Still no word from NRA on Bush’s gun control policy in Iraq

Just to keep you up-to-date, I want to follow up on an item from last week about the National Rifle Association and the Bush administration’s strict new gun control policy in Iraq.

I wrote two weeks ago that I thought it was ironic that the White House was creating a tough assault weapons ban in Iraq while allowing our domestic ban on the same weapons to expire. I wondered about how pro-gun groups would react.

The NRA, which rarely hesitates to condemn any and all attempts to limit access to firearms, suddenly acted like the cat got their tongue.

Slate’s Tim Noah tried in vain to get a comment, one way or the other, from the NRA about the group’s position on the administration’s new Iraq policy. When the NRA refused to answer Noah’s calls, he began the NRA Weasel Watch.

Well, another week has passed, and I’m pleased to report that NRA Weasel Watch is up to Day 14.

Noah explained yesterday that he continues to call the NRA for a comment. Two days ago, for example, he noted that “a courteous press assistant wrote down [the] request. And yet again, nobody returned the call.”

I can say with some experience that sometimes when you work for a group or a candidate, you hear questions you’d prefer not to answer. If you stick to a principle that’s politically unpopular, your critics will use it like club. If you cave to pressure, your friends and supporters will call you a sellout. When this happens, there’s certainly a temptation to “hunker down,” unplug the phone, and wait for the questioners to simply give up.

What surprises me, though, is the NRA’s reticence. Since when do the tough guys at the NRA worry about speaking their minds? Isn’t this the same group that called federal law enforcement agents “jack-booted thugs” shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995? Now they’re worried about negative publicity?