The National Rifle Association (NRA)

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is in the midst of a disturbing transition from soft-core gun advocacy to hard-core radicalism. The organization's traditional programs such as hunting, marksmanship, and safety have taken a back seat in recent years as the NRA seeks to increase membership by broadening its appeal to the segment of society that perceives the federal government as a threat to its Second Amendment rights. Despite criticism that NRA rhetoric is contributing to the proliferation of paramilitary group violence in the United States, the gun lobby refuses to compromise its relentless opposition to gun control in any form.

The NRA, established in 1871, boasts an estimated 3.5 million members, its highest membership in history. The organization's early members were ex-military men, National Guardsmen and elected officials in New York City. The NRA gradually evolved into an organization that deifies the American rifleman tradition. As stated in its official history, "Freedom from Great Britain was not won by supermen using superweapons; it was won by ordinary citizens whose will to fight for liberty was backed by an intimate knowledge of firearms gained through the use of personal weapons" (Sugarmann, 1992, p. 14). The NRA solidified its anti-gun control views when Harlon Bronson Carter became chief executive officer in 1977. Carter relied heavily on direct mail solicitations that warned of a federal government conspiracy to outlaw all handguns, then regist

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idson, 1993, pp. 135-136). Despite lack of legal and judicial support for its claim to unrestricted gun ownership, the NRA obstinately defends its quest for freedom from government intervention in arming the citizenry of the United States. The NRA is single-minded in its hatred of the ATF (the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) known to the gun lobby as the "gun police." The NRA created widespread controversy in 1995 with a fund-raising campaign which maligned the federal agency in scathing terms. The campaign included an ad which portrayed ATF agents in Nazi bucket helmets and storm-trooper uniforms prepared to invade the homes of private citizens. The ad copy cited allegations of "ATF abuse that range from intimidation and harassment to confiscation or destruction of property, entrapment, fabrication of criminal charges, even deadly assault" (Fialka, 1995, p. B1). Former President George Bush rescinded his lifetime membership in protest over the ad and a similarly-worded fund-raising letter to NRA's members. According to Bush, "This broad-based attack should not go unchallenged. It is just wrong. It totally slandered decent law-enforcement public servants" (Sidey, 1995, p. 44). Bush, like o

Category: Government - T