The National Rifle Association (NRA) is an international, nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of firearms education and to the protection of an individual’s right to bear arms for self-defense and sport. It was originally formed in 1871 by two Union officers who were disappointed in the marksmanship of their troops during the Civil War. Colonel William C. Church and General George Wingate formed the NRA to “promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis.” For 30 years, the organization remained a small society based in the Northeast; it was not nationally recognized until after 1903, when it began actively promoting rifle clubs and shooting sports at all major high schools and universities. The NRA had little or
National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston raises a Revolutionary War-era musket above his head at the 130th NRA Annual Meeting in Kansas City, May 19, 2001. (Collection of the District of Columbia Public Library)
No political aspirations during its early years and focused instead on education and training. After Congress passed America’s first federal GUN CONTROL act, the National Firearms Act of 1934, the NRA formed its Legislative Affairs Division; it did not lobby Congress directly, but instead used the office to mail out fact sheets and legislative analysis to its members. There was generally no need for direct lobbying, however, since gun control groups did not become prominent until much later, in the 1980s.
During World War II, the NRA provided the government with training materials and organized private firearm collections to aid British citizens against a homeland invasion. In 1949 the NRA worked with the state of New York to establish the first hunter-training program, which has since become a common supplement to almost every state fish and game department in the United States and Canada. In 1960, the NRA introduced the NRA Police Firearms Instructor certification program to become the only national trainer of law enforcement officers; it still certifies
10,000 police and security instructors each year. There was very little call for gun control during the 1940s and 1950s in America because guns seemed integral to post-World War II sports and hunting culture, and, as a consequence, the NRA limited its activities primarily to its first priority of education and marksmanship.
The NRA did not engage in direct lobbying until 1975, when it formed the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA). During the 1980s, the NRA became the leading voice for gun rights advocates, and its membership increased dramatically in response to growing efforts to pass more restrictive gun control legislation. In the 1990s, however, the organization drew strong criticism from Democrats and movie and television celebrities, who linked the rise in the number of school shootings with the availability of private firearms. Of particular concern was the apparent rise in the number of weapons used in American households, the use of high-powered, rapid-fire guns in urban-gang conflicts, and the increasing dangers of accidental deaths among children playing with unsecured handguns in the home. Gun control advocates portrayed the NRA’s opposition to gun control as an unreasonable apathy toward crime. In 1999 and 2000, 19 city and county governments alleged the firearms industry was responsible for infractions ranging from gross negligence to outright conspiracy, and sued the five largest gun manufacturers in America. The confluence of the civil suits against large gun manufacturers and the NRA’s vocal opposition to gun control stirred up old images of big businesses corrupting public government. This image was augmented with bitter insinuations during the 2000 presidential election; the NRA was the largest single-issue contributor throughout the 1990s, and donated more than $3 million to the Republican Party in 2000, nearly twice what it donated in the 1996 and 1992 elections. Many Democrats used the NRA as an example of why the nation needed stricter CAMPAIGN FINANCE laws. Both parties, however, received roughly the same amount of campaign contributions from various single-interest lobbying groups in the 2000 and 1996 presidential elections. During the 2008 election campaign, the NRA spent $10 million in support of Republican candidate John McCain.
In a major victory for the NRA on June 25, 2008, in the case of Columbia v. Heller, the U. S. SUPREME COURT in a 5-4 ruling overturned the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with the Second Amendment right.
See also ELECTIONS; FEDERALISM; POLITICAL ACTION
COMMITTEE.
—Aharon W. Zorea
World History
