Could not pass this one up.............http://www.NRAblacklist.com
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Most blacklists are designed to intimidate. But
thousands of Americans are clamoring to join one drawn up by the National
Rifle Association.
Actor Dustin Hoffman was so dismayed to find his name missing from the NRA's
shadowy 19-page list of U.S. companies, celebrities, and news organizations
seen as lending support to anti-gun policies that he wrote to the powerful
pro-gun lobby group begging to be included.
"As a supporter of comprehensive anti-gun safety measures, I was deeply
disappointed when I discovered my name was not on the list," Hoffman wrote
in a letter to the NRA that was released on Tuesday.
"I was particularly surprised by the omission given my opposition to the
loophole that makes it legal for 18- to 20-year-olds to buy handguns at gun
shows," he added.
Hoffman's name has now been added to the list which reads like a Who's Who
of American business, culture and religion and which ranges from the
American Jewish Congress to A&M Records, ABC News and talk show queen Oprah
Winfrey.
An NRA spokesman could not be reached for comment.
The list was found deep in the official NRA Web site by a group of
grass-roots anti-gun campaigners and publicized by them two weeks ago to
garner support for two pieces of gun control legislation going through
Congress.
The campaigners set up their own Web site (http://www.NRAblacklist.com) and
urged Americans to voluntarily put their names there. A full-page ad on
Tuesday in Daily Variety -- the Hollywood trade magazine -- urged movie and
music artists to sign up.
"What the site tries to do is turn it into a badge of honor to get on the
blacklist by saying 'Hey Julia Roberts is on the blacklist. Why don't you
join it?.' It's been incredibly successful. Since we have launched, 25,000
people have signed on to ask to be put on the blacklist," said Wendy Katz,
spokesperson for the group.
The NRA initially denied compiling a blacklist as such, saying it was merely
responding to members wanting to know which individuals and corporations
opposed the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment on the right to bear arms.
But National Rifle Association Executive Vice-President Wayne LaPierre said
of the list last week; "Our members don't want to buy their songs, don't
want to go to their movies, don't want to support their careers."
Katz said the campaigners hoped to expose the NRA's influence in Washington,
D.C., spur opposition to a bill that would grant immunity in civil cases for
gun manufacturers and dealers, and gather support for renewal of a 1994 ban
on the sale of military assault weapons.
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