NRA president claims gun lovers have been cast in 'black hats' for 'public floggings'

By Kevin Flynn
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Charlton Heston told an overflow crowd of NRA members in Denver Saturday that politicians and the media are trying to capitalize on the Columbine High School tragedy.

Heston defiantly insisted the National Rifle Association wasn't the villain in the deadly school shootings.

As he talked, about 8,000 anti-gun protesters marched around the Adam's Mark Hotel, where the gun group was conducting its annual meeting.

The corner of Court Place and the 16th Street Mall became ground zero for a national gun debate that has intensified since the Columbine shootings nearly two weeks ago.

NRA members mingled with protesters, each making their way to their rallying points.

Many NRA members expressed sympathy for the Columbine victims and blamed an evil subculture for the rampage by the two youths who killed 12 classmates and a teacher before committing suicide.

Some wore ribbons of blue and silver -- Columbine's colors -- in solidarity with those in mourning.

Heston, the Hollywood star who heads the 3-million-member gun rights group, said gun owners have been unfairly targeted for the sake of ratings and political advantage.

"The countless requests we've received for media appearances are in fact summonses to public floggings, where those who hate firearms will predictably don the white hat and hand us the black," said the NRA president.

He opened the membership meeting in the hotel ballroom with a moment of silence for the victims of the April 20 shootings.

Then he criticized those who have jumped on the Columbine tragedy to push a gun-control agenda, starting with Mayor Wellington Webb, who had asked the NRA to stay away for the time being.

"They want us to play the heavy in their drama of packaged grief, to provide riveting programming to run between commercials for cars and cat food," said Heston. "The dirty secret of this day and age is that political gain and media ratings all too often bloom upon fresh graves."

But, Heston said, the NRA would continue to push for gun safety, education and crime prevention while defending the right to own guns.

Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, said responsible gun ownership is a fundamental right. He attacked the Clinton administration for failing to prosecute those who violate existing gun laws.

NRA organizers were overwhelmed by the attendance. After the shootings, the group had cut back the meeting from three days to one, canceled drink-and-dinner festivities, removed billboard advertisements and jettisoned plans for a 170,000-square-foot hall where 350 gun makers and other exhibitors were to sell their wares.

The ballroom at the Adam's Mark Hotel had been set up to seat 2,600 people, but more than 4,000 showed up. The registration line snaking through the outer ballroom lobby held up the meeting for 25 minutes.

Denver fire marshals closed off the ballroom once all the seats were filled, and hundreds more stood around the room's perimeter. A sound system was hastily set up in the lobby so others outside could hear the proceedings.

John and Elizabeth Storm came from Pittsfield, Ill., for the meeting. The retired couple have attended every annual meeting for the past eight years.

"It seems like most meetings bring out people who would like to protest something because they have no idea of what the NRA stands for," said Elizabeth Storm, 76, a former schoolteacher.

Heston responded directly to Webb, who had asked the NRA to cancel all of its events, including the membership meeting. He called it an offensive suggestion.

"They say, 'Don't come here,"' he said. "I guess what saddens me most is how it suggests complicity. It implies that you and I and 80 million honest gun owners are somehow to blame, that we don't care as much as they, or that we don't deserve to be as shocked and horrified as every other soul in America mourning for the people of Littleton.

"'Don't come here'? That's offensive. It's also absurd, because we live here," Heston said, speaking of the thousands of members in the Denver area and tens of thousands in Colorado.

"And NRA members are surely among the police and SWAT teams and other heroes who risked their lives to rescue the students of Columbine from evil, mindless executioners," he said.

Webb said Heston didn't get it. He's welcome in Denver, but Webb said he asked for more sensitivity to the victims so soon after the event.

"Oh Moses, oh Moses, the message has been misunderstood!" the mayor said, referring to Heston's starring role in The Ten Commandments.

"The message was about a community that's grieving and burying its dead, and it is not in good taste to hold a convention that sells guns at a time like this."