman for NRA.
======================================================================
                      NRA Held In Contempt
                          By NEAL KNOX
     WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 1) -- The NRA management has been held
in contempt of court for a nose-thumbing response to an order
requiring NRA not to publish the method of nomination of director
candidates -- prohibited by the NRA Bylaws but long ignored by
the Board.
     New York Supreme Court Justice Beatrice Shainswit (who has
jurisdiction over New York corporations) fined NRA a token $250,
ordered repayment of the plaintiff nominees' hefty legal fees in
the contempt action (which she had virtually requested be
brought) and caused NRA to publish a full-page "apology" to
plaintiffs in the May issue.
     She declined the plaintiffs' request that the election be
rerun or set aside, stating that her court lacked the authority.
     (Had the election been set aside, the present board would
have continued until next year's election, other than plaintiff
and incumbent Director Howard Fezell who had magnanimously
offered to resign.)
     All this -- which cost NRA considerably more than $100,000 
- -- could have been avoided if management simply had agreed to
comply with the association's Bylaws.
     Article VIII, Sec. 3(e) says "no persons nominated by
petition nor by the Nominating Committee shall be so designated."
     Gun Week Editor Joe Tartaro, who was national coordinator
for the Federation For NRA which drafted and passed that bylaw in
the 1979 member meeting, recently wrote that its intent was to
assure fair director elections. 
     The board majority had opposed the bylaw, attempted to
repeal it in 1981, then simply ignored it -- until this year's
petition candidates promised to bring a legal challenge.
     Last January Director Sally Brodbeck attempted to prevent
the lawsuit by asking the Board's 23-member Executive Committee
to call for a telephone meeting, which requires 12 EC-member
signatures if the president opposes a meeting (as Marion Hammer
did).  Only nine of us tried to avoid the costly fight which
followed.
     Just before the February Board meeting Justice Shainswit
enjoined NRA from publishing the method of nomination, which she
ruled clearly would have violated the Bylaws.
     President Hammer refused to allow the Board to discuss the
lawsuit, after telling the Washington Times: "Bringing the courts
in to tell us how to run the organization, rather than the board,
is just unconscionable."
     In reluctant compliance with the court order (after losing
two appeals) NRA officers removed the Nominating Committee report
from its usual prominent place next to the ballot, replacing it
with a full-page "Notice" next to the ballot saying the court had
prohibited them from publishing the list, adding:  "Until it is
reversed, the injunction must be obeyed."
     In blatant retaliation for bringing the lawsuit, management
identified the ten (obviously petitioned) candidates who filed
it.  That virtually assured that none could be elected.
     Justice Shainswit chewed out NRA counsel Steve Shulman and
asked plaintiffs to "expeditiously" bring a contempt motion, then
ordered the two sides to try to reach a settlement.  
     According to second-hand reports, NRA management offered to
repay all legal fees plus a considerable money settlement to the
plaintiffs and provide "free" ads in next year's election, but
adamantly refused to set aside this election -- which they
probably have won, considering their control of the NRA
publications and the huge amounts spent for advertising and
direct mailings.
     The plaintiffs refused to accept NRA's offer, saying the
case wasn't about money (which would have come from members'
pockets) but about bringing fairness to NRA elections.
     The contempt order -- which is being characterized as
"another attempt to destroy NRA" -- will be one of the hot topics
at the Philadelphia annual meeting June 6.  
     But far more important issues will be discussed, including
whether to stiffen NRA's political and legislative policies, and
whether to change the NRA Articles of Incorporation to require
Directors to report their financial relationships with NRA and
its vendors, and whether to reduce the size of the NRA Board from
76 to "not more than 24."
     A meeting of concerned members has been called for 7 p.m.
June 5 at the Holiday Inn Select in Philadelphia.  If you're a
voting member of NRA I urge you to be there, and at the June 6
member meeting -- which will probably the most important since
Cincinnati.
======================================================================
                      Clinton Bans 58 Guns
                          By NEAL KNOX
     WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 10) -- The day after Congress
recessed for 1997, President Bill Clinton signed an Executive
Directive freezing imports of what the Administration is calling
"modified assault weapons" -- 59 military-pattern semi-autos
whose manufacturers had removed features like bayonet lugs, flash
suppressors and protruding pistol grips in compliance with the
1994 Feinstein ban.
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