New NRA Post-Katrina Fundraising Campaign Targeting Mayors and Police Signals Return to Organization�s Days of �Jack Booted Government Thugs� Extremist Rhetoric

Campaign Validates and Incites Anti-Police Faction of Pro-Gun Movement�Pro-Gun Group That Joined NRA in Lawsuit Against New Orleans Owns Web Site That Regularly Attacks Police

"This will probably mint money for us," Says NRA's Wayne LaPierre of Post-Katrina Focus

Washington, DC�Reports of plans by the National Rifle Association (NRA) to launch a nationwide campaign today targeting Mayors and Police Chiefs to pledge to never confiscate firearms in the wake of a natural disaster or terrorist attack will only validate the extremist views of the anti-law enforcement fringe of the pro-gun movement, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) warned today.

The VPC warned that the NRA was returning to the fear tactics it had embraced in the early 1990s during the Clinton Administration, when the organization adopted the language of the anti-government militia movement, warning that "The Final War Has Begun," calling federal agents "jack booted government thugs" and "storm troopers," and comparing the FBI to goose-stepping Nazis. The NRA abandoned the campaign after former NRA member Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995, killing 168 people.

VPC Executive Director Josh Sugarmann states, "The NRA is expert at exploiting high-profile events involving alleged infringement of their perceived `freedoms' as red meat to motivate the pro-gun hard core. To raise money and retain the support of this faction of activist gun owners, the NRA is willing once again to place America's law enforcement and public officials at risk." In a November 2005 interview with National Journal, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said of the organization's focus on police actions during Hurricane Katrina: "This will probably mint money for us."

Written attacks on law enforcement are common on pro-gun web sites and discussion forums. A web site�www.keepandbeararms.com�owned by the Second Amendment Foundation, which filed a suit against the City of New Orleans with the NRA challenging gun confiscations during Katrina, regularly has posted comments attacking law enforcement. The web site has a section titled "The Authorities" which features alleged government intrusions on gun ownership and police misconduct. Posts on the site that appeared following Hurricane Katrina and reports of weapon confiscations included:

• "I do not care who you are, or what authority you claim to possess. If you attempt to disarm me, I will kill you. It is becoming increasingly clear that the government will use any tragedy or excuse to violate our rights and further expand their totalitarian regime....When the government begins to violate the rights of citizens under the auspices of keeping order, hunt down and kill all who follow such illegal orders. Only in this way will liberty prevail."
  
  
• "It was obvious that the lawyer in question [who said that he would not give up his guns, but later did] was talk talk talk, and not shoot shoot shoot."
  
  
• "Twenty JBT's [jack-booted thugs] outside your house may be bullet proof but they're not fire proof."
  
  
• "I hear that some JBTs [jack-booted thugs] enjoy cocktails after work. One cocktail they wouldn't enjoy would be a molotov cocktail."
  
  
• "The question is simple: would you give the cops a piece of crap gun to send them on their way. Or would you be willing to ambush the cops at your door and then have to leave your home and family to go on the run. Would you be willing to stay and fight and be killed. Or do you have people on your street that would be willing to fight and put the cops in a cross fire keeping them out of the area. The big question would you be ready to die in a gun battle."
  
  
• "From my upstairs window, I can cover the front yards of three neighbors. I make head shots at that range freehand all the time. With .223 fmj [full-metal jacket] and up, vest penetration shouldn't be a problem, either."
  
  
• "I have read several accounts, that if it were me, there would have been gun play. I don't say that lightly, however, I would not willingly be illegally disarmed and/or have my dogs shot. I may go down, but I guarantee that I would take more than one of the bastards with me. It is not too much of a stretch with superior weapons to take down a few rogue police. I would seriously try and avoid a confrontation with the military. For one thing, they do not have an agenda, and for another they will have superior firepower and numbers."
  
  
• "I will let the government (city, state, or federal) take my firearms one round at a time, after a good sight picture and trigger squeeze. Give me liberty or give me DEATH!!!

Adds Sugarmann, "The NRA calls this week's convention a meeting of �Freedom's 2nd Army.' It is now clear who this army's enemy is: law enforcement and public officials."

The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction policies and proposals. The Center examines the role of firearms in America, conducts research on firearms violence, and explores new ways to decrease firearm-related death and injury.