If you want to be an actor in the movies, move to Los Angeles. If you want to help write laws or work in the federal legislative process in any way, David Lehman says you better move to Washington, DC. Politics have always interested Mr. Lehman. During law school at Loyola in Los Angeles, he dreamed of working on Capitol Hill and becoming part of the behind-the-scenes machinations of the legislative process. When he graduated in 1994, Mr. Lehman packed his car and drove across the country to the heart of America's legislative beast: Washington, DC. Three congressmen and ten years later, Mr. Lehman is the now one of the top attorneys in arguably the country's most powerful lobby: the National Rifle Association. Mr. Lehman, 36, is Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel of the Institute for Legislative Action, the lobbying arm of the NRA. His job is part lobbyist, part supervisor, monitoring the various NRA cases around the country and deciding which attorneys should handle which cases. "The legislative process was very, very interesting to me, and I thought a law degree would be helpful in that," he said. "And that's why I spent so much time on Capitol Hill. I just enjoy the interaction between the law and politics." The Institute for Legislative Action was established in 1975 as the NRA's lobbying arm. The ILA "is committed to preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution." The Second Amendment states: "A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed." The Second Amendment is the backbone of much of the case law for gun rights groups like the NRA. The NRA-ILA's mission involves "defending Second Amendment issues on Capitol Hill, in state legislatures and in local government bodies" around the country. Mr. Lehman said he believes gun control groups like the Brady Center file "reckless lawsuits" in attempts to bankrupt the gun industry. The NRA has more than four million members, and part of Mr. Lehman's job with the NRA-ILA is to keep members informed of new lawsuits and laws and to lobby Congress and the Senate for pro-gun reforms. Although Mr. Lehman did not grow up around guns in a beachside community in Orange County, CA, he said he always wanted to go hunting and learn to shoot. Shortly after moving to Washington, he learned to shoot and started hunting. Mr. Lehman applauded the expiration of the assault weapons ban and various measures by the Bush administration to implement lawsuit reform, so that the gun industry would not face so many class-action suits. Although the NRA-ILA represents individuals and not gun dealers and manufacturers, the group closely follows industry lawsuits. "If somebody wants to use (an assault weapon) to protect their family, protect their home, or if they want to engage in target shooting and competitive shooting, then they ought to have the right to do that," Mr. Lehman said, "if they're a law-abiding citizen and all that. We feel that it's much more important to go after the criminal than to go after the gun." Mr. Lehman said it's ludicrous that gun makers should "be liable for the unforeseeable acts of criminals," and the NRA-ILA strongly disagrees with lawsuits penalizing gun makers. "In fact we've got a bill in Congress right now that would prevent those kinds of lawsuits where there's no defect in the product," he said. "It's just an unforeseeable criminal act." The bill passed the House last year, but failed in the Senate after the NRA and others urged supporters to vote it down because it had become laden with gun-control amendments. Other cases of interest to Mr. Lehman and the NRA-ILA include a plan by San Francisco's City Council to ban handguns in the city, like Chicago and Washington, DC, do now. The NRA often cites Chicago as an example of how strict gun controls only work to boost the murder rate. After a decade of a ban on handguns, there were almost 600 people murdered in Chicago in 2004, more than in New York or Los Angeles. Before going to work for the NRA nearly three years ago, Mr. Lehman worked as a counsel to Rep. John Duncan (R-TN) and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX). He then became chief of staff to Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), where he "played a major role in President Clinton's impeachment." Mr. Goodlatte and Mr. Smith were both members of the House Judiciary Committee, which meant Mr. Lehman "worked very closely with the Judiciary Committee on the impeachment proceedings, the vote-counting process, both on the committee and in the House as well." Mr. Lehman said there's no secret to getting a job on Capitol Hill, but like a politician, be prepared to press the flesh. "You have to be here," he said. "If the legislative process and politics and Capitol Hill interests you at the Federal level, then you really need to be in Washington. I came out here without a job and looked for one after I moved, so you can definitely do that. If it really interests you, I wouldn't let anything stop you."

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