many peacetime citizens for the difficult role of wartime riflemen. Mitchell states that by 1978 the membership had reached 1.2 million dues-paying members, 300 employees, $26,400,000 in securities, a multimillion-dollar headquarters building in Washington, D.C., 37,707 acres of New Mexican real estate, and an expense budget of more than $16,500,000, of which one-quarter was spent by its aggressive lobbying organization, the Institute for Legislative Action. Mitchell writes:
The priorities of the NRA are reflected in this budget, and they are quite different from the pressing martial concerns of a century ago. For every dollar spent directly in 1976 on such placid programs as hunter safety education and competitive shooting matches, two were shelled out in the volatile arena where gun-owner 'rights' and NRA goals are under constant attack by proponents of gun control (p. 7).
Mitchell finds that in the early days of the NRA, the organization addressed itself solely to the issue of target shooting and proper handling of weapons. Membership remained small until the signing of Public Law 149 by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905 authorizing the sale, at cost, of surplus military small arms and ammunition to rifle clubs meeting the specifications of a newly created National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice. One of the specifications was that for any rifle club to be considered for the program, it had to be approved and sponsored by the National Rifle Association. The NRA experienced a period of gro
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