[Gene Randall, Cnn Anchor:] A week after the Million Mom March brought huge numbers of anti-gun activist to Washington, gun advocates are in Charlotte, North Carolina to put the spotlight on their Second Amendment rights. The setting is the National Rifle Association's annual convention. And for more, we go to CNN's Brian Cabell in Charlotte Brian.
[Brian Cabell, Cnn Correspondent:] Good afternoon, Gene. This is the second day of the NRA convention, a convention in which the delegates are hoping to regain momentum in the battle over gun control, and they are encouraged, they say, by some numbers: 3.6 million members now nationwide. That is a new record. They say in last six weeks alone they have gained 200,000 new members. By Election Day, they hope to have 400,000 more, a total of four million. So they are encouraged. The reasons, they say, because people are simply fed up with all criticism they've been receiving in the last year or two. They are taking to the sidewalks as well today, the sidewalk of Charlotte. They have been coming by in waves of 100, 200, people with placards supporting their Second Amendment rights, always placards mocking the gun control advocates, this a reaction to last week's Million Moms March. Now this convention is not about political endorsements at all. Those won't come into after the national political conventions, but if you talk to any of these delegates here, just about any one of them, they will tell you that Vice President Al Gore is not one of their favorites.
[James Baker, Chief Lobbyist For The Nra:] If Al Gore is elected, we will dangerously close to going down the disastrous path already traveled by Great Britain, Canada, Australia and other nations that have effectively disarm their civilian population. This fight for freedom. This election will determine whether we march to the 21st century in full possession of our Second Amendment rights, or whether lawful gun ownership in America could soon become only a memory.
[Cabell:] NRA officials say they have about $7 or $8 million to spend on political campaigns this November, but more than money, they say they want bodies, they want volunteers to support candidates who are against strict gun control. I'm Brian Cabell, CNN, live in Charlotte, North Carolina