NRA Campaigns Against the Plan to Save the World's Elephants

By Hayes Brown, ThinkProgress

06 March 14

he National Rifle Association (NRA) on Friday asked its 3.1 million members to call their representative in Congress and urge them to block a rule designed to protect the world's elephants from being poached into extinction.

Last month, the White House announced a ban on the commercial trade of elephant ivory, placing a total embargo on the new import of items containing elephant ivory, prohibiting its export except in the case of bona fide antiques, and clarified that "antiques" only refers to items more than 100 years old when it comes to ivory. "This ban is the best way to help ensure that U.S. markets do not contribute to the further decline of African elephants in the wild," a White House fact sheet on the announcement declared.

The NRA is disturbed about provisions of the ban related to domestic resale of items including ivory. "We will finalize a proposed rule that will reaffirm and clarify that sales across state lines are prohibited, except for bona fide antiques, and will prohibit sales within a state unless the seller can demonstrate an item was lawfully imported prior to 1990 for African elephants and 1975 for Asian elephants, or under an exemption document," the White House said in February.

While many people would make the mistake of assuming that this was about helping save endangered elephants, the NRA understands what the real motivation is. "This is another attempt by this anti-gun Administration to ban firearms based on cosmetics and would render many collections/firearms valueless," the NRA said in its call to arms. "Any firearm, firearm accessory, or knife that contains ivory, no matter how big or small, would not be able to be sold in the United States, unless it is more than 100 years old. This means if your shotgun has an ivory bead or inlay, your revolver or pistol has ivory grips, your knife has an ivory handle, or if your firearm accessories, such as cleaning tools that contain any ivory, the item would be illegal to sell."

For that reason, the NRA implores its members to flood the White House and Congress with phone calls and emails to "let them know you oppose the ban on commercial sale and trade of legally owned firearms with ivory components." That desire to resell old - but not antique - weaponry clearly is more important to the NRA than preventing the looming extinction of the species - which is linked closely to the skyrocketing demand for ivory. "In 2013 alone an estimated 30,000 African elephants were killed for their ivory, more than 80 animals per day," Dr. Kerri-Ann Jones, Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week.

The commercial ivory ban is only part of a new National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking announced at the same time as the embargo, which prioritizes "strengthening domestic and global enforcement; reducing demand for illegally traded wildlife at home and abroad; and strengthening partnerships with international partners, local communities, NGOs, private industry, and others to combat illegal wildlife poaching and trade." In that vein, the United States has been leading the charge in persuading countries around the world to destroy their stockpiles of intercepted ivory, annihilating six tons of it last November. Since then, Togo, China, and France have also followed suit and destroyed seized contraband of their own.

Aside from the conservation concerns, which the NRA doesn't seem moved by, poaching is increasingly being viewed as a national security issue for the United States. In an interview last year, Robert Hormats, Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, said ivory had become a "conflict resource." An Enough Project report from last year also found that Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army has begun poaching ivory from elephant tusks to fund the group's activities, which include abducting children and forcing them into sex slavery.