Riverfront Times April 19, 2012 : Page 13
Straight Shootin? continued from page 10 thinks concealed-carry would help his state. Further back, a Kansas couple says that laws al-ready on the books ought to be better enforced. These views — anecdotal to be sure — com-plicate the picture painted by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who just last Fri-day wrote on the Daily Beast website: “The NRA wants to create a nation where disputes are settled by guns instead of gavels, and where suspects are shot by civilians instead of ar-rested by police.” None of the dozen NRA members inter-viewed by RFT — all affable and open — seemed to want that. None wished to become the next George Zimmerman, the Florida man accused of shooting the unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin. But each feared to some degree that cops, courts and politicians were dropping the ball on public safety. And they feared that those same parties also backed policies threatening to strip a legit gun owner of the ability to pick up the slack and defend herself. Of course, it’s the NRA leadership that stokes such anxieties. And it’s the NRA leader-ship that presents itself as the only real solution. “If you want a glimpse of a genuine night-mare for America,” Wayne LaPierre began in his aforementioned essay last November on the alleged Obama conspiracy, “just look at what’s headed our way.” President Obama’s plan to take away your guns, LaPierre predicted, will “succeed unless you recognize it, understand it, and take action now to stop it. The best way you could do so is by carrying your new 2012 membership card in your wallet…. For the sake of our Right to Keep and Bear Arms, it’s vital that you renew your NRA membership, upgrade your NRA membership and urge others to join NRA.” Since LaPierre made that November appeal, Smith & Wesson’s share price has surged as NRA members heed his warning and stock up while they still can. The same goes for gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co. which just a few weeks ago found itself so inundated with orders it had to turn down buyers. All the better for the NRA: Ruger happened to be nearing the conclusion of its “One Million Gun Challenge,” wherein the company would donate $1 to the NRA for every gun sold in a twelve-month period in the hope of becoming the fi rst manufacturer ever to build and ship 1 million fi rearms in a year. On Friday a Ruger executive presents an oversize check to the NRA with an oversize gift of $1,253,700. It was a win-win. The NRA sowed fear, customers bought guns from Ruger and Ruger endowed the NRA. The cycle was complete. Asked what gun sales really drove Ruger past its goal, a spokesman says, “That is infor-mation we don’t release because our competi-tors would like to know it also.” 1970s GUITAR GOD TED NUGENT ADDS THAT A VOTE FOR ANYONE OTHER THAN ROMNEY IS A VOTE FOR THE “VILE, EVIL, FREEDOM-HATING” WHITE HOUSE INCUMBENT. search. I’ve looked into his past. Mitt Romney is my guy because Mitt Romney is not a com-munist!” Beck closes his show with a quick parting joke: “Vote Shoe 2012.” Ouch. Other convention heavyweights proved more charitable. The next day the NRA posts on its site a vaguely insurrectionist interview with board member Ted Nugent, the 1970s gui-tar god whose hits include “Cat Scratch Fever.” “Mitt Romney is one of us now,” Nugent insists when interviewed on the NRA News stage in the middle of the exhibit hall. “And I know it’s a hard pill to swallow because of what Mitt has done in the past. But I had a long talk with him.” Nugent says he extracted from the governor a pledge of no more gun or ammo laws, and adds that a vote for anyone other than Romney is a vote for the “vile, evil, freedom-hating” White House incumbent. “If Barack Obama gets to be president again this November, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year,” Nugent declares. When someone in the crowd chortles, Nugent glares. “Why are you laughing?” he scolds. “That’s not funny at all. I’m serious as a heart attack.” Chewing on gum, his hair pulled back in a ponytail, the Nuge fi elds questions from sev-eral conventiongoers. The last man asks, with a deadly serious glint in his eye: “I joined the NRA many years ago realiz-ing that I desperately want to keep this fi ght in the political arena. But do you realize the power that you have? That if you say the word, there will be very many of us behind you, in a heartbeat?” “Boy, do I,” Nugent responds. “On all fronts. Let me give you a little insight here: Keep your eyes peeled because I may need you soon. I’ll leave it at that.” E-mail the author at nicholas.phillips@riverfronttimes.com NEXT WEDNESDAY ONLY! PRESENTED BY: An Evening With DA VID SEDARIS $35,/a;d; 30 PEABODY OPERA HOUSE FOR &DOOd;b; a;  9LVLWd; Ticketmaster.com 7,&.(76 or Visit 7KH)RUG%R[2IÀ FHDW6FRWWUDGH&HQWHU O n Saturday night Mitt Romney receives an infl uential, if backhanded, endorsement from the headline performer, Glenn Beck. “Let’s get it out who I endorse for presi-dent,” Beck tells the Edward Jones Dome crowd. “My shoe. Anyone but Barack Obama, including my shoe.” Later, he gets serious. “Mitt Romney is our guy. Haven’t been a Mitt Romney fan, [but] I’ve done a lot of re-riverfronttimes.com APRIL 1 9-25, 2 012 RIVERFR ONT TIMES 13