NRA JUMPS INTO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

A letter in which National Rifle Association executive director James Baker urged lawmakers to support collective bargaining by public employees took a lot of lawmakers and many others by surprise.

Lots of people have rightfully asked: Since when is the NRA interested in whether public employees unionize? They wondered: Why does the NRA even care?

One explanation offered by David Jones, an NRA board member, was that the NRA always has supported efforts that benefit police officers, and collective bargaining would help them. At the same time, police support for the concealed-weapons proposal -- Proposition B -- on the April 6 ballot is crucial if the NRA-favored measure is to pass.

If that was the purpose of Baker's letter, Baker is asking for almost the impossible, because most policemen are adamant about their opposition to allowing Missourians to legally carrying hidden guns.

What is even more disturbing is that Baker takes it upon himself to write such a letter without even informing his board he was doing so. Jones didn't like that at all, and neither should the entire NRA membership.