For Release: Tuesday, May 23, 1995
Says President Clinton Wants Legislation to Create Police State
The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) has sent a mailing renewing its attacks on federal law enforcement officers of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In a cover memo to the new fund-raising letter, ILA’s Executive Director Tanya Metaksa writes:
- In wake of the horrible tragedy in Oklahoma City, our opponents now want to expand their attacks on us to include our First Amendment rights, too.
- The right to keep and bear arms, the right to free speech and the right to free association are ALL on the chopping block.
- Before Bill Clinton pushes legislation that takes away from our freedoms and creates a police state, we’ve urged that Members of Congress hold town meetings in their home districts to hear what you have to say, first.
The text of the fund-raising letter warns gun owners that “Congress’ leading anti-gun Representatives Schumer, Feinstein, Kennedy and Owens all survived their last elections,” and that these “anti-gunners” are “one step closer to their dream of total gun control and citizen disarmament.” The letter goes on to say that “Bill Clinton can help them win the gun control battle by ordering his BATF and FBI agents to harass and intimidate law-abiding gun owners, close guns shops and confiscate guns.”
The letter alerts NRA members that, “Unless we make a major show of force, unless we make Congress feel the heat to pick up the pace, the next two years will be nothing more than a waiting period.” The NRA insists that Congress must be forced to act to repeal the assault weapon ban, crack down on “intimidation and harassment by Clinton’s agents and retake Constitutional freedoms lost in the last two years.”
The mailing urges NRA members to send postcards to their members of Congress requesting to take part in that member’s town meetings. According to ILA, “There’s not a Congressman in Washington who wants to be cornered like this in a public meeting, or suffer the political fallout.”
“This mailing proves that NRA’s word cannot be trusted. Less than one week after NRA Executive Vice President Wayne La Pierre apologized for attacks on federal law enforcement agents and stated that the organization’s criticisms were directed only at BATF, Tanya Metaksa renews the assault and specifically targets the FBI,” observes Kristen Rand, Director of Federal Policy for the Violence Policy Center. “Either the right hand at NRA doesn’t know what the left hand is doing or the NRA’s apology to law enforcement was meaningless.”
About the Violence Policy Center
The Violence Policy Center is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury. Follow the VPC on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
