National Rifle Association (NRA)

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a nonprofit organization whose members advocate for the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, which is guaranteed by the Second Amendment. The organization was formed in 1871 by two Civil War veterans, initially to promote rifle shooting for scientific purposes. Modern NRA objectives involve teaching firearm skills and safety as well as advocating for gun rights and against gun control legislation. The organization also publishes monthly magazines and sponsors a number of competitive shooting events each year. While the organization faced declines in membership and financial struggles by the 2020s, American lawmakers had long considered it one of the most powerful lobbying bodies in the country.

Overview

Colonel William C. Church and General George Wingate, two veterans of the Union Army, founded the NRA. The state of New York granted the organization a charter on November 17, 1871. Civil War general Ambrose Burnside became the NRA's first president. The group's stated goal was to "encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis." Aided by state funding, they developed their first rifle range on Long Island. The practice grounds opened in 1873 and commenced annual shooting matches for several decades until opposition to the promotion of marksmanship forced them to leave the state of New York.

The NRA relocated to New Jersey in 1892. Within a few years, group members thought that it would be beneficial to try to attract a younger generation of shooters. They began promoting shooting sports among young Americans in 1903, and soon rifle clubs were cropping up at postsecondary schools across the country. Within three years, the organization had two hundred young men participating in competitions. The growth in membership required a larger range. Annual matches were moved to Camp Perry near Toledo, Ohio. Around this time, NRA headquarters also relocated to Washington, DC, to help its members carry out their advocacy efforts.

The association also issued its own magazine, American Rifleman, which focused on competition results and political discussions concerning Second Amendment rights. Opposition to firearm rights increased during the 1930s, and in 1934 Congress passed the National Firearms Act (NFA), the first gun-control law in the United States. In response, the NRA formed the Legislative Affairs Division (LAD) to keep members informed about current issues regarding the Second Amendment.

The NRA was a major presence during World War II, offering its ranges as training grounds for military purposes. It produced a large amount of training materials at this time and encouraged members to aid the war effort by guarding war plants. The NRA also provided more than seven thousand firearms to Great Britain in 1940 to help defend against a possible German invasion. Following the war, the NRA began catering to hunters. The organization launched hunting education programs that promoted safe yet effective hunting strategies. The organization further extended its training to law enforcement by creating the NRA Police Firearms Instructor certification program in 1960, which continued to grow over the decades.

The NRA also expanded its presence in the publishing world. In 1973, the NRA released the first issue of American Hunter, a magazine that focused exclusively on hunting. It also initiated the Youth Hunter Education Challenge (YHEC). In 1997, the NRA began publication of a new magazine, American Guardian, which was designed to interest a wider audience. It was renamed America's 1st Freedom in 2000. The magazines were widely distributed, earning the NRA millions of dollars in advertising revenue.

In May 2018, the NRA earned media attention when its board of directors named Oliver North to the position of president. North, a retired US Marine lieutenant colonel, had been convicted in 1988 for his role in the Iran-Contra affair, in which senior officials in President Ronald Reagan's administration conspired to facilitate the sale of weapons to Iran, flouting an arms embargo, with the intention of funding right-wing Contra rebels in Nicaragua, aid to whom had previously been restricted by Congress's passing of the Boland Amendment in 1982–84. His convictions were vacated in 1990, and all charges against him were dismissed the following year. Subsequently, following an unsuccessful Senate run in 1994, North made a name for himself as a military historian and a political commentator for Fox News. His tenure at the NRA proved brief, as he was forced out of the presidency in April 2019 over a dispute with NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre.

LaPierre, who took his leadership role in 1991, was himself subject to considerable controversy over the years as a figurehead for the NRA. In August 2020 the New York state attorney general filed suit against LaPierre, three other NRA executives, and the organization itself following a lengthy investigation into the group's finances. The lawsuit alleged longstanding and extensive corruption and fraud within the NRA and called for the organization to be dissolved (a separate lawsuit in Washington, DC, followed soon after). LaPierre unsuccessfully fought to have the New York case dismissed, and then secretly sought to unilaterally file for bankruptcy for the NRA in another attempt to avoid it. The bankruptcy filing was rejected in 2021, and many observers noted the NRA's reputation was severely damaged, with its membership and revenue experiencing ongoing declines in subsequent years. The New York lawsuit concluded in 2024, with a jury finding all three defendants, as well as the NRA itself, liable. Though New York's attorney general then sought to install an independent monitor for the NRA, a judge ruled against this measure. Meanwhile, LaPierre had resigned from his position as leader of the organization earlier that year.

Political Standpoints

The 1970s marked the beginning of a greater emphasis on politics for the NRA. In 1975, the NRA created the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA), which lobbied against legislation it perceived as unfavorable to the Second Amendment. The organization also continued to promote gun safety. In the late 1980s, the NRA sponsored a number of gun-safety programs for elementary schools across the country. These programs taught children not to touch firearms without supervision. In addition, the NRA later established the NRA Foundation, a tax-exempt organization that raised millions of dollars to fund gun safety and education programs.

The NRA has been the subject of varied criticism over the years, particularly for its affiliations with various high-profile politicians and the gun manufacturing industry. Some critics have accused the NRA of bias toward those who provide substantial funding for its activities. The organization has also been criticized for providing financial backing for political candidates who oppose gun-control legislation. The NRA's Political Victory Fund assigns grades and provides endorsements to politicians who have a solid pro-firearms voting record. The politicians who loyally align themselves with the NRA’s stances are often given a grade of A+. The organization's endorsement has carried some weight. In 1980, the NRA publicly endorsed Reagan's successful campaign for president. The group has also spent millions denouncing oppositional political opponents, as it did in 2008 against then presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Despite these criticisms, Americans had generally held an overall positive view of the NRA since the early 1990s. A Gallup Poll conducted in October 2015 found that 58 percent of Americans viewed the NRA favorably, while just 35 percent viewed it unfavorably. This result was considered somewhat surprising to many observers, given the sharp increase in public outcry calling for stricter gun control following a series of highly publicized mass shootings.

In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton took a firm stand in support of stricter gun-control legislation, blaming the NRA for blocking progress on that front and for promoting the stance that mass shootings would be better prevented by more civilians having guns—the proverbial "good guy with a gun"—than by making guns more difficult to acquire. Meanwhile, the NRA's ongoing influence was evidenced by Republican candidate Donald Trump's reversal from supporting a ban on assault weapons in 2000 to opposing expansions of background checks and promising an end to gun-free zones in schools if elected. Trump's election further indicated the deep public support for the NRA's policies.

Public opinion of the NRA began to show signs of shifting following a February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which seventeen students and staff members were killed. Student survivors of the shooting formed the gun-control organization Never Again MSD and began advocating to Congress for stricter gun-control laws. At a highly publicized rally at the Broward County Federal Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, survivor Emma González gave a speech in which she called out Trump and members of Congress for accepting donations from the NRA in exchange for opposing gun-control legislation. The month after the shooting, a poll jointly conducted by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal found that Americans had a net negative view of the NRA—40 percent against, 37 percent in favor—for the first time since 2000, if not before. The results represented a significant change from the previous year, when the same poll found that 45 percent of Americans had a positive view of the NRA, compared to 33 percent with a negative view.

Gallup polls also showed growing opposition to the NRA, with a June 2018 survey finding unfavorable views of the organization had risen to 42 percent while positive views had declined to 53 percent since 2015. That poll also found a widening partisan gap, with just 24 percent of Democrats expressing very or mostly favorable views of the NRA compared to 88 percent of Republicans. A September 2019 Gallup poll found negative views of the NRA had increased even further, to 48 percent of Americans in general, while positive views had declined to 49 percent (and even more sharply among Democrats and Independents, specifically). However, despite decreasing support for the NRA itself, the organization's key goals of supporting gun rights and opposing gun control remained popular with the American public.

Bibliography

Bailey, Chelsea. "At Rally, Parkland Shooting Survivors Rail against Gun Laws, NRA and Trump." NBC News, 17 Feb. 2018, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rally-parkland-shooting-survivors-rail-against-gun-laws-nra-trump-n849076. Accessed 23 May 2018.

"A Brief History of the NRA." NRA, home.nra.org/about-the-nra/. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.

Bryan, Bob. "Something Historic Is Happening with How Americans See the NRA." Business Insider, 21 Mar. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/nra-poll-popularity-favorability-more-americans-dislike-2018-3. Accessed 23 May 2018.

Carter, Gregg Lee, and Jaclyn Schildkraut, editors. Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law. 3rd ed., vol. 1, ABC-CLIO, 2023. 3 vols.

"Fortune Releases Annual Survey of Most Powerful Lobbying Organizations." Time Warner Inc., 15 Nov. 1999, www.timewarner.com/newsroom/press-releases/1999/11/15/fortune-releases-annual-survey-of-most-powerful-lobbying. Accessed 1 May 2018.

Hakim, Danny. "In Rebuke to NRA, Federal Judge Dismisses Bankruptcy Case." The New York Times, 11 May 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/us/nra-bankruptcy.html. Accessed 5 Aug. 2021.

Hakim, Danny. "New York Attorney General Sues NRA and Seeks Its Closure." The New York Times, 6 Aug. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/us/ny-nra-lawsuit-letitia-james.html. Accessed 5 Aug. 2021.

Hickey, Walter. "How the NRA Became the Most Powerful Special Interest in Washington." Business Insider, 18 Dec. 2012, www.businessinsider.com/nra-lobbying-money-national-rifle-association-washington-2012-12. Accessed 1 May 2018.

Jaffe, Alexandra. "NRA Endorses Donald Trump at National Convention." NBC News, 20 May 2016, www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-aims-assure-wary-gun-rights-supporters-nra-speech-n577296. Accessed 1 May 2018.

Jones, Jeffrey M. "Americans' Views of NRA Become Less Positive." Gallup, 13 Sept. 2019, news.gallup.com/poll/266804/americans-views-nra-become-less-positive.aspx. Accessed 5 Aug. 2021.

"NRA Has 'Anti-Gun' Obama in Its Sights," Orlando Sentinel, 19 Oct. 2008, articles.orlandosentinel.com/2008-10-19/news/a3nra19‗1‗barack-obama-obama-campaign-guns-and-religion. Accessed 1 May 2018.

Offenhartz, Jake. "NY Judge Hands Former NRA Head Wayne LaPierre a 10 Year Ban but Declines to Appoint Monitor." AP, 29 July 2024, apnews.com/article/nra-trial-wayne-lapierre-letitia-james-7c3c898b57c08ca73eb6102743f57410. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.

"Record US Partisan Divide on Views of the NRA." Gallup, 28 June 2018, news.gallup.com/poll/236315/record-partisan-divide-views-nra.aspx. Accessed 5 Aug. 2021.

Russonello, Giovanni. "How Much Sway Does the N.R.A. Still Have?" The New York Times, 3 May 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/us/politics/nra-gun-control.html. Accessed 5 Aug. 2021.

Swift, Art. "Despite Criticism, NRA Still Enjoys Majority Support in US." Gallup, 22 Oct. 2015, news.gallup.com/poll/186284/despite-criticism-nra-enjoys-majority-support.aspx. Accessed 1 May 2018.

Zezima, Katie. "Oliver North Named President of the National Rifle Association." The Washington Post, 7 May 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/national/oliver-north-named-president-of-the-national-rifle-association/2018/05/07/02cd2742-521c-11e8-9c91-7dab596e8252‗story.html. Accessed 23 May 2018.