National Rifle Association (Nra)

The National Rifle Association (NRA) was founded in 1871 by former Union officers from the Civil War and is the most prominent gun-rights organization in the United States. Its original purpose was to establish a civilian marksmanship program (by providing a rifle range for shooting practice on Long Island, New York) but it has since become perhaps the most powerful lobbying organization in the country. The NRA initially suffered from relatively poor support and in 1892 briefly disbanded, but it was revived as an increasing number of people became interested in [Page 1012]target shooting. After World War II, the NRA began explicitly broadening its membership by appealing to hunters also. Today, the National Rifle Association has approximately 4 million members.

The NRA has always been interested in lobbying and advocacy. Indeed, the group's earliest action was to persuade the New York legislature to purchase land for its first rifle range. In 1911, the NRA vigorously opposed legislation in New York aimed at prohibiting handgun ownership by any person who did not have a permit to own such a weapon.

The group was to transform radically in the mid- 1970s as its leadership was challenged by an organized group of disaffected members. The result was a much more activist and ideological body—and not coincidentally the establishment of both the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (its lobbying arm) and the NRA Political Victory Fund (a political action committee charged with raising funds and harnessing supporters for political candidates who support the NRA's objectives). The Institute for Legislative Action has a dedicated staff of more than 80 people, who work on gun issues at the federal, state, and local levels. It regularly calls on the NRA's full membership to support its efforts by individually contacting elected officials to make the gun-rights case. Similarly, the Political Victory Fund endorses (and opposes) candidates for political office and encourages NRA members to get personally involved in election campaigns. In the 2004 elections, for instance, the NRA's preferred candidate won in 254 of the 265 House and Senate campaigns that the Political Victory Fund engaged in.

The pillar of the NRA's political message is the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is commonly supposed to prohibit restrictions on gun ownership. Opponents of the group charge that the NRA misuses this amendment by emphasizing the second half of its wording while ignoring the first half, which has a historical context not necessarily applicable in the modern age.

While the NRA is most popularly associated with political activity, in fact it also provides a wide range of member services and benefits—some commercial, such as hotel, car rental, and insurance discounts; others more educational (for example, the National Firearms Museum and a speakers bureau); and a great many firearms safety programs for hunters, law enforcement officers, gun owners, and children.