National Rifle Association of America

National Rifle Association of America
Corporate Information
Name	National Rifle Association of America
Abbreviation	NRA
Founded	1871-11-17
Founders	William Conant Church George Wood Wingate
Type	501(c)(4) organization
Tax ID No.	53-0116130
Focus	Gun politics Gun rights
Location	Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S.A.
Headquarters	Fairfax, Virginia, U.S.A.
Areas served	United States
CEO	Wayne Robert LaPierre, Jr.
President	Carolyn Dodgen Meadows
Executive Vice President	Wayne Robert LaPierre, Jr.
Known for
Controversies	Criticism
Services	Gun-related education Lobbying Magazine publisher Membership organization
method	Lobbying Publications Outreach programs
Membership	~5.5 million (self-reported)
Revenue	2018: $412,233,508
Expenses	2018: $423,034,158
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
Political position	Right-wing to far-right
Ideology	right-wing politics Conservatism in the United States Social conservatism
Shared ideologies
Affiliations
Associations	New York State Rifle and Pistol Association (official NRA-affiliated State Association in New York)
Website	home.NRA.org/

Background

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights   advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent gun rights lobbying organization while continuing to teach firearm safety and competency. The organization also publishes several magazines and sponsors competitive marksmanship events. According to the NRA, it had nearly 5 million members as of December 2018, though that figure has not been independently confirmed.

Observers and lawmakers see the NRA as one of the three most influential advocacy groups in Washington, D.C. The NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) is its lobbying division, which manages its Political Action Committee (PAC), the Political Victory Fund. Over its history the organization has influenced legislation, participated in or initiated lawsuits, and endorsed or opposed various candidates at local, state, and federal levels. Some notable lobbying efforts by the NRA-ILA are the Firearm Owners Protection Act, which lessened restrictions of the Gun Control Act of 1968, and the Dickey Amendment, which blocks the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using federal funds to advocate for gun control.

From mid-to-late 1970s,the NRA has become increasingly more criticized by gun control and gun rights advocacy groups, political commentators, and politicians. The organization has been the focus of intense criticism in the aftermath of high-profile shootings, such as the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, after which they suggested adding armed security guards to schools. On August 6, 2020, the New York Attorney General, Letitia Ann "Tish" James,   filed a civil lawsuit against the NRA, alleging fraud, financial misconduct, and misuse of charitable funds by some of its executives and calling for the dissolution of the NRA.

Wayne Robert LaPierre, Jr. [Wayne LaPierre]

Additional Reading

A gunshot rang out at a security checkpoint on Saturday [2021-11-20] at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, sending travelers into a panic and temporarily grounding flights the weekend before Thanksgiving.

The weapon was discharged at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Saturday afternoon [2021-11-20], after an X-ray screening detected a "prohibited item" in a male passenger's bag. When Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials tried to search the bag, the man reached for the gun inside, and it fired. Airport officials described the single gunshot as accidental and said nobody was struck, but the incident sparked a panic among surrounding travelers, many of whom dropped to the floor or began running for safety, leading to some minor injuries. The man with the gun, who has a felony record, fled the scene with his weapon. Authorities began searching for him but said it was not an active-shooter situation.

Nobody was seriously harmed, and the airport resumed normal operation within two hours. However, the incident is the latest example of persistent security problems stemming from lax gun regulations that have led to a surge in firearm seizures at airports around the country in recent years. Taking a gun through security checkpoints at airports is illegal, but more and more travelers are attempting to do so (whether intentionally or inadvertently), according to data from the Transportation Security Administration. In the first 10 months of the year, TSA officials nationally seized a record 4,650 firearms at checkpoints. Most were loaded. As air travel moves back toward pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, the problem could escalate further.

The phenomenon has become particularly worrisome in Georgia, where lawmakers in 2014 made it easier for people to carry weapons in schools, bars, churches, government buildings, and certain parts of airports. The National Rifle Association (NRA)-backed Safe Carry Protection Act  [Wikipedia entry], known by critics as a "guns everywhere bill," also prohibits law enforcement officials from asking armed citizens whether they have gun permits. When Republican Governor Nathan Deal signed the policy into law, he said he wanted to help people protect themselves: "The Second Amendment  [Second Amendment to the United States Constitution] should never be an afterthought. It should reside at the forefronts of our minds," Nathan Deal said at the time. The 2014 law does not allow people to carry guns past airport security checkpoints, but it does allow firearms in other parts of airports, including the general parking area, walkways, shops, and other pre-checkpoint areas of terminals.

During the first nine months of this year [2021], the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) seized 391 firearms at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport alone, up from 220 last year and 323 in 2019. Some people have claimed that they forgot the weapons were in their bags, according to the TSA. As more people travel home for the holidays - the TSA screened upward of 2.2 million travelers nationwide Friday [2021-11-19], the most since the COVID-19 pandemic began - firearms seizures, and possibly further accidental gunfire or intentional gunfire, are likely to continue.

Soon after the Columbine High School massacre  [Columbine High School shooting] on 1999-04-20, senior leaders of the National Rifle Association (NRA) huddled on a conference call to consider canceling their annual convention, scheduled just days later and a few miles away. Thirteen people lay dead at Columbine High School in Colorado. More than 20 were injured. Images of students running from the school were looped on TV. The NRA strategists on the call sounded shaken and panicked as they pondered their next step into what would become an era of routine and horrific mass school shootings.

And in those private moments, the NRA considered a strikingly more sympathetic posture toward mass shootings than the uncompromising stance it has taken publicly in the decades since, even considering a $1 million fund to care for the victims.

NPR has obtained more than 2 1/2 hours of recordings of those private meetings after the Columbine shooting, which offer unique insight into the NRA's deliberations in the wake of this crisis - and how it has struggled to develop what has become its standard response to school shootings ever since.

[ ... snip ... ]

The biggest surprise in Wednesday morning's arguments in , a major Second Amendment to the United States Constitution case before the United States Supreme Court, is that conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett appeared open to many of New York state's arguments defending its restrictions on where individuals may carry a gun.

Even if Amy Coney Barrett does side with New York, however, her vote is unlikely to matter. Four justices - Clarence Thomas,   Samuel Alito,   Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh - left little doubt that they will read the Second Amendment expansively. And, while Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to disagree with most of his fellow conservatives about how the Court should approach Second Amendment cases, his disagreement appears to be largely academic. He also appears likely to strike down New York's law.

The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association (NYSRPA), in other words, revealed methodological disagreements among the conservative justices, but those disagreements are unlikely to have much practical impact: The case is likely to end with the curtailment of states' ability to regulate where people can carry guns.

The case involves a 108-year-old New York law that requires anyone who wishes to carry a gun outside of their home to demonstrate "proper cause" before they can obtain a license allowing them to do so. In practice, it's relatively easy for New York residents to obtain a limited license permitting them to carry firearms, particularly in areas that are not densely populated - indeed, two of the plaintiffs in NYSRPA already have a license permitting them to carry a gun to hunt, for target practice, or while in areas not "frequented by the general public."

But they want an unlimited license - a license that, as Amy Coney Barrett indicated, would allow them to carry a concealed gun into Times Square in the middle of New York City's famous New Year's Eve celebration. That possibility, at the very least, appeared to give Barrett some pause.

Yet while John Roberts also expressed concern about reading the Second Amendment so broadly that it would allow civilians to bring a firearm literally anywhere, he also appeared skeptical of New York's restrictions. The chief justice seemed committed to the approach the Supreme Court took in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), itself a precedent-setting case that undermined at least eight decades of Second Amendment jurisprudence and held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a gun for personal "self-defense."

John Roberts suggested that, under District of Columbia v. Heller's framework, gun rights should be even more expansive in cities than they are in rural areas. As Roberts put it during an exchange with New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood, "How many muggings take place in the forest?"

The bottom line appears to be that, while there is an off chance Barbara Underwood convinced Amy Coney Barrett that the Second Amendment should be read to permit greater gun regulation in cities, she does not appear to have convinced Roberts. And that means she is unlikely to find five votes to save New York's law.

  

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