NRA’s bill to ban anti-gun lobbying would cripple anti-smoking programs

The American Cancer Society says that a bill being pushed by the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Kansas to ban lobbying against guns would also restrict anti-smoking and anti-drinking programs.

State Senate Bill 45 prevents “any money appropriated by the state legislature” from being used to “promote any proposed, pending or future federal, state or local tax increase, or any proposed, pending, or future requirement or restriction on any legal consumer product, including its sale or marketing, including, but not limited to, the advocacy or promotion of gun control.”

Democratic state Sen. David Haley told The Topeka Capital-Journal that in its effort to block gun control, the NRA was supporting language that prevents state dollars from being used against “any legal consumer product,” which means that the measure that would also “stop doing what has already been working well” to curb the abuse of alcohol and tobacco.

“I am concerned about making sure we keep certain legal products out of the hands of children,” Haley explained.

Chris Masoner, the American Cancer Society’s Kansas director of government policy, pointed out that a Tobacco Use Prevention Program run by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) would have to be shut down if bill becomes law.

more here: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/07/nras-bill-to-ban-anti-gun-lobbying-would-cripple-anti-smoking-programs/