Gun control advocates to protest NRA

After an armed gunman took the lives of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut more than three years ago, Kathleen Chandler Wright waited for some news that the nation's guns laws would be overhauled.

When little changed, the mother of two said she felt compelled to act. Wright launched the Tennessee chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, an affiliate of the national gun safety advocacy group that emerged after the Sandy Hook tragedy. Wright says the Tennessee chapter has more than 47,000 supporters.

On Saturday Wright will be among an estimated 400 people from around the country that are expected to gather at Riverfront Park to protest what organizers are calling the "extremist agenda" of the National Rifle Association, which is holding their annual meeting just blocks away at Music City Center.

More than 70,000 NRA members are here for a four-day gathering of workshops, political speeches and a trade show featuring the latest in guns and gadgets.

"We support the Second Amendment," said Wright, a 35-year-old Nashville entertainment marketer who serves as a volunteer gun safety advocate. "We have gun owners in our organization. We know that many NRA members are responsible gun owners, and we are calling on them to help us create safe laws for everybody. The NRA leadership has just gone too far to the extreme."

Wright said the rally's message is directed at Tennessee lawmakers as well, who are weighing several bills to expand gun rights, including allowing guns in parks.

For gun control advocates such as Wright, the lobbying arm of the NRA is the chief obstacle to tighter gun control laws they believe would better promote public safety — a view shared by President Barack Obama.

In an interview with ABC news on Thursday, the president called it "heartbreaking" that his administration has not been able to persuade Congress to pass a slate of gun control laws to expand background checks, ban military style assault weapons and armor-piercing bullets and limit ammunition magazines. He laid the blame directly at the NRA.

"The power of the NRA and the gun lobby in Congress is formidable," he said.

NRA officials have said their priority remains keeping children safe, securing schools, fixing a broken mental health system and prosecuting violent criminals to the fullest extent of the law — while protecting the Second Amendment rights for all Americans.

"What is truly heartbreaking is this president had an opportunity to improve our nation's mental health system and to ensure that the dangerously mentally ill who shouldn't have access to firearms don't have access to firearms," NRA spokesman Andrew Arulananadam said. "Instead of doing the right thing and revamping our nation's mental health system, he tried to push his own political agenda after Sandy Hook, and that's why it failed."

Arulananadam said the grassroots support of millions of Americans drives the organization's agenda. The organization has 5 million dues-paying members and many more supporters, he said.

"We are the strongest grassroots organization in this country, and we make no apologies for that," he said. "The credit should rightfully go to our members.

A Gallup poll in October found that less than half of Americans, 47 percent, say they favor stricter laws covering the sale of firearms.

The percentage, however, declined significantly in the years since the Sandy Hook shootings. A Gallup poll conducted shortly after the incident found 58 percent favored stricter gun laws.

Reach Anita Wadhwani at 615-259-8092 or on Twitter@AnitaWadhwani.