Lawyer for gun makers takes NRA helm, calls members 'fighters for freedom' in 'culture war'
An Alabama lawyer who represents gun makers and has a knack for controversial rhetoric will take the helm Monday as president of the National Rifle Association, following the organization’s three-day annual convention in Houston.
Described as a “hard line culture warrior” by USA Today, attorney James W. “Jim” Porter II is a Birmingham practitioner whose father also served as NRA president in 1959-60.
“Revenge is what’s motivating the president’s unrelenting attacks on gun owners today,” Porter said at a Saturday session of the convention. He was referring to efforts by federal lawmakers to increase gun control measures, following the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at a Connecticut elementary school in December.
“Millions of Americans are becoming first-time gun owners,” Porter told NRA members. “The media calls it fear. That’s not it. It’s a sense of natural outrage that’s been building for quite some time.”
A U.S. Senate bill that would have required more background checks in order to sell guns was recently defeated, as an Associated Press article about the NRA meeting notes. However, debate over gun control is expected to remain a hot issue.
Porter said the organization and its members are facing “not a battle about gun rights” but “a culture war,” the AP article reports. He called those in the audience “fighters for freedom” and “the protectors.”
The NRA’s membership recently surpassed 5 million, a record.
The OTUS page of ABC News, CBS News and an NRA press release provide further details.
See also:
ABA Journal: “Gun violence issue surfaces at House of Delegates”
ABAJournal.com: “Gun Control Debate Gains Traction as Obama Appoints Task Force in Wake of Conn. School Slayings”
ABAJournal.com: “Connecticut lawmakers pass gun control law; other states take opposite tack”
Washington Post (reg. req.): “A clear case of self-defense rallies supporters of gun rights”
