[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 69 Introduced in House (IH)]

  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 69

     Expressing the sense of the Congress that the National Rifle 
Association should disavow and condemn the inflammatory and defamatory 
    language used by its leadership and certain of its officers and 
    employees to attack Federal law enforcement agencies and their 
                               employees.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 18, 1995

 Mr. Schumer submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
     Expressing the sense of the Congress that the National Rifle 
Association should disavow and condemn the inflammatory and defamatory 
    language used by its leadership and certain of its officers and 
    employees to attack Federal law enforcement agencies and their 
                               employees.
Whereas the United States is a model for the world of free and vigorous 
        political debate, peaceful democratic change, and respect for the rule 
        of law;
Whereas our long tradition of peaceful political change depends largely upon the 
        universal rejection by the American people of extremist calls to 
        violence and of inflammatory denigration of the institutions of our 
        Government;
Whereas the leadership and certain officers and employees of the National Rifle 
        Association--as opposed to its grass roots membership--have repeatedly 
        and unjustly attacked Federal law enforcement agencies and Federal law 
        enforcement officers;
Whereas, for example, in a fundraising letter sent out shortly before the 
        Oklahoma City terrorist bombing, the leadership of the National Rifle 
        Association called Federal law enforcement officers ``jack-booted 
        government thugs, wearing black, armed to the teeth'', who ``break down 
        a door, open fire with an automatic weapon, and kill or maim law-abiding 
        citizens'';
Whereas this and other intemperate, unfounded, and inaccurate language by the 
        leadership of the National Rifle Association defames thousands of 
        dedicated men and women who risk their lives every day enforcing the 
        laws this Congress has enacted;
Whereas these defamatory excesses by the leadership of the National Rifle 
        Association dishonor the memory and sully the sacrifices of the hundreds 
        of selfless law enforcement officers who have given their lives in 
        enforcing the laws upon which America's ``domestic tranquility'' 
        depends;
Whereas President Clinton and former President Bush alike have condemned the use 
        of this inflammatory and defamatory language by the leadership of the 
        National Rifle Association; and
Whereas the membership of the National Rifle Association should have an 
        opportunity to repudiate the unwise and intemperate use of this language 
        by the leadership and certain officers and employees of the National 
        Rifle Association: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of the Congress that--
            (1) the intemperate, inflammatory, and defamatory language 
        used by the National Rifle Association to attack Federal law 
        enforcement agencies and Federal law enforcement officers tends 
        to erode the spirit of vigorous debate, respect for the rule of 
        law, and peaceful change that is the bedrock of our democracy; 
        and
            (2) the National Rifle Association should present to its 
        members, and its members should pass, a resolution condemning 
        the past use of such language by the leadership and certain 
        officers and employees of the National Rifle Association, 
        repudiating the use of such language in the future, and 
        directing such officers and employees to return to the 
        mainstream of American life by exercising the more judicious 
        restraint in debate that characterizes a civil and just 
        society.
                                 <all>