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Recoil: 'Roanoke Times' Gun Ad Restriction Angers NRA
By Joe Strupp
Published: November 01, 2007 2:10 PM ET
NEW YORK A new policy at The Roanoke (Va.) Times limiting gun ads to licensed dealers has apparently drawn anger from the National Rifle Association, according to a Times Web item.
Bill Cochran writes on his Times’ “Field Reports” blog that “The National Rifle Association is telling its members, and anyone else who will listen, that The Roanoke Times ‘is once again up to its anti-gun antics.’
“The NRA and other pro-gun advocates are angry that the newspaper has tightened its policy on firearms advertising and will accept gun and accessory ads from licensed firearm’s dealers only,” he adds.
Cochran pointed out that the new policy resulted in “no ads for last weekend’s popular Roanoke Valley Gun Show held in the Roanoke Civic Center. While most guns sold at such shows involve federally licensed dealers and background checks, there are some personal collection deals between individuals apart from licensed dealers. These escape background checks.”
“Our tightening policy ensures that firearms advertising in our newspaper is restricted to licensed dealers who are subject to these background checks,” he quoted Nan Mahone, the newspaper’s marketing director, saying.
The NRA, he adds, called the policy “blatantly discriminatory” and urged its members and pro-gun citizens to contact the newspaper “to express their outrage.”
He said the NRA did not call for canceling subscription, but “Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, did just that, giving instructions on how to do it online. He urged the league’s Web site readers to tie up the newspaper’s phone lines and email system ‘until they realize that there will be a stiff price to pay for attacking the people and businesses they are supposed to be serving.’”
A newspaper statement on the policy says: “The decision to restrict firearms advertising to licensed dealers was made by the advertising department, with the support of the president and publisher and independent of the news and editorial departments. It was made after careful examination of a loophole in a federal law and consideration of the safety of our community.”
The new policy comes months after the paper “got in hot water with pro-gun advocates…when it published a list of 135,000 Virginians who had earned Right-to-Carry Permits. The list later was pulled.”
Joe Strupp
By Joe Strupp
Published: November 01, 2007 2:10 PM ET
NEW YORK A new policy at The Roanoke (Va.) Times limiting gun ads to licensed dealers has apparently drawn anger from the National Rifle Association, according to a Times Web item.
Bill Cochran writes on his Times’ “Field Reports” blog that “The National Rifle Association is telling its members, and anyone else who will listen, that The Roanoke Times ‘is once again up to its anti-gun antics.’
“The NRA and other pro-gun advocates are angry that the newspaper has tightened its policy on firearms advertising and will accept gun and accessory ads from licensed firearm’s dealers only,” he adds.
Cochran pointed out that the new policy resulted in “no ads for last weekend’s popular Roanoke Valley Gun Show held in the Roanoke Civic Center. While most guns sold at such shows involve federally licensed dealers and background checks, there are some personal collection deals between individuals apart from licensed dealers. These escape background checks.”
“Our tightening policy ensures that firearms advertising in our newspaper is restricted to licensed dealers who are subject to these background checks,” he quoted Nan Mahone, the newspaper’s marketing director, saying.
The NRA, he adds, called the policy “blatantly discriminatory” and urged its members and pro-gun citizens to contact the newspaper “to express their outrage.”
He said the NRA did not call for canceling subscription, but “Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, did just that, giving instructions on how to do it online. He urged the league’s Web site readers to tie up the newspaper’s phone lines and email system ‘until they realize that there will be a stiff price to pay for attacking the people and businesses they are supposed to be serving.’”
A newspaper statement on the policy says: “The decision to restrict firearms advertising to licensed dealers was made by the advertising department, with the support of the president and publisher and independent of the news and editorial departments. It was made after careful examination of a loophole in a federal law and consideration of the safety of our community.”
The new policy comes months after the paper “got in hot water with pro-gun advocates…when it published a list of 135,000 Virginians who had earned Right-to-Carry Permits. The list later was pulled.”
Joe Strupp
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