COMMENTARY

Curving in the grades

The National Rifle Association has announced whom it believes fanatics fearing gun restrictions should favor in the imminent election in Arkansas.

That means Republicans, of course, with, as it happens, rare exceptions.

From the gun lobby’s recommendations we have one big headline, one secondary headline and one sub-headline. Then there is an array of predictable and vital stuff about which potential auditor or treasurer or secretary of state is judged to be firearm-friendliest (the Republicans in all those cases) and therefore deserving of election to use their ministerial offices to preserve somehow the Second Amendment.

As surely you know, a firearm-unfriendly treasurer poses great peril if permitted to deposit state tax money in banks. A firearm-unfriendly secretary of state will surely fail at essential lawn maintenance at the state Capitol.

Oh, and there’s also one bitter irony from the NRA announcement.

So let’s get to all that, beginning with the big headline: An Arkansas Democrat has actually been endorsed by the NRA for a major statewide office over a live Republican opponent—in fact, a self-professed Glock 27-toting Republican opponent.

State Rep. Nate Steel of Nashville has won an “A” from the NRA for his pro-gun voting record—a fairly standard pro-gun voting record for any rural state legislator of either party.

Somewhat surprisingly, the usually Republican-allied NRA decided against simply making no recommendation in Steel’s battle with Republican Leslie Rutledge—the Glock-carrier.

Instead, the NRA chose to endorse him, not her, presumably because, professed positions on issues notwithstanding, he had a demonstrated pro-gun voting record and she didn’t.

So Steel adds the NRA backing to his legislator-of-the-year awards from the prosecuting attorneys association, the chiefs of police association and the Fraternal Order of Police.

An Arkansas Democrat popular with gun zealots and the law enforcement community is one worth watching.

The secondary headline is that another pro-run rural Arkansas Democrat—that would be gubernatorial candidate Mike Ross, a competitive skeet shooter—also won an “A” from the NRA, which chose to make no recommendation between him and Asa Hutchinson.

That’s despite the fact that Hutchinson actually worked for the NRA to advocate guns in schools.

Ross simply refuses time and again to get out-gunned. On Sunday he was touting his bedside arsenal in an interview with this newspaper’s outdoor writer. His holding Hutchinson to an NRA draw is a significant victory.

The sub-headline is that one major Democratic candidate—former North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Henry Hays—actually pulled down an “F” from the NRA, which, of course, endorsed the Republican, French Hill, in the suddenly heated 2nd District congressional race.

Hays actually is an NRA member. But he seems to have made a calculated decision not even to answer the NRA’s questionnaire because it posed a no-win situation for him.

Finally, the bitter irony: For fear of NRA opposition, U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor offended his Democratic base by voting against basic gun reforms such as regulation of gun-show sales.

So now the NRA gives Pryor a B-minus and bestows its endorsement on his A-graded Republican opponent, Tom Cotton, who benefits from an NRA decision to run television spots for him.

So it turns out Pryor might as well have done the right thing on guns as he did on Obamacare.

John Brummett’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his blog at brummett.arkansasonline.com, or his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.

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