NRA TO TOUT SPORT ELEMENT IN THEMED STORE IN TIMES SQUARE

          The National Rifle Association (NRA) has chosen N.Y.'s
     Times Square as the site of a "new gun sports store,
     complete with a virtual shooting range," according to Susan
     Milligan of the BOSTON GLOBE.  The "megastore," which is
     "modeled after" the ESPNZone, will be called the NRA-Sports
     Blast and will offer "family" entertainment "in the form of
     simulated target shooting, along with the sale of sport-
     shooting paraphernalia."  Guns will not be sold at the
     store.  NRA Exec VP Wayne LaPierre: "We want NRASports to be
     a world-class shooting sports venue, right in the Big Apple. 
     Sport shooting is an Olympic sport.  What better place to
     enable more people to get involved in shooting?"  The store
     will be operated by NRASports, a new division, and "may
     involve 'co-branding' of products" with manufacturers of
     sport shooting goods (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/20).  LaPierre: "More
     Americans participate in shooting sports than in basketball,
     hockey, baseball, soccer and other sports" (AP, 5/20).