Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 13:57, 6 December 2018

National Rifle Association of America

Founded	November 16, 1871; 153 years ago (1871-11-16)
Founder	William Conant Church George Wood Wingate
Type	501(c)(4)
Tax ID no.	53-0116130
Focus	Gun politics Gun rights
Location	Fairfax, Virginia, US
Area served	United States
Services	Membership organisation Magazine publisher Education/certification
Method	Lobbying Publications Outreach programs
Members	6 million (self-reported, claim unverified as of 2018)
Key people	Oliver North (President) Wayne LaPierre (Executive Vice President) Chris W. Cox (chief lobbyist) Dana Loesch (national spokesperson)
Subsidiaries	NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund NRA Foundation NRA Special Contribution Fund NRA Freedom Action Foundation NRA Institute for Legislative Action NRA Political Victory Fund
Revenue	$433.9 million (2016)
Expenses	$475.9 million (2016)
Website	NRA.org

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is an American nonprofit organisation that advocates for gun rights. Founded in 1871, the group has informed its members about firearm-related legislation since 1934, and it has directly lobbied for and against firearms legislation since 1975.

Founded to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA continues to teach firearm safety and competency. The organisation also publishes several magazines and sponsors competitive marksmanship events. According to the NRA, it has 6 million members as of May 2018.

Observers and lawmakers see the NRA as one of the top three most influential lobbying groups in Washington, DC The NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) is its lobbying arm, which manages its political action committee (PAC), the Political Victory Fund (PVF). Over its history the organisation has influenced legislation, participated in or initiated lawsuits, and endorsed or opposed various candidates at local, state and federal levels.

The NRA has been criticised by gun control and gun rights advocacy groups, political commentators, and politicians. The organisation has been the focus of intense criticism in the aftermath of high profile shootings, such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

History

Early history

A few months after the Civil War started in 1861, a national rifle association was proposed by Americans in England. In a letter that was sent to President Lincoln and appeared in the New York Times, R.G. Moulton and R.B. Perry recommended forming an organisation similar to the British National Rifle Association, which had formed a year and a half earlier. They suggested making a shooting range, perhaps on the base on Staten Island, and were offering Whitworth rifles for prizes for the first shooting competition with those rifles. They suggested a provisional committee to start the Association which would include: President Lincoln, Secretary of War, officers, and other prominent New Yorkers.

The National Rifle Association was first chartered in the State of New York on November 16, 1871 by Army and Navy Journal editor William Conant Church and Captain George Wood Wingate. On November 25, 1871, the group voted to elect its first corporate officers. Union Army Civil War General Ambrose Burnside, who had worked as a Rhode Island gunsmith, was elected president. When Burnside resigned on August 1, 1872, Church succeeded him as president.

Union Army records for the Civil War indicate that its troops fired about 1,000 rifle shots for each Confederate hit, causing General Burnside to lament his recruits: "Out of ten soldiers who are perfect in drill and the manual of arms, only one knows the purpose of the sights on his gun or can hit the broad side of a barn." The generals attributed this to the use of volley tactics, devised for earlier, less accurate smoothbore muskets.

Recognising a need for better training, Wingate sent emissaries to Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany to observe militia and armies' marksmanship training programs. With plans provided by Wingate, the New York Legislature funded the construction of a modern range at Creedmoor, Long Island, for long-range shooting competitions. The range officially opened on June 21, 1873. The Central Railroad of Long Island established a railway station nearby, with trains running from Hunter's Point, with connecting boat service to 34th Street and the East River, allowing access from New York City.

After beating England and Scotland to win the Elcho Shield in 1873 at Wimbledon, then a village outside London, the Irish Rifle Team issued a challenge through the New York Herald to riflemen of the United States to raise a team for a long-range match to determine an Anglo-American championship. The NRA organised a team through a subsidiary amateur rifle club. Remington Arms and Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company produced breech-loading weapons for the team. Although muzzle-loading rifles had long been considered more accurate, eight American riflemen won the match firing breech-loading rifles. Publicity of the event generated by the New York Herald helped to establish breech-loading firearms as suitable for military marksmanship training, and promoted the NRA to national prominence.

Rifle clubs

The NRA organised rifle clubs in other states, and many state National Guard organisations sought NRA advice to improve members' marksmanship. Wingate's marksmanship manual evolved into the United States Army marksmanship instruction program. Former President Ulysses S. Grant served as the NRA's eighth president and General Philip H. Sheridan as its ninth. The US Congress created the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice in 1901 to include representatives from the NRA, National Guard, and United States military services. A program of annual rifle and pistol competitions was authorised, and included a national match open to military and civilian shooters. In 1907, NRA headquarters moved to Washington, DC to facilitate the organisation's advocacy efforts. Springfield Armoury and Rock Island Arsenal began the manufacture of M1903 Springfield rifles for civilian members of the NRA in 1910. The Director of Civilian Marksmanship began manufacture of M1911 pistols for NRA members in August 1912. Until 1927, the United States Department of War provided free ammunition and targets to civilian rifle clubs with a minimum membership of ten United States citizens at least 16 years of age.

1934–present

The NRA formed its Legislative Affairs Division to update members with facts and analysis of upcoming bills, after the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934 became the first federal gun-control law passed in the US. Karl Frederick, NRA President in 1934, during congressional NFA hearings testified "I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons. I seldom carry one. ... I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses." Four years later, the NRA backed the Federal Firearms Act of 1938.

The NRA supported the NFA along with the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), which together created a system to federally license gun dealers and established restrictions on particular categories and classes of firearms. The organisation opposed a national firearms registry, an initiative favored by then-President Lyndon Johnson.

Until the middle 1970s, the NRA mainly focused on sportsmen, hunters and target shooters, and downplayed gun control issues. However, passage of the GCA galvanised a growing number of NRA gun rights activists, including Harlon Carter. In 1975, it began to focus more on politics and established its lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), with Carter as director. The next year, its political action committee (PAC), the Political Victory Fund, was created in time for the 1976 elections. The 1977 annual convention was a defining moment for the organisation and came to be known as "The Cincinnati Revolution". Leadership planned to relocate NRA headquarters to Colorado and to build a $30 million recreational facility in New Mexico, but activists within the organisation whose central concern was Second Amendment rights defeated the incumbents and elected Carter as executive director and Neal Knox as head of the NRA-ILA. Insurgents including Harlon and Knox had demanded new leadership in part because they blamed incumbent leaders for existing gun control legislation like the GCA and believed that no compromise should be made.

Political expansion

After 1977, the organisation expanded its membership by focusing heavily on political issues and forming coalitions with conservative politicians. Most of these are Republicans. With a goal to weaken the GCA, Knox's ILA successfully lobbied Congress to pass the Firearm Owners Protection Act (FOPA) of 1986 and worked to reduce the powers of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). In 1982, Knox was ousted as director of the ILA, but began mobilising outside the NRA framework and continued to promote opposition to gun control laws.

At the 1991 national convention, Knox's supporters were elected to the board and named staff lobbyist Wayne LaPierre as the executive vice president. The NRA focused its attention on the gun control policies of the Clinton Administration. Knox again lost power in 1997, as he lost reelection to a coalition of moderate leaders who supported movie star Charlton Heston, despite Heston's past support of gun control legislation. In 1994, the NRA unsuccessfully opposed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), but successfully lobbied for the ban's 2004 expiration. Heston was elected president in 1998 and became a highly visible spokesman for the organisation. In an effort to improve the NRA's image, Heston presented himself as the voice of reason in contrast to Knox.

The NRA has been described as influential in shaping American gun control policy. The organisation influences legislators' voting behaviour through its financial resources and ability to mobilise it large membership. The organisation has not lost a major battle over gun control legislation since the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban. At the federal level, the NRA successfully lobbied Congress in the mid-1990s to effectively halt governments-sponsored research into the public health effects of firearms, and to ensure the passage of legislation in 2005 largely immunising gun manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits. At the same time, the NRA stopped efforts at the federal law to increase regulation of firearms. At the state and local level, the NRA successfully campaigned to deregulate guns, for example by pushing state governments to eliminate the ability of local governments to regulate guns and removing restrictions on guns in public places (such as bars and campuses).

Lobbying and political activity

When the National Rifle Association was officially incorporated on November 16, 1871, its primary goal was to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis". The NRA's website says the organisation is "America's longest-standing civil rights organisation".

On February 7, 1872, the NRA created a committee to lobby for legislation in the interest of the organisation. Its first lobbying effort was to petition the New York State legislature for $25,000 to purchase land to set up a range. Within three months, the legislation had passed and had been signed into law by Governor John T. Hoffman.

In 1934, the National Rifle Association created a Legislative Affairs Division and testified in front of Congress in support of the first substantial federal gun control legislation in the US, the National Firearms Act.

The Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), the lobbying branch of the NRA, was established in 1975. According to political scientists John M. Bruce and Clyde Wilcox, the NRA shifted its focus in the late 1970s to incorporate political advocacy, and started seeing its members as political resources rather than just as recipients of goods and services. Despite the impact on the volatility of membership, the politicisation of the NRA has been consistent and its PAC, the Political Victory Fund established in 1976, ranked as "one of the biggest spenders in congressional elections" as of 1998.

A 1999 Fortune magazine survey said that lawmakers and their staffers considered the NRA the most powerful lobbying organisation three years in a row. Chris W. Cox is the NRA's chief lobbyist and principal political strategist, a position he has held since 2002. In 2012, 88% of Republicans and 11% of Democrats in Congress had received an NRA PAC contribution at some point in their career. Of the members of the Congress that convened in 2013, 51% received funding from the NRA PAC within their political careers, and 47% received NRA money in their most recent race. According to Lee Drutman, political scientist and senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, "It is important to note that these contributions are probably a better measure of allegiance than of influence."

Internationally, the NRA opposes the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). It has opposed Canadian gun registry, supported Brazilian gun rights, and criticized Australian gun laws.

In 2016 the NRA raised a record $366 million and spent $412 million for political activities. The NRA also maintains a PAC which is excluded from these figures. The organization donated to congressional races for both Republicans (223) and Democrats (9) to candidates for Congress.

Elections

The NRA Political Victory Fund (PVF) PAC was established in 1976 to challenge gun-control candidates and to support gun-rights candidates. An NRA "A+" candidate is one who has "not only an excellent voting record on all critical NRA issues, but who has also made a vigorous effort to promote and defend the Second Amendment", whereas an NRA "F" candidate is a "true enemy of gun owners' rights".

The NRA endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time in 1980, backing Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter. The NRA has also made endorsements even when it viewed both candidates positively. For example, in the 2006 Senate Elections the NRA endorsed Rick Santorum over Bob Casey, Jr., even though they both had an "A" rating.

Republicans joined forces with the NRA and used the recently passed gun control measures to motivate voters in the 1994 midterm elections. In 1993, with Democrats in the majority of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, President Bill Clinton signed 'The Brady Bill', named after the press secretary who was shot and paralysed during the 1981 assassination attempt of President Reagan. 'The Brady Bill' created a mechanism for background checks in order to enforce the GCA of 1968 and prevent criminals and minors from purchasing guns. In addition, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 included a 10 year ban on the sale of assault weapons. In 1994, the ban was favoured by 78% of Americans according to a CBS poll.

According to Yale Professor Reva Siegel, during the 1994 midterm elections, "(The) NRA spent more than $3.2 million on GOP campaigns and helped win nineteen of twenty-four "priority" races the organisation targeted, leading to a House with a majority of members who were 'A-rated' by the NRA". Groups like the NRA seeking to expand interpretation of the Second Amendment to include an individual right to a gun, coincided with the 'New Right', a political movement concerned with gun control, and social issues such as school prayer and abortion. Leader of the new House Majority Leader Newt Gingrichstated that support for or against gun control defined ones partisan identity. NRA leader Knox echoed this sentiment, assuring members that Republican's would be defenders of Second Amendment rights and repeal recently passed gun control legislation.

The NRA spent $40 million on US elections in 2008, including $10 million in opposition to the election of Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign.

In 2010, Citizens United v. FEC was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, paving the way paved the way for dark money to flow into U.S. elections. As of mid-September 2018, the NRA has become one of just 15 groups which account for three-quarters of the anonymous cash.

The NRA spent over $360,000 in the Colorado recall election of 2013, which resulted in the ouster of state senators John Morse and Angela Giron. The Huffington Post called the recall "a stunning victory for the National Rifle Association and gun rights activists." Morse and Giron helped to pass expanded background checks and ammunition magazine capacity limits after the 2012 Aurora, Colorado, and Sandy Hook, Connecticut, shootings.

On May 20, 2016, the NRA endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election. The timing of the endorsement, before Trump became the official Republican nominee, was unusual, as the NRA typically endorses Republican nominees towards the end of the general election. The NRA said its early endorsement was due to the strong gun control stance of Hillary Clinton In the 2016 United States presidential election the NRA reported spending more than $30 million in support of Donald Trump, more than any other independent group in that election, and three times what it spent in the 2012 presidential election.

Russian influence

Investigations by the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller resulted in indictments of Russian agents on charges of developing and exploiting ties with the NRA to influence US politics. The deputy governor of the Central Bank of Russia, Aleksandr Torshin, is suspected of illegally funnelling money through the NRA to benefit Trump's 2016 campaign. In May of 2018, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee released a report stating it had obtained "a number of documents that suggest the Kremlin used the National Rifle Association as a means of accessing and assisting Mr. Trump and his campaign" through Torshin and his assistant Maria Butina, and that "The Kremlin may also have used the NRA to secretly fund Mr. Trump's campaign." Torshin, a lifetime NRA member who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been implicated in money laundering by Spanish authorities who have characterized him as a "godfather" in Taganskaya, a major Russian criminal organisation. Butina was arrested on July 15, 2018 and charged with conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Russian Federation. According to the affidavit from 2015 through at least February 2017, Butina worked at the direction of Russian who was a high level government official and official at the Russian Central Bank.

The ATF and Senate confirmations

The NRA has for decades sought to limit the ability of the ATF to regulate firearms by blocking nominees and lobbying against reforms that would ease the ability of the ATF to track gun crimes. The NRA, for instance, opposed ATF reforms to trace guns to owners electronically; the ATF currently has to do so through paper records. In 2006, the NRA lobbied US Representative F. James Sensenbrenner to add a provision to the Patriot Act reauthorisation that requires Senate confirmation of ATF director nominees. For seven years after that, the NRA lobbied against and "effectively blocked" every presidential nominee. First was President George W. Bush's choice, Michael Sullivan, whose confirmation was held up in 2008 by three Republican Senators who said the ATF was hostile to gun dealers. One of the Senators was Larry Craig, who was an NRA board member during his years in the Senate. Confirmation of President Obama's first nominee, Andrew Traver, stalled in 2011 after the NRA expressed strong opposition. Some Senators resisted confirming another Obama nominee, B. Todd Jones, because of the NRA's opposition, until 2013, when the NRA said it was neutral on Jones' nomination and that it would not include the confirmation vote in its grading system. Dan Freedman, national editor for Hearst Newspapers' Washington DC bureau, stated that it, "clears the way for senators from pro-gun states – Democrats as well as at least some Republicans – to vote for Jones without fear of political repercussions".

In 2014, Obama weighed the idea of delaying a vote on his nominee for Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, when Republicans and some conservative Democrats criticised Murthy, after the NRA opposed him. In February, the NRA wrote to Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell to say that it "strongly opposes" Murthy's confirmation, and told The Washington Times' Emily Miller that it would score the vote in its PAC grading system. "The NRA decision", wrote Miller, "will undoubtedly make vulnerable Democrats up for reelection in the midterms reconsider voting party line on this nominee." The Wall Street Journal stated on March 15, "Crossing the NRA to support Dr. Murthy could be a liability for some of the Democrats running for re-election this year in conservative-leaning states".

The NRA also opposed the appointments of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan as Supreme Court justices.

Legislation

National Rifle Association Position on Federal US Legislation

Bill/Law	Year	Supported	Opposed
National Firearms Act	1934	N
Federal Firearms Act	1938	N
Gun Control Act	1968	N	N
Federal Assault Weapons Ban	1994		N
Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act	2005	N
Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act	2006	N
Assault Weapons Ban	2013		N

The NRA supported the 1934 National Firearms Act, which regulated what were considered at the time "gangster weapons" such as machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, and sound suppressors. However, the organisation's position on suppressors has since changed.

The NRA supported the 1938 Federal Firearms Act (FFA) which established the Federal Firearms License (FFL) program. The FFA required all manufacturers and dealers of firearms who ship or receive firearms or ammunition in interstate or foreign commerce to have a license, and forbade them from transferring any firearm or most ammunition to any person interstate unless certain conditions were met.

The NRA supported and opposed parts of the Gun Control Act of 1968, which broadly regulated the firearms industry and firearms owners, primarily focusing on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by prohibiting interstate firearms transfers except among licensed manufacturers, dealers and importers. The law was supported by America's oldest manufacturers (Colt, S&W, etc.) in an effort to forestall even greater restrictions which were feared in response to recent domestic violence. The NRA supported elements of the law, such as those forbidding the sale of firearms to convicted criminals and the mentally ill.

The NRA influenced the writing of the Firearm Owners Protection Act and worked for its passage.

In 2004, the NRA opposed renewal of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994. The ban expired on September 13, 2004.

In 2005 President George W. Bush signed into law the NRA-backed Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act which prevent firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable for negligence when crimes have been committed with their products.

Litigation

In November 2005, the NRA and other gun advocates filed a lawsuit challenging San Francisco Proposition H, which banned the ownership and sales of firearms. The NRA argued that the proposition overstepped local government authority and intruded into an area regulated by the state. The San Francisco County Superior Court agreed with the NRA position. The city appealed the court's ruling, but lost a 2008 appeal. In October 2008, San Francisco was forced to pay a $380,000 settlement to the National Rifle Association and other plaintiffs to cover the costs of litigating Proposition H.

In April 2006, New Orleans, Louisiana, police began returning to citizens guns that had been confiscated after Hurricane Katrina. The NRA, Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and other groups agreed to drop a lawsuit against the city in exchange for the return.

While the NRA filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in the 2008 landmark gun rights case of District of Columbia v Heller. In a 5 to 4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that the District of Columbia's gun laws were unconstitutional, and for the first time held that an individual's right to a gun was unconnected to service in a militia. Some legal scholars believe that the NRA was influential in altering the public's interpretation of the Second Amendment, providing the foundation for the majority's opinion in Heller.

In 2009 the NRA again filed suit (Guy Montag Doe v. San Francisco Housing Authority) in the city of San Francisco challenging the city's ban of guns in public housing. On January 14, 2009, the San Francisco Housing Authority reached a settlement with the NRA, which allows residents to possess legal firearms within a SFHA apartment building.

In 2010, the NRA sued the city of Chicago, Illinois (McDonald v. Chicago) and the Supreme Court ruled that like other substantive rights, the right to bear arms is incorporated via the Fourteenth Amendment to the Bill of Rights, and therefore applies to the states.

In March 2013, the NRA joined a federal lawsuit with other gun rights groups challenging New York's gun control law (the NY SAFE Act), arguing that Governor Andrew Cuomo "usurped the legislative and democratic process" in passing the law, which included restrictions on magazine capacity and expanding the state's assault weapons ban.

In November 2013, voters in Sunnyvale, California, passed an ordinance banning certain ammunition magazines along with three other firearm-related restrictions. The ordinance was passed by 66 percent in favor. The ordinance requires city residents to "dispose, donate, or sell" any magazine capable of holding more than ten rounds within a proscribed period of time once the measure takes effect. The following month, the NRA joined local residents in suing the city on second amendment grounds. A federal judge dismissed the suit three months later, upholding the Sunnyvale's ordinance.

The city of San Francisco then passed similar ordinances a short time later. The San Francisco Veteran Police Officers Association (SFVPOA), represented by NRA attorneys, filed a lawsuit challenging San Francisco's ban on the possession of high-capacity magazines, seeking an injunction. A federal judge denied the injunction in February 2014.

In 2014 the NRA lobbied for a bill in Pennsylvania which grants it and other advocacy groups legal standing to sue municipalities to overturn local firearm regulations passed in violation of a state law preempting such regulations, and which also allows the court to force cities to pay their legal fees. As soon as it became law, the NRA sued three cities: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Lancaster. In Philadelphia, seven regulations the NRA sued to overturn included a ban on gun possession by those found to be a risk for harming themselves or others, and a requirement to report stolen guns to the police within twenty-four hours after discovery of the loss or theft. In Lancaster, a city of fewer than 60,000, mayor Rick Gray, who has chaired the pro-gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, was also named in the suit. In that city, the NRA challenged an ordinance requiring gun owners to tell police when a firearm is lost or stolen within 72 hours or face jail time. The basis for the lawsuits is "a 1974 state law that bars municipalities against passing restrictions that are pre-empted by state gun laws". At least 20 Pennsylvania municipalities have rescinded regulations in response to threatened litigation.

Programs

The National Rifle Association owns the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Virginia, featuring exhibits on the evolution and history of firearms in America. In August 2013, the NRA National Sporting Arms Museum opened at an expansive Bass Pro Shops retail store in Springfield, Missouri. It displays almost 1,000 firearms, including historically significant firearms from the NRA and other collections. The NRA publishes a number of periodicals including American Rifleman and others.

The NRA sponsors a range of programs about firearm safety for children and adults, including a program for school-age children, the NRA's "Eddie Eagle". The organisation issues credentials and trains firearm instructors.

In 1994, following disagreements between the NRA and athletes over control of the program of Olympic shooting sports, the US Olympic Committee recommended USA Shooting replace the NRA as the national governing body for Olympic shooting. The NRA dropped out just before the decision was announced, citing a lack of appreciation for their efforts.

The NRA hosts the National Rifle and Pistol Matches at Camp Perry, events which are considered to be the "world series of competitive shooting" The National Rifle Association maintains ties with other organisations such as the Boy Scouts of America and 4-H. The NRA has worked with the American Civil Liberties Union in opposing gun registration.

The NRA hosts annual meetings. The 2018 meeting was held in May 3 in Dallas, Texas. More than 800 exhibitors and 80,000 people attended the event, making it the largest in NRA history. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence addressed attendees.

Organisational structure and finances

Leadership

Executive staff and spokespersons

Since 1991, Wayne LaPierre has been the organisation's executive vice president, and functions as the chief executive officer. LaPierre's compensation averages $1 million per year and including a nearly $4 million retirement payout in 2015. Previous notable holders of that office include: Milton Reckord, Floyd Lavinius Parks, Franklin Orth, Maxwell Rich, Harlon Carter, J. Warren Cassidy, and Gary Anderson.

Chris W. Cox is the executive director of the NRA's lobbying branch, the Institute for Legislative Action. He received more than $1.3 million in compensation in 2015. Kyle Weaver is executive director of general operations. Kayne B. Robinson is executive director of the General Operations Division and chairman of the Whittington Center.

In 2017, political commentator Dana Loesch was appointed as the NRA's national spokesperson, with the formal title of "special assistant to executive vice president for public communication." Loesch hosts The DL on NRA TV and has featured prominently in other NRA-produced videos.

Actor Chuck Norris serves as the honorary chairman for the association's voter registration campaign. Colion Noir hosts a video program on the NRA's online video channel.

In May 2018, the NRA announced that Oliver North would become president of the organisation.

Board of directors

The NRA is governed by a board of 76 elected directors, 75 of whom serve three-year terms and one who is elected to serve as a cross-over director. The directors choose a president and other officers from among the membership, as well as the executive director of the NRA General Operations and the executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). In 2015, 71 members were white and 65 were male. More came from Texas than any other state. Only 7 percent of eligible members vote. Most board nominations are vetted by an appointed nine-member Nominating Committee. One member is George Kollitides of the Freedom Group. The nomination committee has been called "kingmakers" by MSNBC and Jeff Knox says "the process is front-loaded to give incumbents and Nominating Committee candidates a significant advantage".

Membership

According to Wayne La Pierre NRA membership exceeded 5 million as of May 2013, one-tenth of whom had joined in the prior six months. Mother Jones has questioned the membership numbers published by the NRA. They say that in 2008, for example, the organisation claimed both 3 million and 4.3 million members. Journalist Osha Gray Davidson suggested in 2000 that many deceased "life members" are kept on the books in order to inflate the membership rolls.

A 2017 Pew Research Centre study found that 19% of US gun owners consider themselves NRA members. Journalist Megan Wilson stated that the Pew study places membership at 14 million, far higher than the NRA's own report of 5 million. According to the NRA, some non-members typically claim to be members when surveyed, as a show of support.

Notable members

Nine US Presidents have been NRA members. In addition to Grant, they are: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush (who resigned in 1995), and Donald Trump. Three US Vice Presidents, two Chief Justices of the US Supreme Court, and several US Congressmen, as well as legislators and officials of state governments are members.

Current or past members also include journalist Hunter S. Thompson, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, documentarian Michael Moore (who joined with the intent of dismantling the organisation), actor Rick Schroder, and singer James Hetfield.

Interconnected organisations

The National Rifle Association is composed of several financially interconnected organisations under common leadership, including the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) which manages the NRA's political action committee and the NRA Civil Defense Fund which does pro bono legal work for people with cases involving Second Amendment rights. The NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund was established in 1978. Harlon Carter and Neal Knox were responsible for its founding.

In 1994, the Fund spent over $500,000 on legal fees to support legal cases involving guns and gun control measures. It donated $20,000 in 1996 for the defence of New York City resident Bernhard Goetz when he was sued by a man he shot and left paralyzed. It paid the legal bills in the case of Brian Aitken, a New Jersey resident sentenced to seven years in state prison for transporting guns without a carry permit. On December 20, 2010, Governor Chris Christie granted Aitken clemency and ordered Aitken's immediate release from prison.

NRA Foundation

The NRA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation that raises and donates money to outdoors groups and others such as ROTC programs, 4-H and Boy Scouts. In 2010, the NRA Foundation distributed $21.2 million in grants for gun-related training and education programs: $12.6 million to the NRA itself, and the rest to community programs for hunters, competitive shooters, gun collectors, and law enforcement, and to women and youth groups. The foundation has no staff and pays no salaries.

Friends of NRA is a program that raises money for the NRA Foundation. Since its inception in 1992, Friends of NRA has held over 17,600 events, reached over 3.2 million attendees and raised over $600 million for The NRA Foundation.

Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF)

By 1976, as the NRA became more politically-oriented, the Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF), a PAC, was established as a subsidiary to the NRA, to support NRA-friendly politicians. Chris W. Cox, who is the NRA's chief lobbyist and principal political strategist, is also the NRA-PVF chairman. Through the NRA-PVF, the NRA began to rate political candidates on their positions on gun rights. An NRA "A+" candidate is one who has "not only an excellent voting record on all critical NRA issues, but who has also made a vigorous effort to promote and defend the Second Amendment", whereas an NRA "F" candidate is deemed a "true enemy of gun owners' rights".

In the 2008 elections, the PVF spent millions on "direct campaign donations" and "grassroots operation". In 2012, NRA-PVF income was $14.4 million and expenses were $16.1 million. By 2014, the NRA-PVF income rose to 21.9 million with expenses of 20.7 million.

Finances

In 2010, the NRA reported revenue of $227.8 million and expenses of $243.5 million, with revenue including roughly $115 million generated from fundraising, sales, advertising and royalties, and most of the rest from membership dues. Less than half of the NRA's income is from membership dues and program fees; the majority is from contributions, grants, royalties, and advertising.

Corporate donors include a variety of companies such as outdoors supply, sporting goods companies, and firearm manufacturers. From 2005 through 2011, the NRA received at least $14.8 million from more than 50 firearms-related firms. An April 2011 Violence Policy Centre presentation said that the NRA had received between $14.7 million and $38.9 million from the firearms industry since 2005. In 2008, Beretta exceeded $2 million in donations to the NRA, and in 2012, Smith & Wesson gave more than $1 million. Sturm, Ruger & Company raised $1.25 million through a program in which it donated $1 to the NRA-ILA for each gun it sold from May 2011 to May 2012. In a similar program, gun buyers and participating stores are invited to "round up" the purchase price to the nearest dollar as a voluntary contribution. According to the NRA's 2010 tax forms, the "round-up" funds have been allocated to both public interest programs and lobbying.

In 2018, the NRA alleged in an official Court document that it suffered tens of millions of dollars in damage from actions of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the State's financial regulator, and if those actions continue, the NRA "will be unable to exist as a not-for-profit or pursue its advocacy mission."

Public opinion and image

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2018)

A Reuters/Ipsos poll in April 2012 found that 82% of Republicans and 55% of Democrats saw the NRA "in a positive light". In seven of eight Gallup polls between 1993 and 2015, a majority of Americans reported holding a favourable opinion of the NRA. Its highest rating was at 60% favourability in 2005 (with 34% unfavourable), while its lowest rating was at 42% favourability in 1995 (with 51% unfavourable). In October 2015, 58% of Americans held a favourable opinion of the NRA, though there was a wide spread among political affiliations: 77% of conservatives, 56% of moderates and 30% of liberals held this view.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll in January 2013 showed that only 36% of Americans had a favourable opinion of the NRA leadership.

A 2017 poll conducted by the political action committee Americans for Responsible Solutions, which supports gun control, exclusively questioned 661 gun owners. 26% of the respondents stated they were a member of the NRA. The ARS reported that less than 50% of gun owners polled believed the NRA represented their interests, while 67% of them somewhat or strongly agreed with the statement that it had been "overtaken by lobbyists and the interests of gun manufacturers and lost its original purpose and mission." The NRA disputed the poll's veracity in an e-mail sent to Politico, which had published the story.

Recent polling trends show a significant decline in NRA favorability.

A 2018 NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll found that "for the first time since at least 2000, Americans hold a net unfavourable view of the NRA"- the poll showed respondents view of the NRA was 40% negative and 37% positive. The poll showed that compared to the same question in 2017, the favourability rating of the NRA overall dropped 5%, noting that the shift was largely due to favourability declines among certain demographics: married white women, urban residents, white women (overall), and moderate Republicans. Several 2018 polls had similar results.

A February 2018 Quinnipiac poll found that 51% of Americans believe that the policies supported by the NRA are bad for the U.S., a 4% increase since October 2017.

The NRA calls itself "the oldest continuously operating civil liberties organisation" and is "one of the largest and best-funded lobbying organisations" in the United States. Its claim that it's one of the oldest civil rights organisations is disputed. While the NRA was founded in 1871, it did not pursue a gun rights agenda until 1934. The National Association for the Deaf (NAD, founded in 1880) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, founded in 1909) both originated as civil rights organisations according to other sources.

Criticism

This article's "criticism" or "controversy" section may compromise the article's neutrality. Please help rewrite or integrate negative information to other sections through discussion on the talk page. (June 2018)

The National Rifle Association has been criticised by newspaper editorial boards, gun control and gun rights advocacy groups, political commentators, and politicians. Democrats and liberals frequently criticize the organization. The NRA's oldest organised critics include the gun control advocacy groups the Brady Campaign, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV), and the Violence Policy Centre (VPC). Twenty-first century groups include Everytown for Gun Safety (formerly Mayors Against Illegal Guns), Moms Demand Action, and Americans for Responsible Solutions.

Political involvement

In 1995, former US President George H. W. Bush resigned his life membership to the organisation after receiving a National Rifle Association Institute of Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) fund-raising letter, signed by executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, that referred to ATF agents as "jack-booted government thugs". The NRA later apologized for the letter's language.

In December 2008, The New York Times editorial board criticised the NRA's attacks, which it called false and misleading, on Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

After Donald Trump's election, the NRA closely aligned with Trump. At an event in February 2018, Trump said that he was a "big fan of the NRA" but said that "that doesn't mean we have to agree on everything."

A number of observers have argued that the NRA has become a partisan organisation, focusing overwhelmingly on supporting the Republican Party. They argue that the NRA does not support Democratic candidates, even when the Democrat holds pro-gun views, and that the organisation supports Republican causes even when they are unrelated to gun rights.

Gun control

In February 2013, USA Today editors criticised the NRA for flip-flopping on expansion of universal background checks to private and gun show sales, which NRA now opposes.

In March 2014, The Washington Post criticised the NRA's interference in government research on gun violence, and both Post and Los Angeles Times editors criticized its opposition of Vivek Murthy for US Surgeon General. In November 2018, a social media dispute was seen, after a paper was published by the American College of Physicians that stated that medical professionals had a special responsibility to speak out on prevention of gun-related injuries and that they should support appropriate regulation of the purchase of legal weapons. In response to the paper the NRA tweeted against the paper and "anti-gun doctors" and claimed that "half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine are pushing for gun control", and medical professional began posting their experiences of caring for gun violence victims.

A survey of NRA members found that the majority support certain gun control policies, such as a universal background check:

For instance, 84% of gun owners and 74% of NRA members (vs. 90% of non-gun owners) supported requiring a universal background-check system for all gun sales; 76% of gun owners and 62% of NRA members (vs. 83% of non-gun owners) supported prohibiting gun ownership for 10 years after a person has been convicted of violating a domestic-violence restraining order; and 71% of gun owners and 70% of NRA members (vs. 78% of non-gun owners) supported requiring a mandatory minimum sentence of 2 years in prison for a person convicted of selling a gun to someone who cannot legally have a gun.

Gun manufacturing industry

Critics have charged that the NRA represents the interests of gun manufacturers rather than gun owners. For example, in 2011, Violence Policy Center executive director Josh Sugarmann, said: "Today's NRA is a virtual subsidiary of the gun industry. While the NRA portrays itself as protecting the 'freedom' of individual gun owners, it's actually working to protect the freedom of the gun industry to manufacture and sell virtually any weapon or accessory".

Mass shootings

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

Following the high-profile 2012 shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, the organisation began to become the focus of intense criticism, due to its continued refusal to endorse any new restrictions on assault-style gun ownership, or to endorse any other types of new restrictions on gun ownership. While supporters say the organisation advances their rights to buy and own guns according to the constitution's Second Amendment, some critics have described it as a "terrorist organisation" for advocating policies that enable and permit the widespread distribution and sale of assault-style weapons, and for its opposition to any other types of restrictions on gun sales or use.

In December 2012, following the shooting, NRA broke its social media silence and media blackout to announce a press conference. At the event, LaPierre announced an NRA-backed effort to assess the feasibility of placing armed security officers in the nation's 135,000 public and private schools under a "National School Shield Program". He called on Congress "to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary". The announcement came in the same week after President Obama had stated his support for a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

The NRA has been criticised for their media strategy following mass shootings in the United States. After the Sandy Hook shooting the NRA released an online video which attacked Obama and mentioned Obama's daughters; New Jersey Governor Chris Christie called it "reprehensible" and said that it demeaned the organisation. A senior lobbyist for the organization later characterized the video as "ill-advised".

2017 Las Vegas shooting

After the October 2017 shooting at a concert in Las Vegas, which left 58 people dead and 851 injured, the NRA was initially criticised for their silence. After four days they issued a statement opposing additional gun control laws, which they said would not stop further attacks, and calling for a federal law allowing people who have a concealed carry permit in one state to carry concealed weapons in all other states. The organisation also suggested additional regulations on so-called bump fire stocks, which allow a semi-automatic weapon to function like a machine gun; the Las Vegas shooter had used such a device.

Stoneman Douglas High School shooting

In February 2018 a school shooting at a high school in Florida left 17 dead, and student survivors organised a movement called Never Again MSD to demand passage of certain gun control measures. Many of the students blamed the NRA, and the politicians who accept money from the organisation, for preventing enactment of any gun control proposals after previous high profile shootings. An NRA spokesman responded by blaming the shooting on the FBI and the media. The NRA also issued a statement that the incident was proof that more guns were immediately required in schools in the hands of a bolstered force of armed security personnel in order to "harden" them against any further similar assaults. A Florida law passed in the wake of the shooting, which includes a provision to ban the sale of firearms to people under 21, was immediately challenged in federal court by the NRA on the grounds that it is "violating the constitutional rights of 18- to 21-year-olds."

In May 2018, Cameron Kasky's father and other Parkland parents formed a super PAC, Families vs Assault Rifles PAC (FAMSVARPAC), with a stated goal of going "up against NRA candidates in every meaningful race in the country". The organisation seeks federal legislation to ban "the most dangerous firearms", while not affecting the second amendment.

Boycott

The NRA offers corporate discounts to its members at various businesses through its corporate affiliate programs. For several years, and increasingly in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, "affiliate companies" have been targeted in social media as part of a boycott effort to terminate their business relationships with the NRA. As a result of this boycott movement, several major corporations such as Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Hertz, Symantec, and MetLife have disaffiliated from the NRA, while others, such as FedEx have refused to disaffiliate.

Media campaigns

In 2017, Zack Beauchamp of Vox and Mark Sumner of Daily Kos criticised a video advertisement from the NRA. In the video, Dana Loesch runs through a list of wrongs committed by an unspecified "they":

They use their media to assassinate real news. They use their schools to teach children that the president is another Hitler. They use their movie stars, and singers, and comedy shows, and award shows to repeat their narrative over and over again. And then they use their ex-president to endorse the resistance. All to make them march. Make them protest. Make them scream racism and sexism and xenophobia and homophobia. To smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorise the law abiding. Until the only option left is for the police to do their jobs and stop the madness. And when that happens, they'll use it as an excuse for their outrage. The only way we stop this. The only way we save our country and our freedom, is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth.

Sumner alleged the NRA was trying to boost gun sales by "convincing half of America to declare war on the other half." Beauchamp wrote, "It's a paranoid vision of American life that encourages the NRA's fans to see liberals not as political opponents, but as monsters."

In May 2018 the NRA ran an advertisement which criticised the media for giving too much coverage to school shooters by showing their faces and revealing their names, in effect causing a "glorification of carnage in pursuit of ratings", and satirically suggested that Congress pass legislation to limit such coverage in order to make provocative point about gun control. In response, critics suggested that this would violate the First Amendment right of free speech.

Pro-gun rights criticism

Pro-gun rights critics include Gun Owners of America (GOA), founded in the 1970s because some gun rights advocates believed the NRA was too flexible on gun issues. Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) has also disagreed with NRA for what it perceives as a willingness to compromise on gun control. The National Association for Gun Rights criticizes the NRA as not being conservative enough or not sufficiently protective of gun rights. In June 2014, an open carry group in Texas threatened to withdraw its support of the NRA if it did not retract its statements critical of the practice. The NRA–ILA's Chris Cox said the statements were a staffer's personal opinion and a mistake.

Lack of advocacy for black gun owners

The NRA has been criticised for insufficient defence of African-American gun rights and providing muted and delayed responses in gun rights cases involving black gun owners. Others argue that the NRA's inaction in prominent gun rights cases involving black gun owners is a consequence of their reluctance to criticise law enforcement, noting NRA support for Otis McDonald and Shaneen Allen.

In a well-publicised 2017 case, Philando Castile, an African-American and legal gun owner, was fatally shot by a police officer during a traffic stop while reaching for his wallet. Castile had a valid firearm permit and informed the police officer of his gun prior to the shooting. According to The Washington Post, the NRA had typically "been quick to defend other gun owners who made national news", but stayed silent on the Castile shooting. Other gun rights advocates as well as some NRA members voiced similar criticisms.

Adam Winkler, professor of constitutional law at the UCLA School of Law, has argued that there is historical precedence to the NRA's lack of advocacy for black gun owners, noting that the NRA promoted gun control legislation in the 1920s, 1930s and 1960s with the intent to reduce gun ownership by racial minorities.

List of past and present leaders

Presidents

Presidents of the NRA are elected by the board of directors.

• Ambrose Burnside (1871–72)
• William Conant Church (1872–75)
• Alexander Shaler (1876)
• Winfield S. Hancock (1881)
• Ulysses S. Grant (1883–84)
• Philip H. Sheridan (1885)
• George W. Wingate (1886–1900)
• John C. Bates (1910–12)
• William Libbey (1915–20)
• Smith W. Brookhart (1921–25)
• Francis E. Warren (1925–26)
• Benedict Crowell (1930–31)
• Karl T. Frederick (1934–35)
• Littleton W. T. Waller, Jr. (1939–40)
• Emmet O. Swanson (1948)
• Merritt A. Edson (1949–50)
• Morton C. Mumma (1955–56)
• Harlon B. Carter (1965–67)
• Lloyd M. Mustin (1977–78)
• Howard W. Pollock (1983–84)
• Alonzo H. Garcelon (1985)
• Joe Foss (1988–90)
• Robert K. Corbin (1992–93)
• Marion P. Hammer (1995–98)
• Charlton Heston (1998–2003)
• Sandra Froman (2005–07)
• John C. Sigler (2007–09)
• Ron Schmeits (2009–11)
• David Keene (2011–13)
• James W. "Jim" Porter (2013–15)
• Allan D. Cors (2015–2017)
• Pete Brownell (2017–2018)
• Oliver North (2018–present)

Directors

Notable directors, past and present, include:

• Joe M. Allbaugh
• John M. Ashbrook
• Bob Barr
• Ronnie Barrett
• Clel Baudler
• Ken Blackwell
• Matt Blunt
• John Bolton
• Dan Boren
• Robert K. Brown
• Dave Butz
• Richard Childress
• Larry E. Craig
• Barbara Cubin
• John Dingell
• Merritt A. Edson
• R. Lee Ermey
• Sandra Froman
• Jim Gilmore
• Marion P. Hammer
• Susan Howard
• Roy Innis
• David Keene
• Karl Malone
• John Milius
• Zell Miller
• Cleta Mitchell
• Grover Norquist
• Oliver L. North
• Johnny Nugent
• Ted Nugent
• Lee Purcell
• Todd J. Rathner
• Wayne Anthony Ross
• Ron Schmeits
• Tom Selleck
• John C. Sigler
• Bruce Stern
• Harold Volkmer
• Don Young

See also

• Non-profit organizations in Northern Virginia
• Overview of gun laws by nation

References

1. ^ "The National Rifle Association". The New York Times. September 17, 1871. A meeting of the National Rifle Association was held in the Seventh Regiment armoury yesterday, Gen. J.P. Woodward, of the second Division, presided, and Col. H.G. Shaw officiated as Secretary. Articles of association were presented and adopted. The incorporators are composed of forty prominent officers and ex-officers of the National Guard. Membership in the Association is to be open to all persons interested in the promotion of the rifle practice. Regiments and companies in the National Guard are entitled by the by-laws to constitute all their regular members in good standing members of the Association on the payment of one-half of the entrance fees and annual dues.
2. "National Rifle Association". Guide Star.
3. ^ "Wayne LaPierre Says NRA is Alive, Standing Tall and Still Fighting". National Rifle Association. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
4. ^ "NRA releases financial statement showing revenue, expenses for 2016". Retrieved January 2, 2018.
5. ^ Korte, Gregory (May 4, 2013). "Post-Newtown, NRA membership surges to 5 million". USA Today.
6. Carter, Gregg Lee, ed. (2012). "National Rifle Association (NRA)". Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp. 616–20. ISBN 978-0313386701. Retrieved June 6, 2014. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is the nation's largest, oldest, and most politically powerful interest group that opposes gun laws and favours gun rights. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
7. More gun rights sources:
   • Carter, Greg Lee (2006). Gun Control in the United States: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. p. 285. ISBN 978-1851097609. Almost all of are readily classifiable as either advocating a 'gun control' or a 'gun rights' position.
   • Knox, Neal (2009). Knox, Christopher (ed.). Neal Knox: The Gun Rights War. MacFarlane Press. p. 159. ISBN 978-0976863304. One of the few advantages – possibly the only advantage – that supporters of gun rights hold is the fact that there are more one-issue voters on the pro-gun side than on the anti-gun side.
   • Patterson, Samuel C.; Eakins, Keith R. (1998). "Congress and Gun Control". In Bruce, John M.; Wilcox, Clyde (eds.). The Changing Politics of Gun Control. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0847686159. OCLC 833118449. Retrieved April 8, 2014. During the gun control legislation battles of the 1960s, the NRA, although it had no registered lobbyists, was the most powerful gun rights organisation. It still enjoys this distinction, although it has undergone significant change. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
   • Utter, Glenn H. (2011). Encyclopedia of Gun Control and Gun Rights. Grey House. ISBN 978-1592376728.
   • Wellford, Charles F; Pepper, John V; Petrie, Carol V, eds. (2013) . Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review (Electronic ed.). Washington, DC: National Academies Press. p. 283. ISBN 0309546400. Another commentator pointed out, however, that a significant number of the articles supporting the individual right model published between 1970 and 1989 were written by lawyers who had either been employed by or who represented gun rights organisations, including the NRA.
8. ^ "A Brief History of NRA". National Rifle Association HQ. Archived from the original on July 3, 2013. Retrieved July 19, 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
9. ^ "FORTUNE Releases Annual Survey of Most Powerful Lobbying Organisations" (Press release). Time Warner. November 15, 1999. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
10. Wilson, James Q.; et al. (2011). American Government: Institutions & Policies. Cengage Learning. p. 264. ISBN 978-0495802815.
11. ^ "Bloomberg Throws Punch at NRA, Obama: Bloomberg says NRA 'encourages behaviour that causes things like Connecticut' shooting". ABC News. December 21, 2012. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
12. ^ Robillard, Kevin (December 26, 2012). "Frank Luntz: NRA not listening to public". Politico. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
13. "A National Rifle Association.; Patriotic Action of Americans Residing Abroad". The New York Times. August 9, 1861. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
14. "Abraham Lincoln papers: Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833-1916: R.B. Perry and R.G. Moulton to Abraham Lincoln, Wednesday, June 12, 1861 (Loyal Americans in Europe volunteer services)". The Library of Congress. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
15. "Prize Rifles A Note from Patriotic Americans in England". The New York Times. September 9, 1861. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
16. "Meeting of the National Rifle Association Election of Officers". The New York Times. November 25, 1871. p. 3.
17. "Notes of the Day". The New York Times. August 1, 1872. p. 3.
18. "National Rifle Association". The New York Times. August 7, 1872. p. 2.
19. Bellini, Jason (December 20, 2012). "A Brief History of the NRA". The Wall Street Journal.
20. Achenbach, Joel; Higham, Scott; Horwitz Sari (January 12, 2013). "How NRA's true believers converted a marksmanship group into a mighty gun lobby". The Washington Post
21. ^ Craige, John Houston The Practical Book of American Guns (1950) Bramhall House pp. 84–93
22. "Timeline of the NRA", The Washington Post, January 12, 2013.
23. Kerr, Richard E. (1990). Wall of Fire – The Rifle and Civil War Infantry Tactics (PDF) (Thesis). US Army Command and General Staff College. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
24. Somerset, A.J. (December 20, 2015). "Excerpt: How Canadians helped create the NRA". Toronto Star.
25. "America's Wimbledon: The Inauguration". The New York Times. June 22, 1873. p. 5.
26. "The National Rifle Association". The New York Times. June 12, 1873. p. 5.
27. "The 'Academy' Must Now Share Michael Moore's Cinematic Shame". National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. March 27, 2003. Archived from the original on December 3, 2010. Retrieved November 21, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
28. Canfield, Bruce N. (September 2008). "To promote marksmanship ... 'N.R.A.'-marked M1903 rifles". American Rifleman. 156 (9). National Rifle Association: 72–75.
29. Ness, Mark (June 1983). "American Rifleman". American Rifleman. National Rifle Association: 58.
30. Camp, Raymond R. (1948). The Hunter's Encyclopedia. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole and Heck. p. 599.
31. "National Rifle Association". TheFreeDictionary.com. Farlex. 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
32. "National Firearms Act of 1934". TheFreeDictionary.com. Farlex. 2011. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
33. Jilani, Zaid. "For Most Of Its History, The NRA Actually Backed Sensible Gun Regulation". Retrieved September 20, 2015.
34. ^ Gerhart, Ann; Alcantara, Chris (May 29, 2018). "How the NRA transformed from marksmen to lobbyists". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
35. Jill Lepore (April 23, 2012). "Battleground America: One nation, under the gun". The New Yorker. Condé Nast.
36. Shaiko, Ronald G.; Wallace, Marc A. (1998). "Going Hunting Where the Ducks Are: The National Rifle Association and the Grass Roots". In Bruce, John M.; Wilcox, Clyde (eds.). The Changing Politics of Gun Control. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0847686159. OCLC 833118449. Retrieved April 8, 2014. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
37. Knox, Neal (2009). Knox, Christopher (ed.). Neal Knox: The Gun Rights War. MacFarlane Press. pp. 299–300. ISBN 978-0976863304.
38. Achenbach, Joel; Higham, Scott; Horwitz, Sari (January 12, 2013). "How NRA's true believers converted a marksmanship group into a mighty gun lobby". The Washington Post.
39. Glen H. Utter, Encyclopedia of Gun Control and Gun Rights (2000) pp. 137–38, 161–63, 166–67, 186, 219–20
40. Walden, Michael. "The Road to Heller." Legal Change: Lessons From America's Social Movements, edited by Jennifer Weiss-Wolf and Jeanine Plant-Chirlin, Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, 2015, pp. 55
41. Glen H. Utter, Encyclopedia of Gun Control and Gun Rights (2000) pp. 99–100, 162
42. Knox, Neal (2009). Knox, Christopher (ed.). Neal Knox: The Gun Rights War. MacFarlane Press. pp. 314–20. ISBN 978-0976863304.
43. Glen H. Utter, Encyclopedia of Gun Control and Gun Rights (2000) pp. 62, 158, 162, 166–67
44. Robert J. Spitzer, The Politics of Gun Control (2nd ed. 1998) p. 88
45. Richard Feldman (2011). Ricochet: Confessions of a Gun Lobbyist. John Wiley. p. 174. ISBN 978-1118131008.
46. Raymond, Emilie (2006). From My Cold, Dead Hands: Charlton Heston and American Politics. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0813124087. OCLC 77125677.
47. ^ Cook, Philip J.; Goss, Kristin A. (2014). The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know®. What Everyone Needs To Know®. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 198–200. ISBN 9780199338993.
48. ^ Reich, Gary; Barth, Jay (2017). "Planting in Fertile Soil: The National Rifle Association and State Firearms Legislation*". Social Science Quarterly. 98 (2): 485–499. doi:10.1111/ssqu.12423. ISSN 0038-4941.
49. "NRA Digital Network". National Rifle Association. Retrieved May 30, 2014. The National Rifle Association is America's longest-standing civil rights organisation.
50. "The National Rifle Association". The New York Times. February 7, 1872. p. 8.
51. "New York and Suburban News". The New York Times. March 6, 1872. p. 8.
52. "Important Meeting of the National Rifle Association". The New York Times. May 22, 1872. p. 8.
53. Walker, Tim (December 22, 2012). "The NRA - marksman's friend that took aim at Washington". The Independent. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
54. Bruce, John M.; Wilcox, Clyde, eds. (1998). The Changing Politics of Gun Control. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. pp. 158–59. ISBN 0847686140. OCLC 833118449.
55. Drutman, Lee (December 18, 2012). "NRA's allegiances reach deep into Congress". Sunlight Foundation.
56. Editorial Board (September 30, 2013). "Containing the Conventional Arms Trade". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 25, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
57. "NRA involved in gun registry debate". Ontario, Canada: CBC. September 13, 2010. Archived from the original on September 19, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
58. Kurlantzick, Joshua (September 17, 2006). "Global Gun Rights?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 31, 2012. Retrieved February 7, 2014. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
59. Flannery, Nathaniel Parish (July 11, 2013). "What Are The NRA And Smith and Wesson Up To In Latin America?". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2014. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
60. O'Malley, Nick (December 12, 2013). "Sandy Hook massacre: Gun lobby targets Australia". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia: Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
61. "The NRA raised a record amount of money in 2016".
62. Business Insider, February 28, 2018, These are the members of Congress with the most NRA donations, Retrieved April 2, 2018, "...The NRA remains one of the premier gun rights lobbying groups in the US, regularly contributing to congressional candidates...."
63. ^ Bruce, John M.; Wilcox, Clyde, eds. (1998). The Changing Politics of Gun Control. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. p. 186. ISBN 0847686140. OCLC 833118449.
64. ^ Lowes, Robert (March 11, 2014). "NRA Opposes Surgeon General Nominee Vivek Murthy". Medscape. WebMD (subscription required). Retrieved June 9, 2014.
65. Schmidt, Gina M. "100 Years: Remembering President Ronald Reagan". National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. Archived from the original on February 18, 2013. Retrieved February 2, 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
66. Facts on File 1980 Yearbook, p.844
67. O'Toole, James (October 25, 2006). "Santorum touts gun stand: Senate candidate showcases NRA endorsement". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. PG Publishing. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
68. ^ Siegel, Reva B. "Dead or Alive: Originalism as Popular Constitutionalism in Heller." The Second Amendment on Trial: Critical Essays on District of Columbia v. Heller, edited by Saul Cornell and Nathan Kozuskanich, University of Massachusetts Press, 2013, pp. 104.
69. Young, John T., et al. "Trends: Guns." The Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 60, no. 4, 1996, pp. 647.
70. ^ Siegel, Reva B. "Dead or Alive: Originalism as Popular Constitutionalism in Heller." The Second Amendment on Trial: Critical Essays on District of Columbia v. Heller, edited by Saul Cornell and Nathan Kozuskanich, University of Massachusetts Press, 2013, pp. 105.
71. Siegel, Reva B. "Dead or Alive: Originalism as Popular Constitutionalism in Heller." The Second Amendment on Trial: Critical Essays on District of Columbia v. Heller, edited by Saul Cornell and Nathan Kozuskanich, University of Massachusetts Press, 2013, pp. 95.
72. Carter, Gregg Lee, ed. (2012). "National Rifle Association (NRA)". Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp. 616–20. ISBN 978-0313386701. Retrieved June 6, 2014. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
73. "NRA has 'anti-gun' Obama in its sights". Orlando Sentinel. Cox News Service. October 19, 2008. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
74. Fredreka Schouten (September 12, 2018). "Exclusive: Three-quarters of the secret money in recent elections came from 15 groups". USAToday.com. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
75. ^ Siddiqui, Sabrina (September 10, 2013). "Colorado Recall Results: Democratic State Senators Defeated In Major Victory For NRA". HuffPost.
76. "Morse, Giron Lose Recalls Over Gun Laws Support". CBS Local Media. Associated Press. September 10, 2013. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
77. Reinhard, Beth (May 20, 2016). "Donald Trump Wins NRA Endorsement". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
78. "Trump wins NRA endorsement, blasts Clinton on gun stance at forum | Fox News". Fox News. May 20, 2016. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
79. Spies, Mike (November 9, 2016). "The NRA Placed Big Bets on the 2016 Election, and Won Almost All of Them". Open Secrets. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
80. Gordon, Greg; Stone, Peter (May 16, 2018). "Senate Dems: Documents suggest Russia used NRA to aid Trump campaign". McClatchy DC BUreau. Retrieved May 16, 2018 – via McClatchyDC.com. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
81. Greg Gordon and Peter Stone, 17 May 2018, Sidney Morning Herald, Russia used NRA to aid Trump campaign, documents suggest: Democrats, Retrieved May 25, 2018, "... Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said in a report on Wednesday that their preliminary investigation turned up "a number of documents" suggesting Russia used connections to the NRA "as a means of accessing and assisting Mr Trump and his campaign."..."
82. Anapol, Avery (May 16, 2018). "Judiciary Dems: Kremlin may have used the NRA to help Trump campaign". The Hill. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
83. Stone, Peter; Gordon, Greg (January 18, 2018). "FBI investigating whether Russian money went to NRA to help Trump". McClatchy. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
84. "The Russia scandal just got bigger. And Republicans are trying to prevent an accounting". The Washington Post. January 18, 2018.
86. "Butina Mariia affidavit" (PDF).
87. Bykowicz, Julie; Wilber, Del Quentin (July 17, 2018). "Alleged Russian Foreign Agent Cultivated Ties With U.S. Conservatives, NRA". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
88. Sheth, Sonam (July 17, 2018). "Grand jury indicts Maria Butina, a Russian national with deep ties to the NRA, for conspiracy and acting as a Russian agent". Business Insider. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
89. ^ Watkins, Ali (February 22, 2018). "How the N.R.A. Keeps Federal Gun Regulators in Check". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
90. ^ Horwitz, Sari (July 31, 2013). "Senate confirms ATF director". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
91. Yager, Jordy (June 18, 2013). "Sen. Durbin pressures gun lobby with threat to move ATF authority to FBI". The Hill. Capitol Hill Publishing. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
92. ^ Serrano, Richard A. (July 11, 2013). "ATF nominee faces obstacles to confirmation". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
93. Horwitz, Sari; Grimaldi, James V. (October 26, 2010). "ATF's oversight limited in face of gun lobby". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
94. Skiba, Katherine (February 16, 2011). "Gun lobby stands firm in opposing Obama's ATF nominee". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
95. Freedman, Dan (July 30, 2013). "Acting ATF director Todd Jones appears headed for confirmation". San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Communications. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
96. Viser, Matt; Bierman, Noah (March 15, 2014). "Surgeon general nominee runs into Senate resistance". The Boston Globe. Boston Globe Media Partners. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
97. Miller, Emily (February 28, 2014). "NRA to score Senate vote on Obama's nominee for surgeon general, Vivec Murthy". The Washington Times.
98. Peterson, Kristina; Nelson, Colleen McCain; Dooren, Jennifer Corbett (March 15, 2014). "Some Democrats Balk at Confirming Obama's Surgeon General Pick". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
99. Elliot, Philip (January 9, 2013). "Influence Game: NRA lobbying targets courthouses". Yahoo-ABC News Network. Associated Press. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
100. Winkler, Adam (October 3, 2011). "When the NRA Promoted Gun Control". HuffPost.
101. "National Firearms Act". Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
102. "Suppressors-Good for Our Hearing". National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. November 17, 2011. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
103. Ascione, Alfred M. (1939). "The Federal Firearms Act". Second Amendment Foundation. Archived from the original on June 18, 2013. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
104. Knox, Neal. "The Dodd Bill Both Fact...and Fantasy". The Gun Rights War. MacFarlane. pp. 50–65. ISBN 978-1565921979. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help) Originally in Guns & Ammo Magazine, June 1966.
105. Rosenfeld, Steven (January 14, 2013). "The NRA once supported gun control". Salon. Salon Media Group.
106. Jacobs, James B.; Burger, Warren E. (2002). Can Gun Control Work?. Oxford University Press. pp. 27–28, 49. ISBN 978-0195349214.
107. Cox, Christopher W. (September 17, 2004). "Live Online: The Assault Weapons Ban: NRA". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 27, 2005. Transcript of chat with NRA's chief lobbyist.
108. "President Bush signs Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act". National Rifle Association.
109. Egelko, Bob; Goodyear, Charlie (June 13, 2006). "Judge invalidates Prop. H handgun ban". San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Communications. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
110. Egelko, Bob (April 10, 2008). "State high court shoots down S.F. handgun ban". San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Communications. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
111. Matier, Phillip; Andrew Ross (October 27, 2008) "Newsom's city car makes trip to his wedding". San Francisco Chronicle. (Retrieved on November 2, 2008.)
112. "N.O. Police Returning Guns Confiscated Post-Katrina". FOX News Network. Associated Press. April 19, 2006. Archived from the original on June 7, 2014. Retrieved June 7, 2014. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
113. McArdle. "HARVARD LAW Today". Archived from the original on August 19, 2013. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
114. ^ Walden, Michael. "The Road to Heller." Legal Change: Lessons From America's Social Movements, edited by Jennifer Weiss-Wolf and Jeanine Plant-Chirlin, Brennan Centre for Justice at New York University School of Law, 2015, pp. 53- 62.
115. Siegel, Reva B. "Dead or Alive: Originalism as Popular Constitutionalism in Heller." The Second Amendment on Trial: Critical Essays on District of Columbia v. Heller, edited by Saul Cornell and Nathan Kozuskanich, University of Massachusetts Press, 2013, pp. 81–147.
116. Egelko, Bob (January 14, 2009). "San Francisco Housing Authority settles gun lawsuit". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, CA. Retrieved January 16, 2009.
117. "In McDonald v. Chicago another Supreme Court landmark ruling on guns?". The Christian Science Monitor. March 1, 2010.
118. Mears, Bill (June 28, 2009). "Court rules for gun rights, strikes down Chicago handgun ban". CNN.com.
119. "NRA joins lawsuit challenging New York's gun control law". FOX News. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
120. ^ Chokshi, Niraj (December 18, 2013). "NRA lawyer sues Sunnyvale, Calif., over its new ammunition ban". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
121. Jones, Carolyn (November 6, 2013). "NRA vows to fight Sunnyvale's tough new gun law". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
122. ^ Wadsworth, Jennifer (March 6, 2014). "Judge Dismisses NRA, Upholds Sunnyvale Gun Control Measure". San Jose Inside. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
123. Richman, Josh (March 7, 2014). "Sunnyvale's ammo magazine ban is in effect — but to what effect?". The Mercury News. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
124. Richardson, Valerie. "Veteran cops challenge San Francisco's gun limit laws". The Washington Times. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
125. Egelko, Bob (February 20, 2014). "S.F. wins ruling on high-capacity gun magazines". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
126. Howard, Brian (January 14, 2015). "Here's the Lawsuit the NRA Just Filed Against Philadelphia Organisation says city has "openly defied state law for decades."". Philadelphia. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
127. Ward, Miriam (January 17, 2015). "NRA quick to draw new weapon in Pennsylvania". MSNBC. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
128. Rubinkan, Michael (January 14, 2015). "NRA uses new state law to sue Pennsylvania cities over gun measures; mayor vows fight". No. online. US News & World Report. Associated Press. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
129. The NRA's Diabolical New Plan for Killing Gun Laws Alec MacGillis, Slate February 4, 2015
130. "NRA Museums: NRA National Firearms Museum". www.nramuseum.com. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
131. Murphy, Kevin (August 3, 2013). "NRA opens Midwest museum showing nearly 1,000 firearms". Reuters. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
132. "NRA Publications". National Rifle Association.
133. Treybig, Amber (February 24, 2018). "Local NRA Chapter highlights importance of gun safety". KBTX. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
134. Schultz, David (2012). Encyclopedia of American law and criminal justice (Rev. ed.). New York: Facts On File. p. 628. ISBN 978-0816081455. Retrieved April 23, 2018. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
135. "Split Leaves U.S. Team Short of Its Target: Shooting: Funding is biggest problem without NRA, but group says progress is being made that may again include NRA". Los Angeles Times.
136. Standifird, S.L. (September 17, 2010). "Making his mark: El Paso sergeant member of winning national rifle team". El Paso Times. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2010. The national matches are considered America's World Series of competitive shooting and have been a tradition at Camp Perry since 1907 {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
137. "National: 11 facts about the NRA". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
138. "Writers, Lawmakers, and the NRA Support ACLU Challenge to NSA Spying". American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
139. "NRA welcomes ACLU to gun debate, shares 'significant concerns' with Reid bill". The Daily Caller. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
140. "Live stream: President Trump and Vice President Pence speak at annual NRA Convention".
141. Garrett, Ben. "Biography: Wayne LaPierre A Look at the Life and Career of the NRA's Executive Director". About.com. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
142. Tuttle, Brad (February 28, 2018). "Wayne LaPierre Has Made a Fortune as CEO of the NRA. Here's What We Know About His Money". Time. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
143. Wilson, Megan (October 8, 2017). "The NRA's power: By the numbers". The Hill. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
144. "Kyle Weaver". National Rifle Association. April 22, 2011. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
145. "Member Profile: Kayne Robinson". NRA On the Record. National Rifle Association. Retrieved December 23, 2016.
146. Claudine Zap (March 1, 2018). "NRA Spokeswoman Dana Loesch Buys Gated Estate in Southlake, TX". SFGate. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
147. Sherfinski, David (July 23, 2014). "Chuck Norris honorary chairman of NRA voter registration campaign". Washington Times. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
148. Hennessy-Fiske, Molly (July 23, 2013). "NRA's black commentator becomes Web sensation". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
149. Mele, Christopher; Caron, Christina (May 21, 2018). "Oliver North Blames 'Culture of Violence' for Mass Shootings". The New York Times. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
150. Watkins, Eli (May 7, 2018). "Oliver North to be NRA's new president". CNN. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
151. "The National Rifle Association of America Bylaws". National Rifle Association of America. 2012. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
152. ^ "These Are the People Who Really Run the NRA". Mother Jones.
153. ^ Smyth, Frank (September 13, 2013). "Introducing the NRA kingmakers". MSNBC.
154. ^ Weissmann, Jordan. "New Evidence that the NRA Might Be Just Another Corporate Front". The Atlantic.
155. Smyth, Frank (January 16, 2013). "Unmasking the NRA's Inner Circle". Mother Jones. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
156. "Does the NRA Really Have 4 Million Members?". Mother Jones.
157. "America's Complex Relationship With Guns". Pew Research Center.
158. Wilson, Megan (October 8, 2017). "The NRA's power: By the numbers". The Hill. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
159. Gould, Sky and Allan Smith (October 5, 2017). "The 9 US presidents who have been NRA members". Business Insider. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
160. The National Rifle Association of America Bylaws. Inside front cover, organisation summary: National Rifle Association of America. 2012.
161. "NRA Member Mike Pence is Trumps Vice President". ammoland. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
162. Susman, Tina (February 22, 2005). "Writer's suicide shocks friends". Newsday. Archived from the original on November 27, 2007. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
163. "Documents: McVeigh Chronology". PBS Frontline.
164. Moore, Michael (November 11, 2002). "Guardian/NFT interview: Michael Moore". The Guardian. Interviewed by Andrew Collins. London. Retrieved August 22, 2011. ...I became a lifetime member after the Columbine massacre because my first thought after Columbine was to run against Charlton Heston for the presidency of the NRA. You have to be a lifetime member to be able to do that, so I had to pay $750 to join. My plan was to get 5m Americans to join for the lowest basic membership and vote for me so that I'd win and dismantle the organisation. Unfortunately, I figured that's just too much work for me so instead I made this movie.
165. David, Mark (July 30, 2007). "Rick Schroder's Itty Bitty Beach Shack". Variety.
166. Ernst, Douglas (June 5, 2014). "NRA member James Hetfield under fire; activists want Metallica's hunter out of Glastonbury Festival". The Washington Times. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
167. ^ Hickey, Walter (December 18, 2012). "How The NRA Became The Most Powerful Special Interest In Washington". Business Insider.
168. "Civil Rights Defense Fund: About Us". nradefensefund.org. National Rifle Association of America. 2015. Archived from the original on February 22, 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
169. ^ Kohn, Howard (May 14, 1981). "Inside the Gun Lobby". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
170. Hoffman, Jan (April 16, 1996). "Fund Linked to N.R.A. Gave $20,000 for Goetz's Defense". The New York Times. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
171. "Freed New Jersey Man Wants Gun Conviction Overturned". Fox News. December 23, 2010.
172. Carey, Amanda (December 20, 2010). "NJ Gov. Chris Christie commutes Aitken's sentence". The Daily Caller. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
173. ^ "Do Assault Weapons Sales Pay NRA Salaries?". Fact Check. January 15, 2013.
174. Melzer, Scott (2012). Gun Crusaders: The NRA's Culture War. New York: NYU Press. pp. 66–74. ISBN 978-0814764503.
175. "About PVF". National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund. 2015. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
176. ^ "National Rifle Assn Spending by Cycle: 2012 PAC Summary Data". Open Secrets. Center for Responsible Politics. 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
177. ^ "National Rifle Assn Spending by Cycle: 2014 PAC Summary Data". Open Secrets. Center for Responsible Politics. 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
178. "Form 990: Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax – 2011" (PDF). Foundation Center. 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 29, 2014. Retrieved June 2, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
179. "NRA Civil Defense Fund" (PDF). Guide Star. McGladrey, LLP. September 16, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
180. "NRA Civil Defense Fund" (PDF). Guide Star. McGladrey, LLP. November 5, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
181. "NRA Foundation" (PDF). Guide Star. McGladrey, LLP. October 4, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
182. "NRA Foundation" (PDF). Guide Star. McGladrey, LLP. November 5, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
183. "NRA Freedom Action Foundation" (PDF). Guide Star. McGladrey, LLP. September 27, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
184. "NRA Freedom Action Foundation" (PDF). Guide Star. McGladrey, LLP. November 5, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
185. "NRA Special Contribution Fund" (PDF). Guide Star. McGladrey, LLP. September 16, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
186. "NRA Special Contribution Fund" (PDF). Guide Star. McGladrey, LLP. November 5, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
187. "Form 990: Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax – 2010" (PDF). Foundation Center. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 31, 2013. Retrieved June 2, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
188. ^ Robison, Peter; Crewdson, John (December 28, 2011). "NRA Raises $200 Million as Gun Lobby Toasters Burn Logo on Bread". Bloomberg. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
189. ^ Hickey, Walter (January 16, 2013). "How The Gun Industry Funnels Tens of Millions of Dollars to the NRA". Business Insider. Retrieved June 5, 2014.
190. ^ "National Rifle Association Receives Millions of Dollars From Gun Industry "Corporate Partners" New VPC Report Reveals" (Press release). Violence Policy Center. April 13, 2011. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015. {{cite press release}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
191. "The NRA Says It's in Deep Financial Trouble, May Be 'Unable to Exist'". Rolling Stone. August 3, 2018.
192. "NRA sues New York governor, regulator for 'blacklisting campaign'". Reuters. May 11, 2018.
193. "Poll: Most Americans support NRA, right to protect self, but also a few gun limits". NBCNews.com. April 13, 2012. Archived from the original on June 14, 2013. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
194. Swift, Art (October 22, 2015). "Despite Criticism, NRA Still Enjoys Majority Support in U.S." Gallup. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
195. Clement, Scott (January 22, 2013). "Everything you need to know about Americans' views on guns – in 7 easy steps". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
196. Poll: 67 percent of gun owners say NRA 'overtaken by lobbyists', Politico
197. ^ Quinnipiac. "Quinnipiac University Poll- February 20, 2018 - U.S. Release Detail".
198. ^ CNN. "CNN and SRSS- February 2018 SRSS" (PDF). {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
199. ^ YouGov/ Economist Poll. "Public sentiment turns against the NRA".
200. ^ Public Policy Polling. "Voters Like High School Gun Protesters; Don't Like NRA". {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
201. ^ Bryan. "Something historic is happening with how Americans see the NRA".
202. ^ Todd. "NBC News- First Read".
203. Shally-Jensen, M. (2010). Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues [4 volumes]. Gale virtual reference library. ABC-CLIO. p. 506. ISBN 978-0313392054. OCLC 815979019. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
204. Sharma, A. (2016). Indian Lobbying and Its Influence in US Decision Making: Post-Cold War. SAGE Publications. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-9386062147. OCLC 965709054. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
205. Burbick, Joan (2006). Gun Show Nation: Gun Culture and American Democracy. The New Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-1595580870.
206. Bousquet, Steve (March 9, 2018). "Gov. Rick Scott signs gun, school security legislation over NRA opposition". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
207. Poor, Jeff (December 31, 2012). "Ann Coulter rails against NRA's Wayne LaPierre". The Daily Caller. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
208. Butterfield, Fox (May 8, 1995). "Terror in Oklahoma: Echoes of the N.R.A.; Rifle Association Has Long Practice In Railing Against Federal Agents". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
209. Bush, George H.W. (May 11, 1995). "Letter of Resignation Sent By Bush to Rifle Association". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
210. Keil, Richard (May 18, 1995). "NRA Apologizes for 'Jack Boot' Letter". The Seattle Times. Associated Press.
211. Editorial board (December 1, 2008). "The Gun Lobby's Loss". The New York Times. Retrieved December 3, 2008.
212. ^ "Where the N.R.A. Speaks First and Loudest". The New York Times. February 21, 2018. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
213. Pappas, Alex (February 28, 2018). "Trump publicly spars with Republicans over concealed carry, NRA influence at school safety session". Fox News. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
214. "The NRA used to be much more bipartisan. Now it's mostly just a wing of the GOP". CNN.com. February 24, 2018. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
215. Editorial board (February 10, 2013). "Enact universal background checks: Our view". USA Today. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
216. Editorial board (March 22, 2014). "Guns are a health-care issue". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
217. Editorial board (March 23, 2014). "Why NRA opposition shouldn't doom Obama's surgeon general nominee: The group is wrong to attack Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy over his support for gun control". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
218. Butkus, Renee; Doherty, Robert; Bornstein, Sue S. (October 30, 2018). "Reducing Firearm Injuries and Deaths in the United States: A Position Paper From the American College of Physicians". Annals of Internal Medicine. doi:10.7326/M18-1530. ISSN 0003-4819.
219. Rannard, Georgina (November 12, 2018). "Pro-gun tweet provokes doctors' fury". BBC News. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
220. Barry, Colleen L.; McGinty, Emma E.; Vernick, Jon S.; Webster, Daniel W. (March 21, 2013). "After Newtown – Public Opinion on Gun Policy and Mental Illness". N Engl J Med. 368 (368): 1077–81. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1300512. PMID 23356490. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
221. Editorial Board (December 26, 2012). "NRA nonsense: LaPierre speaks for gun makers, not gun owners". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
222. Lee Fang, Does the NRA Represent Gun Manufacturers or Gun Owners?, The Nation (December 15, 2012).
223. The NRA speaks for the gun industry, not owners: Expert, CNBC (February 22, 2018).
224. Jordan Weissman, Whom Does the NRA Really Speak For?, The Atlantic (December 18, 2012).
225. 8 "Preposterous NRA Defenses of the AR-15" Alternet. Timothy Johnson. Feb. 26, 201.
226. Eller, Donnelle (February 3, 2013). "Iowa gun accessories supplier a key part of community". Des Moines Register. USA Today.
227. The N.R.A.'s Complicity in Terrorism New York Times Editorial Board. June 16, 2016.
228. February 18, 2018, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Kathleen Parker, Kathleen Parker: Change agent with a camera, Retrieved February 19, 2018, "...successfully lobbies Congress to designate the National Rifle Association as a terrorist organization...."
229. Avery Anapol, October 3, 2017, The Hill, Keith Olbermann: The NRA is 'a terrorist organisation', Retrieved February 19, 2018, "...Keith Olbermann rips the National Rifle Association (NRA) in a new video, calling the gun rights group "a terrorist organisation."..."
230. "NRA releases statement on Conn. shooting". USA Today. December 18, 2012. Retrieved January 6, 2013.
231. Sullivan, Sean (December 21, 2012). "Put armed guards in every school, NRA leader Wayne LaPierre says". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 21, 2012.
232. Cushman Jr., John H. (December 22, 2012). "N.R.A. Calls for Armed Guards in Schools to Deter Violence". The New York Times.
233. "NRA calls for armed police officer in every school". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2012.
234. Knox, Olivier (January 17, 2013). "Christie: NRA ad with Obama daughters 'reprehensible'". Yahoo! News. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
235. Cornwell, Susan (January 25, 2013). "Exclusive: NRA senior lobbyist says attack ad was 'ill-advised'". Reuters. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
236. Cerullo, Megan. "NRA silent following Las Vegas shooting". New York Daily News. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
237. "NRA breaks silence after Vegas shooting to call for 'additional regulations' on bump stocks". The Guardian. October 5, 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
238. "Parkland student: Politicians accepting NRA money are against shooting victims". Axios. February 19, 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
239. "Students Who Survived Florida Shooting Want Politicians To Know They're Angry". All Things Considered. NPR. February 16, 2018. Retrieved February 18, 2018.
240. Zurawik, David (March 1, 2018). "The NRA is getting trounced by Stoneman Douglas students in the PR battle over gun control". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
241. "NRA goes on the offensive after Parkland shooting, assailing media and calling for more armed school security" Washington Post. Mark Berman and David Weigel. Feb. 22, 2018.
242. Sanchez, Ray; Yan, Holly (March 9, 2018). "Florida Gov. Rick Scott signs gun bill". CNN.com. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
243. Schweers, Jeffrey (March 9, 2018). "NRA sues Florida over gun bill same day Gov. Scott signed it into law". Tallahassee Democrat. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
244. Smiley, David (May 30, 2018). "Parkland parents launch a Super PAC to go after politicians and the NRA". Miami Herald. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
245. Huriash, Lisa (May 30, 2018). "Parkland parents set up PAC to take on NRA". Sun Sentinel. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
246. Schallhorn, Kaitlyn (May 31, 2018). "Parkland parents create super PAC to oppose NRA-backed politicians". Fox News. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
247. "Companies Cut Ties to the N.R.A., but Find There Is No Neutral Ground". Nytimes.com. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
248. "A List of the Companies Cutting Ties With the N.R.A." Nytimes.com. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
249. "The full list of companies who have boycotted the NRA over the Florida shooting". Newsweek. February 24, 2018. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
250. Creswell, Julie; Hsu, Tiffany (February 23, 2018). "Companies Cut Ties to the N.R.A., but Find There Is No Neutral Ground". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
251. Tuttle, Brad (February 26, 2018). "Only One Major Company Is Still Giving Discounts to NRA Members". Time. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
252. Cummings, William. "NRA video declares war on liberals, critics say". USA Today. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
253. Eli Rosenberg, May 24, 2018, Washington Post, NRA host calls for legislation to limit reporting on mass shooters. Then he says he doesn’t mean it., Retrieved May 26, 2018, "... put an end to this glorification of carnage in pursuit of ratings ... time for Congress to step up and pass legislation putting common-sense limitations on our mainstream media's ability to report on these school shootings..."
254. McCardle, Mairead (May 24, 2018). "Media Misrespresents NRA's Comments on News Censorship". National Review. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
255. Spitzer, Robert J. (2012). The Politics of Gun Control. Boulder, CO: Paradigm. ISBN 978-1594519871. Retrieved June 5, 2014.
256. Zelman, Aaron (May 23, 1994). Aaron Zelman Talks to the NRA Board (Speech). Minneapolis, MN. Retrieved June 5, 2014.
257. "How This 'Gun Rights Group' Is Profoundly Damaging Your Second Amendment Rights". TheBlaze. February 11, 2016. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
258. Riddell, Kelly. "Rand Paul shunned by NRA over National Association for Gun Rights ties". The Washington Times. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
259. "NRA rolls back 'open carry' criticism". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Associated Press. June 4, 2014. Archived from the original on June 5, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2014. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
260. Newton, Creede. "Gun control's racist past and present". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
261. After the Castile Verdict, Some Ask: Where is The NRA?, retrieved December 6, 2017
262. ^ "Some gun owners are disturbed by the Philando Castile verdict. The NRA is silent". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
263. "Dallas Shootings Underscore NRA Hypocrisy, Critics Say". usnews.com. Archived from the original on July 10, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
264. ^ Beckett, Lois (July 10, 2016). "Philando Castile's killing puts NRA's gun rights mission at a crossroads". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
265. "Why African-Americans are gun-shy about the NRA". myajc. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
266. Eligon, John; Robles, Frances (July 8, 2016). "Police Shootings Highlight Unease Among Black Gun Owners". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
267. "Opinion | How the NRA's allegiance to cops undermines its credibility on gun rights". Washington Post. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
268. Valentine, Matt. "How the NRA conquered Washington and abandoned gun owners like me". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
269. "What the police officer who shot Philando Castile said about the shooting". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
270. "Gun Control Is "Racist"?". New Republic. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
271. Winkler, Adam. "The Secret History of Guns". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
272. Winkler, Adam (July 15, 2016). "The right to bear arms has mostly been for white people". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
273. "Annual Meeting of Riflemen". The New York Times. January 12, 1876. p. 5.
274. ^ Rodengen, Jeffrey L. (2002). NRA: An American Legend. Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Write Stuff Enterprises, Inc. 304 pp. ISBN 0945903812. ("The Presidents of NRA", p. 276).
275. "NRA–ILA: The "Academy" Must Now Share Michael Moore`s Cinematic Shame". National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. Archived from the original on December 3, 2010.
276. Heller, Jean (August 18, 1996). "Marion Hammer Leads NRA With Unabashed Passion (News/National/International)". Rocky Mountain News. Denver, CO. Retrieved May 29, 2014. – via HighBeam Research (subscription required)
277. Bragg, Rick (April 14, 1996). "Leader as Hard as Nails Is Taking Reins at N.R.A." The New York Times. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
278. Vertuno, Jim (May 4, 2013). "NRA's new president has penchant for bold words". Yahoo News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 5, 2013. Retrieved May 29, 2014. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
279. "John Bolton". Meet the National Rifle Association of America. 2014. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 8, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
280. Morton, Tom (August 7, 2004). "Cubin garners NRA nod again". Casper Star-Tribune.
281. "John Dingell on Gun Control". On The Issues. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
282. "R. Lee Ermey". Meet the National Rifle Association of America. 2014. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 8, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
283. Zilberman, Alan. "'Red Dawn' Wasn't About the Cold War; It Was About Shooting People". The Atlantic.
284. "NRA Announces New Officers" (Press release). National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. April 19, 2005. Retrieved July 25, 2012.
285. "Welcome". Meet the National Rifle Association of America. Archived from the original on January 9, 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
286. "Ted Nugent (Board Member)". Meet the National Rifle Association of America. 2014. Archived from the original on June 12, 2014. Retrieved June 8, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
287. Smyth, Frank (June 3, 1994). "Crossfire: The War Behind the Closed Doors of the NRA". The Village Voice. republished online at FrankSmyth.com.
288. "The Exhibimbos of SHOT Show". The Gun Zone. Archived from the original on February 10, 2011. Retrieved January 18, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
289. Hardy, David (July 19, 2007). "NRA director Bruce Stern, and former director Jim Nicholson, pass on". Of Arms & the Law (Blog). David T. Hardy.
290. Kopel, David (April 18, 2011). "Rep. Harold Volkmer, R.I.P." Volokh Conspiracy.

Further reading

Books

• Anderson, Jack (1996). Inside the NRA: Armed and Dangerous: An Exposé. Beverly Hills, CA: Dove. p. 180. ISBN 0787106771. OCLC 34235436.
• Davidson, Osha Gray (1998). Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control. University of Iowa Press. p. 338. ISBN 0877456461.
• Feldman, Richard (2011). Ricochet: Confessions of a Gun Lobbyist. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1118130995.
• LaPierre, Wayne R. (1994). Guns, Crime, and Freedom. Regnery. ISBN 0895264773. OCLC 246629786.
• Melzer, Scott (2009). Gun Crusaders: The NRA's Culture War. New York University Press. p. 336. ISBN 978-0814795972.
• Patrick, Brian Anse (2002). The National Rifle Association and the Media: The Motivating Force of Negative Coverage. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0820451220. OCLC 316870710.
• Raymond, Emilie (2006). From My Cold, Dead Hands: Charlton Heston and American Politics. ISBN 978-0813124087. OCLC 77125677.
• Sugarmann, Josh (1992). National Rifle Association: Money, Firepower, and Fear. Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center. p. 258. ISBN 978-1451500226. OCLC 773292764.
• Trefethen, James B.; Serven, James E. (1967). Americans and Their Guns: The National Rifle Association Story Through Nearly a Century of Service to the Nation. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books. p. 320. OCLC 1361329.
• Winkler, Adam (2011). Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 361. ISBN 978-0393082296.

News

• Cizzilla, Chris (December 18, 2012). "The NRA's big spending edge – in 1 chart". The Washington Post (blog). Retrieved June 5, 2014.
• Fox, Lauren (May 7, 2014). "Locked and Loaded: How the NRA Aims to Endure". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
• Smith, Rich (February 17, 2014). "The NRA Reveals Who's to Blame for Ammo Shortage: You". The Motley Fool. Retrieved June 5, 2014.

External links

• Official NRA website – the website for the National Rifle Association of America
• Lobbyist profile at OpenSecrets.org
• "National Rifle Association Internal Revenue Service filings". ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.

38°51′47″N 77°20′8″W / 38.86306°N 77.33556°W / 38.86306; -77.33556

• National Rifle Association
• 1871 establishments in New York (state)
• 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations
• Firearms-related organizations
• Gun rights advocacy groups in the United States
• Hobbyist organizations
• Lobbying organizations in the United States
• Magazine publishing companies of the United States
• Non-profit organizations based in Fairfax, Virginia
• Nonpartisan organizations in the United States
• Organizations established in 1871
• Shooting sports in the United States
• Shooting sports organisations
• Civil liberties advocacy groups in the United States
• Regions of the International Confederation of Fullbore Rifle Associations