Ray Ring

Senior Editor

Richard Feldman is the author of a provocative book called, Ricochet: Confessions of a Gun Lobbyist. He gives us an unusual insider’s take on the NRA, in a Washington Post column.

The column is headlined:

The NRA’s Main Target?

Its Members’ Checkbooks.

And it says:

… This major lobbying group has become intoxicated with money and privilege. … Today, the association’s primary business is fundraising. And nothing keeps the fundraising machine whirring more effectively than convincing the faithful that they’re a pro-gun David facing down an invincible anti-gun Goliath. In the NRA’s lexicon, “compromise” is a dirty word …

Feldman also reveals questionable financial deals by the NRA boss.

It helps us understand why gun politics are so powerful — and uncompromising — in the West and nationwide, an issue I explored in a recent High Country News cover story called “Guns R Us.”

Jonathan Thompson

Editor in Chief

HCN has covered the condor vs. lead bullet issue several times in the past, most recently in March with this compelling piece by Mitch Tobin. Basically, tens of millions of dollars have been spent to bring the California condor back from the brink of extinction. By most estimates, the program would be a success, except for lead bullets. When condors eat carrion killed by the bullets, they can get sick or die. That means wildlife officials must feed the birds.
Seems like a no brainer: Stop using lead bullets. Indeed, the California Legislature passed a ban on lead bullets this summer — capturing national attention. Now the ban is awaiting the governor’s signature. What’s surprising is, he may not sign it (he fired a Fish and Game commissioner who appeared to favor the ban).

For the Washington Post’s update, go here.

Jonathan Thompson

Editor in Chief

Iowa and New Hampshire are getting most of the attention thus far from presidential candidates. That’s to be expected. But thanks to a January Nevada caucus, campaigners are also spreading out across the Silver State. Democrat Bill Richardson has spent some time there in the hopes that his Western roots will give him a high placing in Nevada, and some momentum going into the Feb. 5 super primary. Barack Obama’s supporters are also campaigning in Nevada and, according to this L.A. Times piece, running into some surprises:

Harper looks down at him and, after a pause, explains that they’re working for the Obama campaign and that the person at the address is listed as a supporter. “Good,” the man says, touching his right hand to the small of his back, “because I’ve got my .44 back here.”

(Read on …)

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

We’re “the most heavily armed society in the world,” says a Reuters story. Ta-daaah. It sums up the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Switzerland-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

The survey’s findings include:

U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world’s 875 million known firearms … (and) about 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States.

India had the world’s second-largest civilian gun arsenal, with an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, though this represented just four guns per 100 people there. China, ranked third with 40 million privately held guns, had three firearms per 100 people.

… On a per-capita basis, Yemen came second behind the U.S., with 61 guns per 100 people, followed by Finland with 56, Switzerland with 46, Iraq with 39 and Serbia with 38.

France, Canada, Sweden, Austria and Germany were next, each with about 30 guns per 100 people, while many poorer countries often associated with violence ranked much lower. Nigeria, for instance, had just one gun per 100 people.

A different Reuters story says:

From 1993 to 2000, the United States was the leading supplier of conventional arms to the developing world. In 1999, more than 4 million firearms were manufactured in the United States for domestic sale or export … More than 300 U.S. companies produce arms and/or ammunition.

Yet a crisis looms. Despite all our ammo-makers, we’re running short of ammo. The Dallas Morning News has the overview of the crisis, reporting:

The baby needs milk. The car needs gas. The gun needs bullets.

Rising dairy and oil prices grab the attention of shoppers and motorists. But the increasing price of ammunition — a consumer product the government considers when calculating the rate of inflation — has largely gone unnoticed.

The price increases began after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and were compounded by a double whammy: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which pushed up overall demand, and growing industrial powers such as China, which bid up the cost of needed raw materials.

… (Ammo) dealers, hunters and law-enforcement officers are feeling squeezed … Some calibers cost only 10 percent more than a year ago; other varieties have more than doubled in price … Some gun owners stockpiled all they could get, sending prices even higher. Now dealers said that as soon as new supplies come in, customers grab them.

The ammo shortage in the West is being felt by police departments in Washington, Idaho and Wyoming.

Another possible reason for the shortages in the West: Some people enjoy getting together to shoot their fully-automatic machine guns, profiled nicely in the Casper Star-Tribune.

For more background on guns in the West, here’s my package of gun stories in High Country News.

Let’s close with an excerpt from the Star-Trib on machine-gunners:

The Wyoming sun has just begun to set when Stuart Ruben opens up on the mini gun.

In 15 seconds the powerful weapon spews out 1,000 rounds of tracers, incendiary bullets and starburst ammunition. It’s not exactly a subtle gun. Onlookers standing nearby feel, rather than hear, it fire.

Moments later, hundreds of shells casings lie at Ruben’s shoes and an old sedan several hundred feet away bursts into flames.

The voice of range safety officer Bill Black booms over the loudspeaker.

“The line is hot, the line is hot. Everybody may start shooting now.”

All along the firing line, dozens of people are shooting at targets set up on an empty prairie about 30 minutes south of Casper. They’re participating in the North Rockies 10th annual Machine Gun and Cannon Shoot …

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

About four years ago, libertarians around the country got the idea to pick a state and move there in droves, to tip the local politics in their direction — or make that, their nondirection.

They call it, in occasional bursts of national publicity and other fanfare … the “Free State Project.”

Last we heard, the Free State libs had decided to target New Hampshire with their takeover effort.

Turns out, many of them have targeted Wyoming instead. They’re moving to the Cowboy-FossilFuelDigging-LowTax State from insufficiently liberated places like California. And they all seem to be packing guns on their hips.

The Casper Star-Tribune has the story, and the Wyoming Free State website is here.

Consider this news our July 4th 2007 Evolution of Independence Day Special.