University of Virginia Library

The Gun Lobby

Of all the shortcomings of the present
Congress, one of the worst is the failure
to enact any sort of effective federal gun
control legislation. Despite all the pleas from
responsible citizens since November 1963
when Lee Harvey Oswald shot President
Kennedy with a mail-order rifle, gun control
bills have languished on Capitol Hill.

The reason is that one of the most potent
lobbying groups in Washington-the National
Rifle Association-has spent millions
in a propaganda campaign to convince the
legislators that any control of weapons is
an infringement of the Constitutional
guarantee to keep and bear arms.

The NRA has long enjoyed a special
status on Capitol Hill. Unlike most other
non-profit, tax-exempt organizations, the
NRA is allowed to lobby. In addition, the
NRA receives a subsidy from the Defense
Department of more than $2-million a year,
to be used to train citizens in target practice.
The NRA was given the use of Camp
Perry, Ohio, this past summer, at the taxpayers'
expense, for its annual target
practice.

The NRA defends its opposition to gun
legislation on a number of grounds. Consider
some recent Senate testimony by
NRA President Harold Glassen. Rifle shooting
is a sport just like golf. Rifle training
makes a prospective soldier less likely to
become a battle casualty. The value of gun
club veterans is multiplied because the Army
makes them instructors.

Rifle shooting certainly is a sport, with
just as avid a group of fans as golf; gun
control legislation would hardly hamper
their fun, though. The difference is that
we've never heard of anyone being killed
with a mail-order nine iron.

As for the benefits of rifle training to
the Army, it is true that a trained marksmen
would have advantages over a novice.
But how would he be less likely to get
shot himself? Can the enemy tell who's in
the NRA and who's not? Perhaps the fact
that so many NRA members become instructors
offers a better explanation of
their lower casualty rate.

The real reason for gun control laws
is not any desire to penalize the hunter
or prohibit the gun-owner from protecting
his family. The legislation is aimed at the
wanton and widespread sale of weapons,
especially armed forces surplus, to anyone
who walks into a store with $20 in his
hand. It is hard to avoid the conclusion
that this past summer's rioting owed more
than a little of its fury to the ease which
any ghetto dweller can buy a gun.

As the Washington Post has commented,
"it is perfectly possible to frame rational
legislation designed to keep guns out of
the hands of the criminal and irresponsible
while permitting possession of them by
responsible and law-abiding adults."

The urgency of the need for this sort of
rationalism is more evident when you consider
the figures released this week on
suicides in Virginia. This state's rate exceeds
the national rate by 12.1 persons per
100,000 as compared to 9.0. Two-thirds of
these suicides are by firearms.

While the prevalence of suicide and the
increase of violent crime are not directly
related, the accessibility of guns to the public
is central to both. Until Congress acts on
this crying need, what the Washington Post
writes unfortunately holds true:

"Nothing compares with a gun for settling
marital disputes, misunderstandings between
neighbors, lovers' quarrels or altercations
arising over a bottle of whiskey or a few
cans of beer."