CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 19 -- The National Rifle Association opened its 129th annual meeting and convention Friday with membership at a record high.
The NRA, however, is attempting to attract women in the wake of the Million Mom March.
The NRA, which describes itself as the oldest civil rights organization in the country, claims a record 3.6 million members, including 98,000 in North Carolina, where it successfully pushed for a law allowing residents to carry concealed weapons.
About 40,000 are expected to attend the four-day meeting at the Charlotte Convention Center, where dozens of firearms manufacturers have exhibits of guns and shooting accessories.
At the organization's business session, which begins on Saturday morning, NRA president Charlton Heston is expected to be elected to an unprecedented third term.
The convention will include sessions for women on hunting, shooting and personal protection, even though research shows women are more concerned about guns and favor stricter regulation than men.
The NRA, which said last weekend's Million Mom March "completely ignores the real truth about guns and crime," is targeting women because they are one of the most powerful voting groups in the United States, the organization's literature says.
Numerous counter-demonstrations are planned during the NRA meeting. The Charlotte Quakers planned a silent peace vigil and a group called Mothers of Murdered Offspring scheduled a mock funeral procession on Saturday.
A firearms advocacy group called Grass Roots North Carolina planned its own "graphic street theater" to illustrate "police-state tactics that accompany the disarming of lawful citizens."
As part of a new marketing effort, NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said the NRA plans to open a store in New York City's Times Square, near the Disney Store and the All-Star Cafe, though he said guns would not be sold at the high-profile location.
"We're going right into the marketing center of the world with a megastore marketing operation," LaPierre told the Charlotte Observer newspaper.
"You have 50, 60, 80 million people out there owning guns, engaged in the sport" of shooting, LaPierre said. "It's still bigger than basketball, it's still bigger than tennis, it's biggerthan golf in terms of participatory activity on the American public."
A Gallup poll conducted in April found that 51 percent of adults had a "mostly favorable" of "very favorable" opinion of the NRA. About 39 percent of the 1,006 adults questioned said they had mostly or very unfavorable views of the group.
The Charlotte City Council voted late Thursday night to allow the NRA to set up an air-rifle shooting range, an annual tradition at the organization's conventions.
A city ordinance forbids discharging firearms, but in a tie vote broken by Mayor Pat McCrory, the council voted to make an exception for the special event.
