"Transporting firearms on a commercial airliner involves a number of FAA rules and safety regulations to insure the safety of the passengers. It's a big responsibility, but the burden doesn't rest with just the airport terminal employees, the firearms owner shares a heavy load, too."

How about you keep my FREE! Arkansas Pocket Oilstone! and hire another frickin' lobbyist?

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On the same visit to the Antique Mall that turned up the picture of the NRA instructor's "I Love Me" shirt from '71, I picked up an old issue offrom July of '77.I was got by the cover, heralding the arrival of the new Virginian Dragoon, a domestic .44 Magnum SAA clone from Interarms which snatched the top billing from the the first test about a new revolver from North American Arms chambered in the radical .454 Casull... I guess not everyone can predict the future.The "Firearms Law" column by one P. Richard Metcalf sure could foreshadow it, though:I don't know that current events aren't affecting my interpretation of the tone, but that second sentence fair drips with "It's for all of our safety. Those cattle cars aren't going to load themselves, you know!"There are folksy pieces from Skeeter and Clair Rees, and Metcalf penned a multipage scrawl on "Whatever Happened to the S&W .22 Jet Revolver?" which got a cover blurb and provided my main reason for buying the mag.The most interesting thing in it was this ad, though, especially in light of the NRA Annual Meeting happening this month:A full-page NRA ad that is as Fudd-ite as they come. "22 Good Reasons To Join The NRA!" that only makes the most passing mention of, you know, fighting for your right to keep and carry your guns. Of course, this being the July issue, that ad was certainly typeset before the 1977 NRA Annual meeting in Cincinnati, better known to posterity as the Cincinnati Revolt Speaking strictly from the standpoint of federal laws, the period of time between the passage of GCA '68 and FOPA '86 was a Dark Age. Signing the ammo registry to buy a box of cartridges, zero legal protection for interstate transport, and worse . Do you like old Mausers or Mosins? Tough bananas back then. Since they had seen military service, they weren't importable because, you know, "sporting purposes". The unconstitutional "sporting purpose" clause in GCA '68 remains, but FOPA opened a door for C&R guns, through which poured the flood of military surplus we have now, and $75 Mosins and $100 SKSs have made more larval gun nuts than probably any other single thing I can think of.It's plenty possible to have beef with the organization, in fact, it's mandatory, but to confuse the NRA of that ad and the NRA that barrages me with fund-raising junk mail today ("FREE! DVD") is just willful ignorance.