For National News Editors & Correspondents.

For Correspondents in Texas, see note page 2.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Call Tom Wyld, NRA Public Affairs

April 15, 1994				(703-267-3820)

NRA TO ABA:  "COUNSELLOR, CALL YOUR CLIENT!"

While ABA covers its get-soft tracks with a gun control smokescreen,
NRA's chief lobbyist sees stunning affirmation of NRA's
crime-fighting agenda -- and the right to own a firearm for
self-defense -- in recent poll by the National Law Journal.

Washington, D.C. -- The Founding Fathers and constitutional law
scholars insist that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual
right of law-abiding citizens -- and the American Bar Association
could care less.  But in its drive against constitutional rights, the
ABA will have a devil of a time telling its own client base to get
lost. 

"Americans are quite literally up in arms about violent crime," said
Mrs. Tanya K. Metaksa, NRA chief lobbyist.  "Americans believe the
concrete and steel of prisons are their best barricade against
violent attackers.  If that fails, lawful gun ownership -- not
lawyers and litigation -- is their best protection." 

Mrs. Metaksa said her views are confirmed by the just-released poll
in the April 18th issue of the National Law Journal.  62 percent said
the need for a firearm for protection against crime is increasing,
and very few -- 22% -- support more gun restricti ons.  "ABA's
clientele, law-abiding Americans like those polled by the National
Law Journal,  state that restrictive gun control doesn't keep them
safe and prisons do, but the ABA's not listening."

Metaksa confessed that, in view of ABA's crime control stance, she
was not surprised by its attack on the fundamental right of
self-defense.   "Gun control is camouflage for crime control
inaction," Mrs. Metaksa said, suggesting that ABA may be covering the
tracks of its weak crime posture that tends to coddle criminals, not
control them.

"On February 22, 1994, ABA testified before the U.S. House of
Representatives that criminal justice policy is inordinately tilted
toward law enforcement and corrections.'   How so?" Mrs. Metaksa
asked.  "Today, prison is the sentencing alternative least  used 
throughout America -- and Americans are paying for it with their
lives.  Every day in America, 14 people are murdered, 48 women are
raped, and 578 people are the victims of an armed robbery committed
by a criminal who has already been caught, convi cted, but returned
to the streets  on probation or early parole."

The ABA also testified against mandatory minimum sentences and "3
Strikes You're Out" -- a measure preferred by Americans polled by the
National Law Journal.   "Americans want measures like 3 Strikes
You're Out' which NRA played a decisive role in gettin g on the
ballot in Washington state and onto the books in California, the U.S.
Senate and elsewhere," Mrs. Metaksa said.   "ABA, however, testified,
this provision is unlikely to produce any real impact on reducing or
preventing violent crime,' because c riminal activity diminishes
markedly by the time [violent criminals] reach their mid-thirties.'

"But where was ABA last fall, when NRA tried to block the release of
Oregon's Russell Obremski -- a multiple killer nearly 50 years old? 
And where was ABA when that killer, after his release, was arrested
for sodomizing a four-year-old little girl?  Why doesn't ABA send an
emissary to the girl's family to explain how  criminal activity
diminishes markedly' when life-long predators get older?" 

- n r a -

Memo for Correspondents in Texas:   Attending the American
Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Conference in San Antonio is NRA
CrimeStrike  Director Steve Twist.  For interviews of Twist, call NRA
Public Affairs at (703-267-3820) or reach Mr. Twist dire ctly at
210-222-1234 (hotel) or 202-812-1043 (cellular).
                
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