by Mike Hardiman, NRA member, gun owner
Lobbyist for the American Land Rights Association
hardimanmike@aol.com

November 5, 2001

Here is a first hand account of CARA's near death experience before the NRA Board of Directors this weekend.

The meeting was open to NRA members and staff except approximately one hour in executive session (directors only) for a finance/employee compensation report, and a recess for lunch. The meeting began at approx. 9:30am, ended at approx. 4pm. CARA ate up well over an hour, and was by far the longest and most contentious agenda item.

Basic conclusion - big split between NRA Directors versus the Washington, DC staff bureaucracy.

The NRA staff is salivating for the CARA grant money it is eligible for, and doesn't care who else benefits, even though animal rights and anti-gun environmental groups will be the dominant beneficiaries. As long as they get a few crumbs off the table, they don't care who gets the rest of the loaf.

A large majority of NRA board members are clearly against CARA. However, under nonstop lobbying from the staff and CARA sponsor Don Young, the board produced a severely stripped down resolution that just barely endorses ONE-NINTH of CARA. They "reaffirmed" endorsement for only Title 3, which is $350 million out of $3.1 billion per year (one-ninth of the bill's funding) This was approved 37 to 6 over the objection of NRA staff, which wanted a much broader endorsement.

The board qualified its support further by rejecting (35 to 10) additional pro-CARA language that Don Young had insisted be included.

Finally, it made its future support for CARA dependent on "the principle of 'no net loss' in federal land ownership open to public hunting and shooting activities." This was agreed to as part of the same 35 to 10 vote, which was opposed by CARA supporters.

A "no net loss" amendment to CARA had already been rejected by the House of Representatives Resources Committee during consideration of HR 701. The official record states that on November 10, 1999, "Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage offered an amendment {to HR 701} which would require that nothing in the Act be construed to result in the net loss of acreage available for hunting. The amendment failed by voice vote." (Source - House Committee Report #106-499)

So, the net result is that CARA got a black eye, but it is still just barely standing and continues to be a threat.

The NRA board's actions represent a considerable embarrassment for Congressman and longtime board member Don Young, who barely escaped with the narrowest of endorsements for his pet legislation. The NRA statement of policy on CARA also includes new conditions that have already been rejected by the congressional committee which approved CARA. CARA supporters were on the losing side of every vote taken on Saturday.