Gay activists in Washington now say they believe that the NRA voter influx was responsible for defeating ballot Initiative 677, which sought to ban employment discrimination against lesbians and gay men.

Only 40% of Washington's voters were willing, this time around, to grant equal employment opportunities to homosexuals. On the other hand, approximately 60% voted to uphold discriminatory practices against gays in employment and in unions.

Because the NRA had its own ballot initiative to oppose, namely Number 676, an attempt to step toward gun-control, the gun-owning voters, told by the NRA to vote "NO" also voted "No" on Initiative 677, some, perhaps, unsure they had the correct numbers

According to the sponsors of I-677, the message that voters received through a multi-million-dollar advertising campaign was that their "no" would count.

Initiative 676, if it had passed, would have required that newly sold or transferred handguns be allowed market spaces only if equipped with trigger locks or other safety mechanisms. The initiative also would have required gun owners to pass an exam or take an instruction course to be licensed.

Only a fourth of the voting public stood behind the proposed Initiative. The remainder—over 70%--opposed it.

Hands Off Washington, a vital gay and lesbian organization that works to assure equal rights, labored tirelessly to educate voters about rights issues, the topic of Initiative 676. Though the group lost this round to the conservatives, its executive director, Jan Bianchi, says the Pro-676 members have shown extraordinary understandings, delivering the group's message with caring energies and are therefore proud of what they've accomplished, even if Washington State's pro-gay measure has failed as yet to materialize.

In the meantime, President Clinton promises to eliminate the nation's imports of assault weapons, and NRA spin doctors are calling him "The Gun Salesman of the Year." This is because proposed bans on guns encourage immediate sales.

During the final week of October, as news of the President's proposed ban spread, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms issued 150,000 permits for importing modified assault gunnery. Thus far, during all of 1997, at total of 600,000 such permits have been sold. Last month, during a singular October week, however, sales skyrocketed, accounting for a significant share of the total permits granted.

The 150,000 permits were primarily requests for guns patterned on the Kalashnikov AK-47. Rumors floated about persons in the Treasury Department (which controls the firearms bureau) said to be sabotaging the President's directive by purposefully accelerating the sales of the soon-to-be nixed weaponry.

Treasury officials deny the rumor. The officials insist that increased assault weaponry imports have been accelerated by nothing more than the importers—gun salesmen—wanting to stock up and "get under the wire" before the assault-gun ban hits.