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Adolphus Busch IV Resigns From NRA After Gun Control Defeat In Senate
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/adolphus-busch-iv-nra_n_3112750.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009>

Posted: 04/18/2013 7:17 pm EDT | Updated: 04/18/2013 8:27 pm EDT

WASHINGTON -- Adolphus Busch IV, heir to the Busch family brewing fortune,
resigned his lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association on
Thursday, writing in a letter to NRA President David Keene, "I fail to see
how the NRA can disregard the overwhelming will of its members who see
background checks as reasonable."

The resignation, first reported by
KSDK<http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/376098/3/KSDK-Exclusive-Adolphus-Busch-IV-resigns-NRA-membership->,
came a day after the Senate rejected a series of amendments to a gun
control bill, including a bipartisan deal to expand background checks for
gun sales. The NRA had vigorously opposed all those measures.

"The NRA I see today has undermined the values upon which it was
established," wrote Busch. "Your current strategic focus clearly places
priority on the needs of gun and ammunition manufacturers while
disregarding the opinions of your 4 million individual members."

Reached for comment on Busch's resignation, NRA spokesman Andrew
Arulanandam told The Huffington Post, "We disagree with his
characterization, but we wish him all the best."

Busch joined the pro-gun organization in 1975 and has spoken before of his
love of hunting. But the NRA has moved in a direction that Busch would not
follow. "One only has to look at the makeup of the 75-member board of
directors, dominated by manufacturing interests, to confirm my point. The
NRA appears to have evolved into the lobby for gun and ammunition
manufacturers rather than gun owners," he wrote.

Busch told Keene, "It disturbs me greatly to see this rigid new direction
of the NRA." He singled out the gun lobby's reversal of its 1999 position
in favor of universal background checks, as well as its opposition to an
assault weapons ban and a ban on high-capacity magazines. "I am simply
unable to comprehend how assault weapons and large capacity magazines have
a role in your vision," he wrote.

"Was it not the NRA position to support background checks when Mr. LaPierre
himself stated in 1999 that NRA saw checks as 'reasonable'?" Busch wrote,
referring to NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre's testimony at a Senate Judiciary
Committee hearing in the wake of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting.

At that time, LaPierre said the NRA believed that universal background
checks were a "reasonable" choice. The group even took out
ads<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/31/nra-gun-show-loophole_n_2593937.html>in
major newspapers that read, "We believe it's reasonable to provide for
instant background checks at gun shows, just like gun stores and pawn
shops."

One week after that hearing, LaPierre rolled out the same argument that he
would use 14 years later to attack President Barack Obama's gun safety
proposals -- namely, that until the government prosecutes more background
check violations, there is no point in expanding them.

*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated incorrectly that
Adolphus Busch IV had resigned his membership on the NRA board. Busch was
not a member of the board.