In Scottsdale, Ariz., National Rifle Association President Joe Foss knows exactly where he stands on the question of gun control. A highly decorated World War II fighter pilot, a former Governor of South Dakota, first commissioner of the American Football League, and a retired brigadier general, Foss speaks with the relish of a man with unyielding convictions. "I say all guns are good guns," he pronounces. "There are no bad guns. I say the whole nation should be an armed nation. Period."
At a time when firearms in the U.S. are involved in more than 30,000 deaths each year and drug...