After her talk Monday night, NRA President and Stanford alum Sandra Forman ‘71 sat down with reporters to talk about the NRA’s growth, the changing political tide in Washington and her legacy as president. Here are some selections from the interview:

On the political atmosphere when she was at Stanford in the late 1960s and early 1970s:

“Are things the same or are they different? Are people still as free to speak out as when I was a student here? I mean, it was a very controversial time and it was pretty much free and open debate. And a lot of very controversial things happened since then. I’d love to hear what you guys say about that.”

On the political atmosphere in Washington, D.C., now that the Democrats have taken control of Congress:

“We know that some of the Democrats are pro-gun. Some of the Democrats were elected on pro-gun platforms, and we hope that they will be true to their campaign promises. But we don’t know until things come up for a vote, so that remains to be seen.

“We hope that they will support the right to keep and bear arms; we hope they know that’s important to their constituents. But I think the temptation will be very great for many of them to side with the Democratic leadership, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Hilary Clinton and those people who are avowedly anti-gun.”

On the NRA’s choice among the candidates for the 2008 Presidential election:

“We’ll wait and see what happens in the primaries. This is longest presidential election in history, from the start, and I think a lot of things can happen between now and November 2008. As we say, we’re going to ‘keep our powder dry.’”

On how the NRA is doing as an organization in terms of membership and growth:

“The NRA kind of cycles. When we’re really successful, when we pass good legislation like we did this past year, when we resist bad legislation, when we have our candidates win, our members tend to think there’s no more threat. Then things change, like in the last election, so everything is starting to get activating again.

“The organization is the strongest it’s been since I’ve been on the NRA board of directors, which has been 15 years. And it is a major political force in America.

“What I continue to find amazing is that we do so much with so little. People don’t realize we really don’t have a lot of people; we really have a very sparce staff. And we’re really able to accomplish a lot. Mostly because we have a lot of credibility on the [Capitol] Hill, we always back up what we say with empirical data and our lobbyists are really well respected.”

On the NRA in post 9/11 America:

“I’ve gotten so many more inquires from women after 9/11 about gun ownership — how can they learn, what kind of gun should they buy? They want to make sure their family is safe and secure. There is a real emphasis on safety and security and on being secure in the home. Being ready for the unexpected.

“People realized that your world can change in an instant. That’s what happened to me.”

On how often she carries a gun:

“Whenever I can. I can’t in California, and you can’t, obviously, on the airplane. When I’m in Arizona, I have a gun on me pretty much all the time. Sometimes I have two.”

On her legacy as NRA president:

“One of the things I concentrated on really intently was building a good financial future for the organization. Universities like Stanford or other universities have huge endowments, and that’s how they fund their operations. The NRA is still playing catch up. We still need to be better of making sure we have a secure financial foundation to continue to protect this fundamental right."