The National Rifle Association, or NRA, is an organization for gun owners' advocacy in the United States. It sponsors firearm safety training courses, as well as shooting skills and sports. The organization is sometimes considered to be the most powerful single organization in the United States and was established in New York in 1871. It often refers to itself as the oldest civil rights organization in the U.S., defining gun ownership as a civil right protected by the Bill of Rights.
Political lobby
The NRA is considered by many to be one of the most influential political lobbies in the USA because of its ability to consistently deliver large numbers of votes in elections. Some people credit the NRA's heavy campaigning in Arkansas and Tennessee in the weeks before the 2000 Presidential Election with taking votes from Al Gore and making him lose both states. Had Gore won either state, he would have won the presidency. Bill Clinton won both states in 1992 and 1996, and Clinton has even remarked in interviews since 2000 that the only reason Arkansas voted for George W Bush was because of the NRA's extremely heavy campaigning in the state, and the fact that they warned people that Gore would "take their guns".
Opinion polls suggest that a majority of Americans support gun laws being made more strict, and many gun-control laws have been passed throughout the country, always being fought tooth-and-nail by the NRA and their supporters. These laws range from the near-total ban on gun ownership in Washington, DC, to the outlawing of entire classes of firearms in many states as well as at the federal level, to the licensing of firearms owners in some jurisdictions. The NRA opposes new gun-control legislation in favor of stricter enforcement of existing laws prohibiting convicted felons and violent criminals from possessing firearms, increased sentences for gun-related crime, and "right-to-carry" laws expediting the process in many states of receiving a concealed handgun license.
Current campaigns
As of September 2003, the NRA was focusing its efforts at the federal level on: firstly, encouraging Congress to enact a bill protecting manufacturers of products from certain types of lawsuits. S.659/S.1806, the "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act" is also supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors . It is opposed by many gun-control groups. The bill was defeated on March 2, 2004, after Senate amendments were attached to it to extend the assault weapons ban and close the so-called "gun-show loophole." The NRA changed its stance and opposed the bill when these two amendments were added. However, since the ban and the loophole closing were amendments, they must be voted upon again in the Senate to be passed into law.
Secondly, preventing the gun control lobby from re-authorizing the 1994 law that banned many types of semi-automatic rifles and certain types of removable magazines (which hold the unfired cartridges). The gun control lobby and police forces across the nation (with the support of approximately 75% of the American public, according to opinion polls), wanted to make the "assault weapons ban" permanent, and perhaps expand it. In a victory for the NRA, the law expired on midnight of September 13th, 2004, making the banned weapons legal again.
NRA history
The NRA was founded shortly after the American Civil War by two Union Army officers, with the stated goal of "providing firearms training and encouraging interest in the shooting sports" among the general population, including freedmen in the former slave states. This made the NRA very unpopular among Whites in the former slave states, and the NRA was considered a bitter enemy by the Ku Klux Klan, a Southern terrorist organization.
Union Army Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate are the officially listed founders of the NRA. They were granted a charter from the state of New York on November 17, 1871. The first NRA president was Ambrose E. Burnside, a commander of the Army of the Potomac. Former President Ulysses S. Grant was elected president of the National Rifle Association in 1883.
Current leadership and policies
Wayne LaPierre has been the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the NRA since 1991. [1] http://nramemberscouncils.com/wayne/bio.shtml Charlton Heston, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, stepped down as the organization's president and celebrity spokesman in April of 2003. Kayne Robinson took over Heston's duties.
NRA firearms safety programs
The NRA sponsors a broad range of safety programs to educate and encourage the safe use of firearms. Their "Eddie Eagle" video intended for school-age children encourages the viewer to "Stop! Don't touch! Leave the area! Tell an adult!" if the child ever sees a firearm lying around. The NRA has claimed that studies prove the "Eddie Eagle" program reduces the likelihood of firearms accidents in the home and the program is used in many elementary schools nationwide. Opponents of firearm ownership generally reject these claims and condemn the video as an attempt to "indoctrinate" children into a "gun culture". Also, hunting safety courses from the NRA are offered all across the USA for both children and adults.
Shooting sports
Historically the NRA has governed and advanced the shooting sports in the United States. In recent years however, their role in the shooting sports has drastically dwindled. In 1992, the NRA lost the role of being the National Governing Body for shooting (USA Shooting is now the NGB), and in 2000, the NRA choose not to be a member of the National Three-Position Air Rifle Council. Furthermore, NRA competitions are considered second tier to the competitions hosted by either USA Shooting or the Civilian Marksmanship Program . The NRA also has no role in the practical pistol competitions conducted by the International Practical Shooting Confederation and International Defensive Pistol Association, or in cowboy action shooting; both of these types of events have grown dramatically in recent years.
The current NRA competitions division publishes its own rulebooks, maintains a registry of marksmanship classifications, and sanctions matches. Through the NRA Foundation and Friends of NRA, the NRA also raises funds and distributes grants to local clubs.
Second Amendment
In its lobbying for gun rights, the NRA asserts that the Second Amendment guarantees the right for individuals to own and use guns. The NRA typically opposes measures which it asserts would conflict with the Second Amendment "right to keep and bear arms" and or the right to privacy enjoyed by law-abiding gun owners. The NRA has opposed gun control on other grounds as well--they opposed the Brady Bill in the courts on Tenth Amendment grounds, not Second Amendment.
Publications
The NRA publishes the magazines America's 1st Freedom and American Rifleman (ISSN 0003083X) as well as numerous books.
Criticisms
- Some critics of the NRA contend that the second amendment is a remnant from revolutionary days, and has no meaning today, especially with the advent of high-powered automatic weapons which the writers of the second amendment could never have envisioned.
- The NRA has also been criticized by gun control advocates due to its policies on gun control, which critics feel are too lax. Critics claimed (incorrectly) that the DC Sniper purchased his Bushmaster Rifle through the same gunshow-purchase-loop that the NRA fought so hard to keep alive (in actuality the rifle had been shoplifted). In September 2004, many in the news media were also upset with the NRA for opposing the renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban.
- Other critics oppose the NRA for cultural reasons. They oppose "gun-culture" and they oppose the NRA's supposed agenda.
The Big Disparity
The number of gun homicides in the United States is over 11,000 per year (about 3.8 per 100,000 population). The UK (which has 1/5th the population of the USA) averages only about 100 gun homicides per year (about 0.16 per 100,000), and most of the other industrialized countries have a similiar low rate of gun homicides compared to the USA. This has led many people to criticize the NRA for its pro-gun lobbying (including filmmaker and NRA member Michael Moore in his film Bowling for Columbine).
Others have countered by stating the fact that the vast majority of gun homicides in America are commited by Blacks and Hispanics (white Americans have a gun-homicide rate only slightly higher than Western European countries, and actually lower than Eastern European countries). Also stating that if America is looking to drastically cut down its number of gun homicides, they should work to improve the lot of Black and Hispanic Americans, and not ban or severely limit access to guns.
See also
External links
- Official website (US) http://www.nra.org
- Official website (UK) http://www.nra.org.uk
- StoptheNRA.com (an anti-NRA website) http://www2.stopthenra.com/
Last updated: 02-07-2005 19:39:33
Last updated: 05-03-2005 17:50:55
