Obama administration awards $182,000 contract to NRA for use of its firing range

NRA firing range

The Obama administration has been cozy with the National Rifle Association – in fact, a Washington Post editorial recently called the administration “long AWOL on sensible and much needed gun regulations” – but it was still surprising to learn that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has just awarded the NRA a $182,000 contract so Border Patrol agents can use the NRA’s firing range for training purposes.

The award, which was announced online by CBP on August 17, was actually handed to the NRA’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action.

Casual observers might expect a Democratic president to vigorously support gun control legislation and to lock horns frequently with the nation’s premier organization advocating Second Amendment rights for gun owners, but that has not been the case. President Obama, and his spokespeople, have generally followed a more nuanced approach to the gun control issue, simultaneously calling for greater control of assault weapons, for example, while openly recognizing the constitutional right of citizens to possess firearms.

Obama’s press spokesman, Robert Gibbs, walked this fine line at a press conference last year, when a journalist asked about the president views on a proposed ban on assault weapons.

“This President articulated the viewpoint that he was a believer in the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms,” Gibbs explained on May 13, 2009. “I don't believe that his actions [on assault weapons] have denoted anything that would give the NRA members cause for concern.”

The NRA’s Law Enforcement Division has also tried to sidestep political considerations when it comes to training courses the NRA offers to police officers and federal law enforcement personnel.

“Political issues aside, [the NRA] has long been considered the leading authority in the promotion, instruction, and certification of safe, effective, firearm handling, and has been doing this longer than any other organization in the world,” says the association, on its Web site.

CBP indicated that it needed the use of a suitable firing range for a base year, running from August 2010 to August 2011, plus four optional years, at “multiple” locations across the U.S., which it did not identify in a solicitation it published on August 4.