Candidate Buz Mills owns a shooting range and is on the National Rifle Association's board of directors, but it's incumbent Jan Brewer who has the group's endorsement in the contested Republican primary for Arizona governor.

The National Rifle Association would love for everyone to own a gun and have to carry it everywhere. It would fill their selfish wallets. This is why their push for bills that allow guns on “gun free” zones is endless and relentless. Just last year Texas was faced with the same issue Arizona is seeing now for the state college campuses. But Texas intelligently did not pass the outlandish proposed law. “I just don’t want to see a repeat, in Texas, of what happened at Virginia Tech” said Sen. Jeff Wentworth (Texas).

WASHINGTON - As Moses, Charlton Heston thunderously rallied his people with the Ten Commandments in hand. The tablet of his political life was carved with something else - the Second Amendment.

The NRA and their willing allies — denial, deception, and deflection — are working overtime in the nation’s newspapers, and our Valley dallies are no exception.

I’m a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, but I was appalled on Saturday, July 21 to see on local (television) the 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. airing of an NRA-sponsored advertisement, soliciting donations for the NRA and NRA membership: “The Secret War on Guns: Anti-gun schemes threaten American lives and attack American freedom.” This was 30 minutes of hyper-partisan non-stop NRA spokesmen extolling the virtues of guns and vilifying any issues around gun control. And this is the next day, after the “Movie Massacre” killings in Aurora, Colo., using a “legal” AR-15 assault rifle. This is the height of arrogance, of insensitivity and poor timing. Don’t any of these people have any shame?

Sylvia Longmire, guest commentary

A political unknown has thrown nearly $2.1 million of his own cash into his bid to become governor, a move that could change the landscape of the race. Owen Buz Mills, a member of the National Rifle Association board of directors, filed a report with the Secretary of State's Office this week detailing the funding.

Five years after Phoenix broke ground on the $600 million transformation of Civic Plaza into a major meetings venue able to compete with those in other tourism-focused destinations, the renamed Phoenix Convention Center is ready for its official debut.

Dear Editor: Once again our local National Rifle Association propagandist, Linda Turley-Hansen, displays her colossal credulity in her defense of that recklessly unpatriotic organization (AFN, Feb. 1, "How do they really stand on firearms ownership?"). Led by a Vietnam draft dodger, Wayne LaPierre, the NRA fought legislation that would block gun sales or permits to suspected terrorists. It also opposed legislation to require explosive manufacturers to include electromagnetic "taggants," thus enabling investigators to determine the source of terrorist bombs. The NRA also opposed legislation establishing a national database recording guns' "ballistic fingerprints." For the NRA, profits trump patriotism. The NRA's elitist hypocrisy is also evident in its contradictory policies on Second Amendment rights. In Arizona, the NRA backed legislation to allow guns in bars. But it quietly accepted a ban on guns at the 2004 Republican National Convention, and at the Super Bowl. I'd appreciate some gun nut's explanation of why Republican plutocrats deserve protection from guns in their purlieus, whereas lower-class bar attendees don't. Does the Constitution distinguish among economic classes in distributing alleged Second Amendment rights? Maybe Linda could explain. C.W. Griffin

Dear Editor: Once again our local National Rifle Association propagandist, Linda Turley-Hansen, displays her colossal credulity in her defense of that recklessly unpatriotic organization (AFN, Feb. 1, "How do they really stand on firearms ownership?"). Led by a Vietnam draft dodger, Wayne LaPierre, the NRA fought legislation that would block gun sales or permits to suspected terrorists. It also opposed legislation to require explosive manufacturers to include electromagnetic "taggants," thus enabling investigators to determine the source of terrorist bombs. The NRA also opposed legislation establishing a national database recording guns' "ballistic fingerprints." For the NRA, profits trump patriotism. The NRA's elitist hypocrisy is also evident in its contradictory policies on Second Amendment rights. In Arizona, the NRA backed legislation to allow guns in bars. But it quietly accepted a ban on guns at the 2004 Republican National Convention, and at the Super Bowl. I'd appreciate some gun nut's explanation of why Republican plutocrats deserve protection from guns in their purlieus, whereas lower-class bar attendees don't. Does the Constitution distinguish among economic classes in distributing alleged Second Amendment rights? Maybe Linda could explain. C.W. Griffin

A proposal to make it illegal for some Arizonans to enforce federal gun laws is raising concern by the nation's largest defender of the Second Amendment.

A proposal to make it illegal for some Arizonans to enforce federal gun laws is raising concern by the nation's largest defender of the Second Amendment.

The National Rifle Association said Friday it wants armed police officers in every school, raising costs questions from Republican legislators who normally are their natural allies but picking up support of a key Democrat.

Some of the 107 candidates who received public money to run for state Legislature this year bought computers, cameras and printers that are theirs to keep and paid relatives as campaign workers and consultants, a Cronkite News review found.

SAN FRANCISCO - The National Rifle Association sued the city of San Francisco on Friday to overturn its ban on handguns in public housing, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a handgun ban in the nation's capital.

May 26, 2004

New and unlovely creatures continue to emerge from the Pandora's Box of “campaign finance reform,” so avidly touted by such luminaries as Arizona Sen. John McCain as the true path to political righteousness.

With the recent Newtown tragedy we are again forced to look at the question of our current gun control legislation. We have lost count of the victims of these horrific events and yet they continue. How can we accept the approximately 30,000 deaths each year from firearms (murders, suicides and accidents) without it screaming to us that “Enough is enough”! Have we become so immune to these events that it doesn’t matter any more? That is almost the equivalent of the U.S. Vietnam dead repeated every year.

Arizonans won’t be able to vote on whether to restrict the governor’s ability to seize weapons in times of emergency because of last-minute opposition from an unusual source: The National Rifle Association.

“A Muslim jumps up on a table and shouts ‘Allah Akbar’ before shooting innocent bystanders.  Democrats urge restraint and for us to not ‘rush to judgment.’ A heavy metal enthusiast starts shooting innocent bystanders in Tucson and Democrats immediately call for Sarah Palin’s head. Democrats have proven that they are not fit to lead Americans.”