National Rifle Assn

Founded: In 1871 by former Union Army officers, with its main focus on marksmanship, hunting and safety. Current mission is "to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, especially with reference to the inalienable right of individual, law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms." Membership: 2.8 million members in 1989. Annual dues are $25. Budget: $87.5 million in 1989. Included $19.7 million for federal and local lobbying.

ST. LOUIS -- Once he's elected president, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday, he'll work to extend America's 2nd Amendment right to bear arms to the entire world. In a speech to the National Rifle Assn. 's annual convention in St. Louis, Gingrich glossed over the fact that he has effectively suspended his campaign for president and spoke boldly about what he intends to do in the White House. He said he will begin with an investigation into the “Fast and Furious” program, a failed effort by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to monitor gun sales along the Mexican border.

Harlon B. Carter, 78, who helped turn the National Rifle Assn. into one of the nation's most influential lobbying groups. He served as the NRA's chief executive officer and executive vice president from 1977 to 1985. During that period, the organization's membership grew from about 1 million to more than 3 million. Wayne R. LaPierre, NRA executive vice president, said Carter "was our champion and fiercest warrior." Carter established 44 national shooting records for pistol, small bore and military rifle and was honored in 1977 as Outstanding American Handgunner of the Year.

States' rights is one of those high principles that Republicans are willing to fight for — except when they aren't. So we have to give credit to Rep. Dan Lungren, California's former attorney general and now a congressman from Gold River, because he was the sole GOP member of the House Judiciary Committee to live up to his party's constitutional ideals by voting against a recent bill that steps on state gun regulations. The bill, known as the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, was approved in the House on Wednesday by a 272-154 vote, with 43 Democrats siding with 229 Republicans in the "yes" column.

Thomas Washington, 58, who had been president of the National Rifle Assn. for the last two years. A staunch defender of the constitutional right to bear arms, Washington was also executive director for two decades of the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, promoting fishing, hunting, firearms and conservation interests. His tenure as head of the NRA was marked by increasing political controversy.

The National Rifle Assn., recently hurt by a major legislative loss and an embarrassment to its lobbying effort, lost nearly $30 million last year, according to a published report. The 3-million-member organization posted a $29.8-million operating loss in the first 11 months of 1992, according to a treasurer's summary reported in last week's National Journal, a Washington newsmagazine.

If the National Rifle Assn. is so "powerful," why are there over 20,000 gun laws in America? GENE COCHRAN Los Angeles

Proposed name change for the National Rifle Assn.--Sons of the Gun. HANS SEIDENBERG Culver City

Democracy is a form of government run by the National Rifle Assn. and the tobacco companies. JEFFERSON CURRIER Santa Barbara

An ode to Charlton Heston on his retirement as president of the National Rifle Assn. (April 26): "Guns have their own silence. It is the silence of the dead to come." -- John Le Carre Tim Vivian Bakersfield

The 2nd Amendment's "right to keep and bear arms" is proving to be a right to keep a gun at home, but so far not a right to bear a loaded firearm in public. The Supreme Court breathed new life into the amendment when it struck down strict handgun bans in Washington and Chicago and spoke of the "inherent right of self-defense. " But to the dismay of gun rights advocates, judges in recent months have read those decisions narrowly and rejected claims from those who said they had a constitutional right to carry a loaded gun on their person or in their car. Instead, these judges from California to Maryland have said the "core right" to a gun is limited to the home.

Doctors will be banned from asking patients whether there are guns in the home, under legislation expected to be signed into law by Florida Gov. Rick Scott.  Whether a person has guns in the house may not immediately sound like a medical or health-oriented question -- unless you count not dying as a health issue. Doctors, for example, can ask patients whether they have pools, so that they can counsel them on pool safety issues. That's an important service for some parents of young children: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a third of all unintentional deaths of children between 1 and 4 years of age were due to drowning in 2007.

Gov. Jerry Brown, who routinely confounds those tempted to write him off as a stereotypical left-wing intellectual, did so again Wednesday, telling a roomful of cops that he's the proud owner of a small arsenal. Brown suggested that it's ridiculous for opponents of his plan to transfer thousands of felons from state prisons to county jails to lampoon it as the "get a dog, buy a gun" bill. It's perfectly natural for people to have those items in their homes anyway, he said. "I've got three guns and one dog," he told the Alliance of California Law Enforcement.

Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti moved Friday to ban the "open carry" of handguns within the city limits, part of a renewed nationwide push for bolstered gun control laws following this month's shooting rampage in Arizona. Under current California law, residents can generally carry legally owned handguns that are unloaded and kept in a visible place, such as a holster. Ammunition may be carried separately on a holster or elsewhere. It is illegal, however, to carry a loaded gun or concealed weapon ?

The gun was in a backpack, we're told. The backpack was dropped or set down in a Gardena High School classroom Tuesday morning, and the gun fired accidentally, critically injuring a 15-year-old female student who was struck in the head. A male student, also 15, was shot in the neck. You send your kids to school, and before the lunch bell rings, they're in the hospital. So the questions begin. Why is it so easy to smuggle a gun onto campus? How many more guns are on school campuses in greater Los Angeles and beyond?

The first federal gun control law was passed in 1968 after the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Brady bill mandating background checks on gun purchases was enacted in the years following the attempted assassination of President Reagan in 1981. But don't expect any new gun control laws coming out of Capitol Hill in the wake of the Tucson shooting rampage. The reason is not only the new Republican majority in the House ? it's that Democrats have traveled far from what was once one of their core legislative goals.

Re "Bennett Street Trembles," editorial, June 3: When are we going to defy the National Rifle Assn., register guns and jail gang members with unregistered guns? Hayward Thomas Palos Verdes Estates

At the last minute, House sponsors of a bill designed to shed light on who is funding political advertisements have eliminated a serious objection to the legislation: that it provided special treatment for the National Rifle Assn. Now the House should pass the bill. Known as the DISCLOSE Act, the legislation is a response to a wrongheaded Supreme Court decision that came down in January allowing corporations to use their treasury funds to sponsor election-related ads. The bill would require corporations, unions, advocacy groups and some nonprofits to disclose the names of their top donors.

The open carry movement, an aggressive campaign asserting the right of all Americans to carry unconcealed firearms in public, operates under a simple premise spelled out in a banner headline on the opencarry.org website: "A right unexercised is a right lost." But in California, the opposite may well turn out to be true — in-your-face demonstrations by gun-toting activists have prompted a legislative backlash that may end open carry in this state for good. That's OK by us. There is no compelling reason society should tolerate weekend commandos flashing their firearms, confounding law enforcement officers and terrorizing the public.