Hi Friends,

I bravely watched the ABC special with talking head Peter Jennings last night. The first 45 minutes was actually pretty good.

There was a very short glance at Charleton Heston, then they started talking about how the NRA has made such a big turnaround in the last year and a half. Wayne LaPierre was interviewed a lot. We got to see him speaking to large meetings and in small meetings discussing which commercials to run before the election.

I was surprised that ABC showed a lot of individual NRA members at ranges, at the convention, and in town hall meetings with politicians. They used to portray the NRA as an evil, faceless organization that derived its influence from mysterious industry donations. They are apparently finally realizing that the NRA is people. Our efforts are slowly paying off.

The president of Smith and Wesson seemed very sad that the NRA is mad at him now. Another guy who used to run the gun manufacturers lobby, before he decided to deal with Clinton, got a lot of time to say what he thought of the NRA. Although the NRA is apparently responsible for the demise of his lobby, he does not seem too bitter and actually had some interesting things to say about gun politics.

The nasty point of the program was about what happens to people who "cross" the NRA. ABC probably thought that their effete liberal viewers would really be horrified at how the NRA can play hardball. The last 15 minutes was about Congressman Bart Stupak from Michigan. He was a 100% NRA supporter from a strong gun owning district who decided to vote against the NRA on a big gun show related bill. The NRA is now opposing him for re-election. We got to see him walking around a lot with a real sad look on his face. He goes to town hall meetings in his district and all his constituents want to know is why he betrayed them on the gun vote. You almost feel sorry for the guy.

At the end, Peter Jennings has to show what a tough interviewer he is by interrogating LaPierre in person. As we know, LaPierre is not that good under stress, so it was easy for Jennings to make him look bad. Jennings accused the NRA of lying about the gun show bill in letters to Rep. Stupak. He criticized the NRA line that only a few felons been prosecuted for attempting to purchase a gun. Jennings said the real number was about 600 per year and he waved some papers in front of the camera. Of course there was no time to really examine this question. As with all TV news programs, it was really pretty superficial.

If you ignore the part about how the NRA turns on those who cross them, it was really a lot of free advertising for the NRA. They built up the NRA to seem like some kind of super lobby that never loses a vote and can defeat any politician anywhere anytime. They neglected to mention that the NRA has very little influence in areas where people don't own many guns.

In retrospect, even the part about what happens to traitors was pretty good. The NRA needs to have a stick as well as a carrot to keep those pathetic politicians in line.

I suppose that some liberal urban voters might take an anti-NRA message from this program, but it just made me want to send in an extra donation this month.

Take Care,

Mike Brown