From: [c--wf--d] at [fido.econlab.arizona.edu] (David Crawford)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: [MEDIA] New York Times long story on NRA
Date: 11 Sep 1994 09:14:43 -0400

Cross posted to 
[firearms alert] at [shell.portal.com]
rec.guns
talk.politics.guns
AZRKBA

The New York Times Sunday  Magazine today (94 Sept. 11)
has a cover story on the NRA (12 pages long) titled 
'A Hoplophobe Among the Gunnies'.  

It's a fairly detailed story, and picks up on a few good points
often overlooked by the Times and other leading media.

A sample of points made:

Assault weapons = ugly guns

DiFi: The Steyr AUG 'a favourite of drive-by shooters'

Aug 14 rally in Wash., DC

"Blaming a gun for its misuse is animism... This is modern witchcraft"

"The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting"

Patrick Leahy on Vermont:"We have virtually no gun-control law and the second 
lowest crime rate in the country"

NRA women's program lists guns merely as item #42 on a list that
includes pepper spray and doorstops.

[Tanya] 'Metaksa, 57, seems like a character out of Ayn Rand'

Video of Neal Knox shooting a medium power rifle (AK47) at watermellons.

Neal Knox and the revolution at the NRA head office.
Knox: shooting 'is not an extension of the death wish or the power
game  or the penile implants -- none of that.  It's fun'.

Electronic networking and rec.guns, GUN-TALK.

Susanne Grattia testifying: The Second Amendment "is about our right
to be able to protect ourselves from all you guys up there."

The reporter went shooting with Metaksa.  "I knew that I could turn
the gun on everyone around me but that through some tacit, freshly 
negotiated social contract, we had all agreed not to do that."

...

There's a lot of analyis of how the gun debate has evolved over the past
thirty years, and the reporter cites information that's commonly discussed
here and rarely is reported by the media, such a criticizing
the AMA number of child deaths by guns.

There's even a quote from rec.guns to introduce the word 
'hoplophobic'.

Alas, it concludes "The gunny's dream about subduing endless enemies was like
a pornographic illusion: your sexual powers caused scores of people
to succumb to you at your will.   No wonder the gunnies were so 
attatched to ugly guns.   Asking a gunny to go bak to a less sophisticated
firearm was like asking a devotee of pornography to go from videotape
back to still photographs".

At your news stands, Sunday Sept 11.

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