Ajit Pai won’t get his gun—FCC chair rejects NRA award after ethics review

Enlarge / Net neutrality supporter holds a sign outside FCC on Dec. 14, 2017, before vote to repeal net neutrality rules. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai will not take possession of the Kentucky handmade long gun that the National Rifle Association (NRA) tried to give him when he won the group's Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire award.

The NRA and American Conservative Union (ACU) announced the award when Pai appeared last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Pai thanked NRA board member Carolyn Meadows for the award during the ceremony and did not decline the honor at the time, but the gun that comes with the award wasn't presented on stage.

"As you know, once my staff became aware of what was happening, they asked backstage that the musket not be presented to me to ensure that this could be first discussed with and vetted by career ethics attorneys in the FCC's Office of General Counsel," Pai wrote in letters sent to the NRA and ACU yesterday, according to a Politico report.

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