OWAA Loyalty To Sierra Club<BR>Forces NRA To Withdraw Support

NRA has been forced to withdraw its support for the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA), due to OWAA leadership`s continuing loyalty to the Sierra Club, a longtime foe of the rights of hunters. NRA will join the growing number of OWAA Sustaining and Individual members who are transferring their memberships to groups more favorable to hunters and free expression.

"NRA has long worked with others in support of game and habitat preservation," said NRA President Kayne Robinson. "We are the primary organization that works to defend the rights of hunters and protect access to hunting lands. The NRA will continue its fight for the rights of all hunters in America."

Robinson noted NRA`s efforts to curb government harassment of hunters, including bureaucratic red tape, civil rights invasions, unreasonable fees, and restricted access to public lands. "Many of our most vulnerable hunters are being driven away by hostile government actions and the NRA will never stand idly by while our rights are being eroded."

The Sierra Club, an OWAA member organization, embarked last year on a political campaign to defeat pro-gun and pro-hunting candidates by endorsing a slate of candidates in the 2004 elections that were opposed to hunting and firearm ownership. NRA opposition to the Sierra Club campaign was met with criticism by OWAA leaders.

"If the Sierra Club`s endorsed candidates had their way, private ownership of firearms would be banned," said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. "We were right to oppose their campaign and their candidates, and NRA`s four million members turned out on Election Day and voted for their rights and their freedom."

Robinson pointed out the irony of OWAA criticism of the NRA in opposing the Sierra Club campaign. "This is an organization of journalists," Robinson noted. "Yet, as soon as we criticized the Sierra Club, we were attacked by the OWAA board in a clear exhibition of bias against free speech for its own members."

Robinson and LaPierre said that the NRA would join the large and growing number of former OWAA members who were transferring their memberships to groups more favorable to free expression and to the rights of hunters.