(Atlanta) (AP) — Retired Lt. Col. Oliver North has been named president of the National Rifle Association. He gives the 5-million-member gun lobby star power as it faces a powerful backlash over the massacres in Florida and Las Vegas. The gung-ho Marine at the center of the Iran-Contra affair three decades ago will be the NRA’s biggest celebrity president since Hollywood leading man Charlton Heston.

NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre says, “Oliver North is a legendary warrior for American freedom, a gifted communicator and skilled leader.”

Momentum for gun control has been building since the mass shooting in Las Vegas last fall that killed 58 people and the Feb. 14 rampage at a Parkland, Florida, high school that left 17 dead.

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