This news story originally provided by The Progress Report

January 8, 2007

NRA PRESSURED BY BASE TO DISTANCE ITSELF FROM BUSH ENERGY POLICIES: The National Rifle Association (NRA) is being pressured by its membership to distance itself from President Bush's energy policies that have opened more public land for oil and gas drilling and limited access to hunters and anglers, the Washington Post reported this weekend. "The Bush administration has placed more emphasis on oil and gas than access rights for hunters," said Ronald L. Schmeits, second vice president of the NRA. "We find that our members are having a harder time finding access to public land. Gun rights are still number one, but there will be more time and effort spent on this issue [by NRA leaders] as we move forward." For six years, the NRA joined the Bush administration in opposing the Clinton-era roadless rule, a broad land-protection measure that put nearly a third of the national forests off limits to most development. "The NRA stance on the roadless rule is a mistake," said Hal Herring, a contributing editor for Field and Stream magazine, echoing the view of many prominent outdoor writers. "There are no more roadless areas being produced."