NRA's hard-line support fades as measures gain ground

WASHINGTON -- After years of depending on the National Rifle Association to carry their fight, many of the nation's largest gun makers are breaking free of their powerful patron, supporting limited gun control measures they hope will ward off lawsuits and more sweeping gun restrictions.

Over the opposition of NRA leaders, several top firearms industry officials have in recent weeks attended a White House meeting on violence, met with lawyers for cities that have sued gun makers and endorsed Democratic gun control proposals in Congress, including requiring background checks of people who buy firearms at gun shows.

The support of some big gun companies for several Democratic proposals has weakened the NRA's political clout in Washington and helped advocates of further restrictions win passage of the first gun control measures since the Republicans took control of Congress in 1994. Tensions between some gun makers and the NRA could also make it harder for the rifle association to defeat those measures in the House.

Friction between the two groups is not new. Neither is the industry entirely united, with some executives, particularly from ammunition and rifle companies, continuing to support the NRA's hard-line stance against new gun restrictions. But the school shootings in Littleton, Colo., last month have caused further strains, particularly between the makers of handguns and the rifle association.

"There are a lot of different cross pressures pulling us apart," said Robert Ricker, executive director of the American Shooting Sports Council, a trade group representing 350 firearms and ammunition manufacturers, including most of the nation's largest gun companies. "Littleton just drives the wedge deeper between us."

Though the NRA, with its network of activists and brimming campaign war chest, is a far more imposing lobbying presence in Washington, support from major gun makers could provide political cover for moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats looking for reasons to vote for gun control measures.

Over the past two weeks, Ricker has been telling wavering Republicans and Democrats that his group supported several of President Clinton's gun control proposals, including mandatory background checks of gun buyers at gun shows, raising the minimum age for buying or possessing a handgun to 21 from 18 and expanding a federal program to trace guns used in crimes. The gun show and tracing measures passed in the Senate last week and are now before the House.

Democrats clearly see the value in isolating the NRA. Two weeks ago, Clinton administration officials invited several gun industry officials -- including Ricker and executives from Glock Inc., O.F. Mossberg & Sons, the nation's largest shotgun maker, and Smith & Wesson, the largest handgun manufacturer -- to the White House summit on youth violence. But they did not invite top NRA officials.

Rifle association officials acknowledge differences with some gun makers, but blame Democrats for trying to inflame things. "Some people are trying to divide us," said Robert Viden, an NRA board member from New Jersey. "There is more cooperation than people realize."

For many years, most gun makers had been willing to let the NRA serve as their principal lobbyist and mouthpiece. But in the late 1980s, a number of smaller companies, concerned about legislative efforts to restrict gun sales, formed the American Shooting Sports Council to lobby for them in Washington. By the mid-1990s, most major firearms companies had joined the council, and under its executive director at the time, Richard Feldman, the group began taking increasingly independent stands from the rifle association.

In 1997, Feldman appeared at the White House to announce a voluntary program by major handgun makers to include trigger locks with new guns. The NRA denounced the agreement. But the shooting council estimates that 80 percent of new guns sent to dealers now include such locks.

Relations between the gun companies and NRA have also been strained over their conflicting strategies for dealing with lawsuits against the industry filed by shooting victims and cities. Nine cities have filed suits, and many more are expected in the coming weeks.

Under Feldman, the sports council began meeting with Mayor Edward Rendell of Philadelphia, who has been considering filing a suit, as well as with John Coale, a lawyer representing New Orleans and four other cities that have sued.

Though the industry is not willing to pay monetary settlements to plaintiffs, its leaders say, many gun executives might endorse certain gun control measures in exchange for having the cities drop their suits. But the NRA adamantly opposes new restrictions on gun owners, asserting that gun crimes could be prevented if existing laws were simply enforced.

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