Protesters plan to form a human chain to block the entrance to the hotel where the NRA is meeting

April 30, 1999
Web posted at: 10:52 p.m. EDT (0252 GMT)

In this story: NRA: 'We're as apple pie as it gets' Ads pulled -- temporarily RELATED STORIES, SITES

DENVER (CNN) -- Even before the tragedy at Colorado's Columbine High School, the gun industry was hard at work trying to change the way people perceive guns.

But the multi-million dollar makeover campaign, complete with ads featuring celebrities like actor Tom Selleck and author Tam Clancy, pales next to the images of teen-agers fleeing Columbine High School in terror as two students went on a shooting spree.

Large protests are expected Saturday in Denver, where the National Rifle Association plans to hold a convention, not far from the scene of the Columbine massacre in the Denver suburb of Littleton.

Anti-gun groups plan to mobilize thousands of people for a silent protest to begin on the steps of the state Capitol. The group will then march to the neighboring Adams-Mark hotel and encircle the site of the NRA convention.

"I think it's going to be a showdown of values and a showdown of ethics," said Denver Mayor Wellington Webb. He called the NRA insensitive for holding the meeting days after the victims of the Columbine violence were buried.

The NRA has cut back its gathering from three days to one, canceled drink-and-dinner festivities, removed billboard advertisements and jettisoned plans for a 170,000-square-foot hall where 350 gun makers and other exhibitors were to sell their wares.

The NRA conceded that the timing is bad. "It's a difficult situation for everyone involved in any way," said NRA spokesman Bill Powers.

NRA: 'We're as apple pie as you can get'

The NRA launched an ad campaign just before the Columbine shooting to try to improve its image

The Littleton school shooting also ambushed the expensive campaign by the gun industry, including the NRA, to revamp its image.

"We're about as apple pie as you can get in this country," said Wayne LaPierre of the NRA. "This campaign is to accurately reflect what we're all about."

The National Shooting Sports Foundation hired a top public relations firm for its part in the campaign, which came up with the message: "Guns are for sports, not crime and violence."

"There are two very different sides to this story," said Doug Painter of the Shooting Foundation. "There are 27 million Americans who use firearms safely and responsibly and a small criminal element that doesn't."

But it's the criminal element that makes news and the one that the gun industry has to contend with.

Ads pulled -- temporarily

The Shooting Foundation has pulled its ads in the wake of the Littleton tragedy. But its "guns-as-sports-equipment" campaign is scheduled to reappear in late May.

Gun control advocates are critical of the $3 million pro-gun public relations campaign.

"It would be encouraging if the gun industry would spend a fraction of the amount in their advertising budget to make safer guns and save kids' lives," said Dennis Hennigan of Handgun Control, Inc.

At the request of gun control groups, the Federal Trade Commission is looking at the ads to determine whether the gun industry's campaign is deceptive.

Although they want to get their message out, for the time being the gun industry is learning it may be better to take cover.

Reporter Deborah Feyerick and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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