Cigarettes are made by a few big and powerful corporations that have long exercised tremendous influence in Washington and in tobacco-growing states. Firearms are made by a large number of relatively small, often family-owned businesses that until recently relied entirely on the NRA for political cover. We have people, and I would always rather have the power of people. By and large, when it comes down to a political showdown in which people count, the freedom to own guns wins out. Earlier this year, that people power drove the Georgia legislature to approve in just two weeks a bill that blocks a lawsuit filed by Atlanta against gun manufacturers.
Similar efforts are underway in a dozen other states.
Two months ago the NRA demonstrated its determination to keep the industry in line when it helped engineer the removal of Richard Feldman as executive director of the American Shooting Sports Council, the leading industry trade group. Feldman had transgressed by exploring the possibility of settling with a lawyer involved in some of the city lawsuits. Breaking ranks with the NRA has had consequences in the past. After the Stockton school shooting in 1989, the NRA insisted there could be no compromising on an assault weapons ban. Meanwhile, Sturm, Ruger and Co., a major manufacturer, publicly argued that if such a ban were enacted it should not include the sporting weapons the company produced.