NRA chief says tighter airport security, ID card proposal threaten Americans’ rights

By Will Lester

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Anti-terror efforts such as body searches at airports and proposals for national ID cards threaten Americans’ basic freedoms, National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre told a gathering of conservatives Friday.

“We’ve witnessed a fire sale of American liberties at bargain basement prices in return for the false promise of more security,” LaPierre told the Conservative Political Action Conference. “Freedom is the first bargaining chip of a scared people.”

LaPierre, chief executive of the NRA, said the government should give more scrutiny to illegal aliens and others who come here from abroad, and less to U.S. citizens trying to take nail clippers through airports gates.

“Tell me exactly which airport security regulation failed that should have, or could have, prevented Sept. 11?” he said. “There’s not one. But the media blamed substandard airport security at the hands of poorly paid people.

“As a result our airports have become a place where you can see physically what’s happening to us psychologically,” LaPierre said.

He also criticized proposals for a national ID card, which the Bush administration hasn’t endorsed, and state efforts to develop driver’s licenses that electronically store personal information. He said those ideas have great potential for abuse by the government, corporate marketers and criminals.

“I have great respect for this administration,” he said, but cautioned conservatives not to accept all of its proposals just because they support President Bush.

“Never accept the idea that surrendering freedom, any freedom, is the price of feeling safe,” he said.

LaPierre also criticized campaign finance reform efforts and pledged to fight all the way to the Supreme Court if they become law.

The conference heard Thursday afternoon from Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who said the 2000 presidential election helped shine the spotlight on voting problems that have plagued the nation for decades.

The crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Arlington, Va., stood applauding for several minutes to register appreciation for her role in settling the Florida election, which gave Bush the presidency. Several in the crowd thanked her for “protecting the Constitution.”

“The usually routine formality of certifying an election,” she said, “abruptly thrust me into the role of being the new Cruella De Vil,” the villainess of Disney’s “101 Dalmatians”

Asked what Congress should do to reform elections, she responded: “We need no bureaucracy to run elections nationwide. We need a one-time funding mechanism to make sure states get up to speed.”

Florida has moved to fix election problems, she said, improving voting machinery, its database for checking voter identification and voter education.

“In reality, the whole difficult experience exposed flaws in the elections process that had festered across America for decades,” she said.

Harris, a Republican candidate for Congress, praised Bush’s leadership and said: “Sometimes it’s difficult to imagine that just over one year ago there were questions about his legitimacy carelessly floated around.”