Inside the Beltway

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Citizen Kayne

Despite an earlier uproar, National Rifle Association President Kayne Robinson has yet to set foot inside the Oval Office.

Heck, he hasn't even been invited to a White House tea.

"I understand White House tours have started up again," says Mr. Robinson, who earlier this year was elected to succeed Charlton Heston as the NRA's top gun.

A former Des Moines assistant police chief and chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, who helped organize the 1999 Iowa straw poll and 2000 presidential caucus, the first in the nation, had anti-gun activists grabbing for their slingshots when he vowed during the 2000 campaign that the NRA would work out of the White House with George W. Bush as president.

"Hyperbole," Mr. Robinson admits in an interview with Inside the Beltway, although he's quick to point out that for eight years President Clinton ran the anti-gun lobby out of the White House "and a lot of his daily visitors -- they were practically employees."

"My point was that if we had any hope of a fair shake it would be with a change of presidents," he says. "I think the point I made was right, and I stand by it."

With an estimated 90 million gun owners in the United States, and 4 million NRA members, Mr. Robinson doesn't have to look far for support.

"Wherever we go we find a friendly audience," he says, although adding that it's somewhat "formidable" to follow Mr. Heston -- "a great American and icon" -- on stage. The ailing actor served in the NRA's top post for an unprecedented five years.