What do the Kansas City Royals, C. Everett Koop, Jack Nicholson and the United Methodist Church all have in common?
Turns out the Major League Baseball team, the former surgeon general, the actor and the denomination's general board and church society are all enemies of firearms, and as such have made it onto the National Rifle Association's list of " National Organizations With Anti-Gun Policies."
Containing a total of 506 names, the list is dated Sept. 27, 2012, and is broken down by category: 141 groups, from AARP to the YWCA; 237 celebrities (Krista Allen to Moon Zappa); 27 national figures (mainly doctors and clergy members); 37 columnists and cartoonists; 41 corporations and 23 media organizations.
The celebrities include Matt Damon (who wielded all sorts of guns in the Bourne movies), Carrie Fisher (who used a laser blaster in Star Wars) and Leonard Nimoy (who, with his Star Trek Vulcan nerve pinch, presumably had little need for a gun).
The corporations "have lent their corporate support to gun control initiatives or taken [a] position supporting gun control," according to the website. Among them: Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Levi Strauss and Mallinckrodt Inc., which is listed as making clothing starch.
The media list includes The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, CBS and NBC — but not Fox or NPR (at least not yet).
S.V. Dáte is the congressional editor on NPR's Washington Desk.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
