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National Rifle Association

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This article concerns the National Rifle Association of the USA. For the UK organisation, see National Rifle Association of the United Kingdom
National Rifle Association of America
FormationNovember 17, 1871
HeadquartersFairfax, Virginia
Membership
Nearly 4 million[1]
President
Ron Schmeits
Executive Vice President
Wayne LaPierre
Website
http://www.nra.org/

The National Rifle Association of America, or NRA, is an American non-partisan, non-profit (501(c)(4)) organization which lists as its goals the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection of hunting and self-defense in the United States. It was established in 1871 in New York by William Conant Church and George Wood Wingate as the American Rifle Association; its first President was former Senator and famous Civil War Union Army General Ambrose Burnside.[2] President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant served as the NRA's eighth President[3] and General Philip H. Sheridan as its ninth.[4]

The NRA sponsors firearm safety training courses, as well as marksmanship events featuring shooting skills and sports. According to a 1999 Fortune survey, lawmakers and congressional staffers considered NRA the most influential lobbying group.[5] Its political activity is based on the principle that gun ownership is a civil liberty protected by the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights, and it claims to be the oldest continuously operating civil rights organization in the United States. According to its website, the NRA has nearly four million members.[1]

Sport and safety programs

NRA firearms safety programs

NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia

The NRA sponsors a range of safety programs to educate and encourage the safe use of firearms.

NRA hunting safety courses are offered all across the U.S. for both children and adults. In recent years gun safety classes oriented more towards firearm safety, particularly for women, have become popular. Intended for school-age children, the NRA's "Eddie Eagle" program 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.

The NRA in its instructional guide The Basics of Personal Protection In The Home (published in 2000) has chapters on Basic Firearm Safety and Safe Firearm Storage.

Shooting sports

Historically, the NRA has governed and advanced the shooting sports in the United States. However, in 1992 the NRA ceased to be the National Governing Body for Olympic shooting (USA Shooting is now the NGB), and in 2000 the NRA chose not to be a member of the National Three-Position Air Rifle Council. The NRA is not directly involved 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.

However, the National Rifle and Pistol Matches at Camp Perry are sponsored by the NRA, which most consider the "World Series of competitive shooting". Commonly known as Bullseye or Conventional Pistol, shooters from the military as well as many top-ranked civilians gather annually in July and August for this well-attended competition. The NRA also sponsors its National Muzzle Loading Championship at the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association's Friendship, Indiana facility.

The NRA functions as a general promoter of the shooting sports. The NRA house magazine, American Rifleman, covers major shooting competitions and related topics, and the NRA offers a publication dedicated to competitive shooting, Shooting Sports USA. Most competitive shooters are NRA members.

The current NRA competitions division publishes its own rulebooks, maintains a registry of marksmanship classifications, and sanctions matches.

The NRA also represents the USA on the International Confederation of Fullbore Rifle Associations (ICFRA), which has as its primary function the administration of the World Long-Range Rifle Team Championships, contested every four years for the PALMA trophy, presented by the NRA for competition by "The Riflemen of The World".

NRA volunteers

Many NRA competitions would not be possible without the help of volunteers. The NRA hosts more than 500 volunteers during the NRA National Rifle & Pistol Championships in Camp Perry, Ohio.

Grassroots shooting support

Through the NRA Foundation and Friends of NRA, the NRA also raises funds and distributes grants to local clubs. In addition to competitive marksmanship and gun safety, local programs supported by the NRA include instructor/coach training, gun collector programs, hunting programs, and programs for law enforcement officers.

Instructors

The National Rifle Association will issue recognition credentials to individuals who are trained by the Association to be instructors. Divisions of instructor are divided into what are referred to as "disciplines". Each discipline earned is indicative that the person is qualified to teach in relation to that area. Instruction in a particular field includes marksmanship, maintenance, and legalities. Instructors are required to teach at least 1 person per year in each discipline in order to keep their certification in that discipline current. There are varied levels of most disciplines, including Apprentice Instructor, Assistant Instructor, and Certified Instructor. This differentiation is primarily a matter of age and legality. A person can become an Apprentice Instructor as early as the age of 15, with upgrade to Assistant upon turning 18, and upgrade to certified instructor at the age of 21. Per the NRA's policies for instructors, Apprentice and Assistant Instructors are not allowed to conduct courses alone. A certified instructor must be in charge of the course. Also as per policy, one instructor can be with no more than 2 persons at a firing point with one firearm at any given time. In cases where multiple instructors are present it is not uncommon to have a Range Safety Officer. Instructors and Range Safety Officers are trained by Training Counselors, who are themselves trained by Senior and/or Master Training Counselors or NRA Staff in Training Counselor Workshops (http://www.nrahq.org/EDUCATION/Training/trainingcounselors/workshops.asp). Instructors are first and foremost responsible for following and teaching the principles of safety, including the "Three Rules of Safe Gun Handling." Disciplines include (but are not limited to):

  • Home Firearms Safety
  • Rifle
  • Muzzle-loading Rifle
  • Shotgun
  • Muzzle-loading Shotgun
  • Pistol
  • Muzzle-loading Pistol
  • Personal Protection in the Home
  • Personal Protection Outside the Home
  • Reloading Metallic Cartridges
  • Reloading Shotgun Shells
  • Range Safety Officer
  • Chief Range Safety Officer

Instructors not only teach firearms usage, care, and cleaning, but can coach students and other persons and help them develop Marksmanship skills. In order to help encourage firearms practice, the NRA has a Marksmanship Qualification Program. This program is divided into several disciplines and each discipline has multiple awards that can be obtained. The awards are offered for successfully completing each in a series progressively more difficult courses of fire. All of these awards, except Distinguished Expert, are on the honor system. An NRA certified coach or certified instructor must witness the participant successfully complete the course of for this more prestigious of awards. The awards are provided in the form of "rockers" which are typically sewn on below a large round discipline-specific patch. The various awards are as follows:

  • Basic Practical
  • Pro-Marksman
  • Marksman
  • Marksman First Class
  • Sharpshooter; Bars 1-9
  • Expert
  • Distinguished Expert

The ranks Pro-Marksman through Distinguished Expert can be signed off on by an NRA certified instructor or certified coach. The National Rifle Association keeps a list of its registered Instructors and can contact them for those seeking instruction. NRA Instructors can commonly be found at privately owned firearms ranges, and are commonly employed by the Boy Scouts of America on their summer camps. NRA Instructors cannot issue Concealed Carry Permits, or Tax Stamps for restricted firearms types, such writs must be issued at the state, or federal levels of government.

The NRA publishes gun safety rules. Three rules are given special importance and are known as the fundamental NRA rules for safe gun handling:[6]

  1. Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
  2. Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
  3. Always keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

Relations with other organizations

The National Rifle Association maintains ties with other organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America, and 4-H. NRA relations with these groups include monetary donations, equipment donations to supply firearms ranges, and provision on instructors to assist in their programs. Notably the Boy Scouts of America has strict guidelines on who is allowed to operate their ranges, one of the recognized personnel groups are NRA Certified Instructors. (Along with military, and Law Enforcement).

The NRA joined ACLU and several other civil liberties organizations in joint letters to President Clinton on 10 Jan 1994 and to the House Committee on the Judiciary on 24 Oct 1995 calling for federal law enforcement reforms drawing on lessons from Waco and Ruby Ridge.

Political lobbying

Members of Congress have ranked the NRA as the most powerful lobbying organization in the country several years in a row.[7] Opponents of the organization accuse it of unduly influencing political appointments.[8] Chris W. Cox is the NRA's chief lobbyist and principal political strategist, a position he has held since 2002.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, the NRA spent $10 million.[9]

Second Amendment

In its lobbying for gun rights, the NRA asserts the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individuals to own and use guns. The NRA opposes measures that conflict with the Second Amendment and/or the right to privacy enjoyed by law-abiding citizens who are gun owners. The NRA has supported gun rights on other grounds as well—they opposed the Brady Bill in the courts on Tenth Amendment grounds, not Second Amendment.

On June 26, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the first time in American history in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment provides for an individual right to own a gun. The implication of this major decision will play out over the next several decades. However, the lawyer who organized the plaintiffs, Robert Levy, told the Washington Post he is "not a member of any of those pro-gun groups," and the case was funded only by him.[10] The NRA has since been party to a lawsuit against the DC government, stating that the emergency legislation enacted by the DC government violates the Constitution in its continued ban on handguns and all semiautomatic firearms and its requirement that any firearm in the home be disassembled, unloaded, and locked away unless there is an "immediate" threat of violence.[11]

In 2005, the NRA, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and others successfully sued the Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin and others to stop unconstitutional gun seizures in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. As of March 2006, documents have been filed by NRA, SAF, et al. seeking to hold Ray Nagin and others in contempt of court for violating the consent order. The case is National Rifle Association of America, Inc., et al. v. C. Ray Nagin et al..[12][13]

In the first week of March, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the McDonald v. City of Chicago Case to further clarify the issue of the Second Amendment rights. The Court's decision is likely to be pronounced some time in June of 2010, before the Court begins its summer recess.

Past elections

1980 presidential election

Three days before the November 4 voting in the 1980 presidential election, the NRA endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time in its history, backing Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter. Reagan had received the California Rifle and Pistol Association's Outstanding Public Service Award. Carter had appointed Abner J. Mikva, a fervent proponent of gun control, to a federal judgeship and had supported the Alaska Lands Bill, closing 40,000,000 acres (160,000 km2) to hunting.[14]

1994

In the 1994 election the NRA is often credited with defeating Congressmen Jack Brooks and Tom Foley (the first Speaker of the House to lose reelection since 1860). Bill Clinton wrote:

The NRA had a great night. They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks, two of the ablest members of Congress, who had warned me this would happen. Foley was the first Speaker to be defeated in more than a century. Jack Brooks had supported the NRA for years and had led the fight against the assault weapons ban in the House, but as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he had voted for the overall crime bill even after the ban was put into it. The NRA was an unforgiving master: one strike and you're out. The gun lobby claimed to have defeated nineteen of the twenty-four members on its hit list. They did at least that much damage and could rightly claim to have made Gingrich the House Speaker.

— Bill Clinton, My Life pp 629-30

Past campaigns

Many gun-control laws that the NRA and its supporters fought vigorously have been passed throughout the country. These laws range from the near-total ban on gun ownership in Washington, D.C. (ultimately found to be unconstitutional in District of Columbia v. Heller), 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 most new gun-control legislation, calling instead for stricter enforcement of existing laws such as prohibiting convicted felons and violent criminals from possessing firearms and increased sentencing for gun-related crimes. The NRA also lobbies for "shall issue" right-to-carry laws for concealed carry licenses in many states. It takes positions on non-firearm hunting issues, too, such as supporting wildlife management programs that allow hunting and opposing restrictions on devices like crossbows and leg hold traps.

One example of the NRA's legislative effectiveness is that, while 7 US states and the District of Columbia still generally restrict the issuance of concealed carry permits ("may issue" or "no-issue"), 38 states have mandatory shall-issue issuance of such permits upon the applicant demonstrating completion of a training requirement or other basic criteria, 3 states have may-issue permits that are liberally issued by local law enforcement, and 2 states (Alaska and Vermont) have unrestricted universal concealed carry without any permit requirements. [citation needed]

The NRA predominately endorses Republican candidates.[15] The NRA's policy is that it will endorse any incumbent who supports its positions, even if the challenger supports them as well, as incumbents tend to hold more political power. This was evident in the 2006 Senate Elections when the NRA endorsed Rick Santorum over Bob Casey, Jr. even though they both had an "A" rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund.[citation needed]

1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban

In 2004 the NRA successfully opposed renewal of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, which banned many features of certain semiautomatic rifles and certain types of removable magazines, against a campaign to make the ban permanent and expand it. The ban expired at midnight on September 13, 2004.

Current campaigns

Confiscations in New Orleans

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, multiple reports of confiscations of civilian firearms by law enforcement began coming out of New Orleans. Firearm searches of evacuees were carried out prior to allowing them into evacuation centers,[16] house-to-house firearm confiscations were conducted,[17] and the superintendent of police was quoted as saying "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons" and "We are going to take all of the weapons."[18]

On September 12, 2005 National Rifle Association executive vice-president Wayne LaPierre spoke out against these confiscations. "What we’ve seen in Louisiana — the breakdown of law and order in the aftermath of disaster — is exactly the kind of situation where the Second Amendment was intended to allow citizens to protect themselves," LaPierre said. The NRA filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District in Louisiana.

On September 23, two weeks after seizures began, NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation filed for a temporary restraining order. On September 24, 2005 U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana issued a temporary restraining order barring any further gun confiscations and ordering the return of lawfully owned firearms to their owners. On March 1, 2006, the NRA filed a motion for contempt against the city of New Orleans, its mayor, and the chief of police for failure to comply with the restraining order. On March 15, 2006, lawyers from both sides reached an agreement in the case of NRA v. Mayor Ray Nagin, which is pending before a federal court. The city of New Orleans admitted that it holds a number of confiscated firearms, and the Property and Evidence Division of the New Orleans Police Department is to return the firearms to their owners on request and proof of ownership or affidavit. In the chaos and destruction following Katrina many homeowners have, however, lost everything including the paperwork that would prove ownership. At this time (2006) the majority of the seized firearms have not been returned to the rightful owners. (See Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.)

In June 2006 Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco signed the NRA-backed Act 275, forbidding the confiscation of firearms from lawful citizens during declared emergencies. Similar legislation had already been adopted in nine other states.

On October 4, 2006 President George W. Bush signed into law the NRA-backed Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006 (incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill). This legislation prohibits the confiscation of legal firearms from citizens during states of emergency by any agent of the Federal Government or anyone receiving Federal funds (effectively, any Federal, state, or local governmental entity). Introduced in Congress by Rep. Bobby Jindal and Sen. David Vitter, both of Louisiana, this bill enjoyed broad bipartisan support, passing the House of Representatives with a margin of 322-99 and the Senate by 84-16.

Also see Civil disturbances and military action in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

San Francisco's Proposition H

In November 2005, 58% of voters in San Francisco, California, approved "Proposition H", which would ban the sale, manufacture and distribution of firearms and ammunition (as well as the possession of handguns) within city limits, effective January 1, 2006. (The last gun dealer in the city had closed several years earlier because of a special tax.) San Francisco thereby became the third major city in the United States with a handgun ban, after Chicago and Washington, D.C.

The day after the election, the National Rifle Association and other gun advocates filed a lawsuit challenging the ban, saying it oversteps local government authority and intrudes into an area regulated by the state. (A previous handgun ban, adopted in 1984, was successfully challenged on similar grounds.) On June 12, 2006 Superior Court Judge agreed with the NRA position, saying that California law "implicitly prohibits a city or county from banning gun possession by law-abiding adults".[19]

The City appealed Judge Warren's ruling, but lost in a unanimous opinion from the three judge panel in the Court of Appeal issued on January 9, 2008.

Publications

The NRA publishes a number of periodicals including[20]:

Current leadership and policies

File:Colddead-fp.jpg
Charlton Heston accepting a presentation rifle at 2000 NRA convention with the now well-known exclamation "From my cold, dead hands!"

The NRA organization is governed by a large (typically 75 member) board of directors. The directors choose the president, the leading spokesman for the organization, from among their members. Although traditionally this position changed annually, for several years it was consecutively held by actor and activist Charlton Heston, who was a compelling promoter of the NRA agenda. Heston became afflicted with Alzheimer's disease and stepped down in April 2003. Ron Schmeits is the current president, replacing John C. Sigler in 2009. Sandra Froman served 2005-2007. Marion P. Hammer was the first female president, serving from 1995 to 1998.

The organization also has an Executive Vice President, who is not a director but functions as Chief Executive Officer, appointed at the pleasure of the directors. Wayne LaPierre has held this position since 1991. The Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action is Chris W. Cox, who has been appointed by LaPierre every year since 2002. Kayne Robinson was also reappointed Executive Director of NRA General Operations.[22]

Finances

Annual revenues for the NRA were around $150 million in 1994, up from $66 million in 1986. It spent $15 million on a new headquarters in the 1990s.

The NRA Office of Advancement [23] was created in 2005 to focus on building the NRA's endowment and underwriting programs and projects across the organization - including the NRA, the NRA Foundation, NRA-ILA, the NRA Whittington Center, and the Civil Rights Defense Fund. In 2007, the NRA Office of Advancement launched a new donor recognition society called the Ring of Freedom. In July 2008, the NRA Foundation was designated a Four Star Charity by Charity Navigator for the sixth consecutive year.

According to the Better Business Bureau's web site, the NRA does not fall within the BBB's scope of Standards for Charity Accountability. They do note the following financials for the NRA as of December 31, 2004. The NRA's CEO, Wayne LaPierre, received a yearly salary of $895,897 in 2004. They also indicated that fundraising costs accounted for 46% of the contributions received. The NRA is a 501(c)(4) organization and indicated that the NRA's total income in 2004 was $205,402,491 and had expenses of $206,886,970. Total NRA assets at the end of 2004 were $222,841,128.

The NRA has received both positive and negative criticism in the popular media, and its image has included references in television shows and other forms of popular culture. In 2000, the NRA announced plans (never completed) to open up a NRA Sports Blast in Times Square (New York).[24] The themed restaurant would have featured food, arcade attractions, and other NRA-themed entertainment.[citation needed]

Criticism

From gun control advocates

The NRA is criticized by gun control groups such as the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Brady Campaign, Million Mom March, and Americans for Gun Safety. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has criticized the NRA for its "warped conception of popular sovereignty...that citizens need to arm themselves to safeguard political liberties against threats by the government."[25] It went on to add that "[if the NRA members] believe in the right to take up arms to resist government policies they consider oppressive, even when these policies have been adopted by elected officials and subjected to review by an independent judiciary, then they are opposed to constitutional democracy." More specifically, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun violence has stated that, as a result of the NRA's lobbying, gun crime has "soared" and a teenager can "purchase an AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifle at a gun show without having to show ID and without a background check."[26] Jim Kessler, of the Third Way (a pro-gun control group that has incorporated Americans for Gun Safety), has also criticized the NRA for promoting a bill that limited information that was disseminated regarding guns that have been used to commit crimes.[27]

A variety of newspaper editorial boards, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today, disagree with the NRA's policies, such as in September 2004, when the boards called for the extension of the assault weapons ban. Recently, the New York Times has criticized the NRA for promoting politicians that oppose "sensible gun control laws."[28] In addition, the NRA's publications prompted former U.S. President George H. W. Bush to resign his life-long membership[29] after they published an advertisement calling federal agents "jack-booted government thugs" out to take away individual gun rights. The NRA later apologized for the letter's language.[29]

From other gun rights organizations

The NRA has been criticized by other gun rights groups for doing too little to get existing restrictions repealed, and sometimes helping to draft restrictive legislation. This critique is most often voiced by gun rights organizations and libertarians who take a more comprehensive view of the Second Amendment and Bill of Rights, and are viewed as being less amenable to compromise on these issues, e.g. Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), and Gun Owners of America (GOA). GOA has castigated the NRA in the past for what it perceives as its willingness to compromise on legislative restrictions concerning access to firearms.[30]

The JPFO and its leadership has also criticized the NRA's political strategy on several occasions, lambasting what it views as their counterproductive focus on Capitol Hill lobbying, as well as taking the NRA and its leadership to task for not explicitly making a connection between gun control measures introduced in the United States and those implemented by the Weimar Republic and subsequently the Nazi regime in pre-war Germany, as well as other totalitarian, or ineffectual regimes that were eventually overthrown.[31] To a certain extent, this criticism has been addressed in recent years by Wayne LaPierre, who has attempted to convince the public that the atrocities committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Yugoslavian Civil War, as well as the Rwandan genocide of 1994, can be traced to a lack of institutional, individual gun rights in those countries.

The NRA has also seen internal dissent from its membership, including a prolonged series of verbal attacks and campaigns initiated by Neal Knox, a former vice-president of the organization who attempted to depose both Wayne LaPierre and Tanya Metaksa, the former executive director of the NRA's Institute For Legislative Action, in leadership elections during the late Nineties[32] which Knox described as putting down a "mutiny".[33]

In addition to the generic criticism voiced by other more absolutist gun-rights organizations and public figures, Knox and his supporters allege that the NRA has failed to protect the rights of gun-owners during debates over proposed federal gun laws. They cite the NRA's involvement in the passage of the Firearm Owners Protection Act, otherwise known as the McClure-Volkmer Act, which amended the Gun Control Act of 1968.[34][35] Although this represented a significant liberalization of the 1968 Gun Control Act, the fact that the NRA did not seek its outright repeal led some critics, such as Knox, to assert that it had abandoned its members.[citation needed]

See also

Canada

References

  1. ^ a b NRA-ILA :: About
  2. ^ NRA "About Us" webpage, accessed Sept. 9, 2008
  3. ^ NRA Institute for Legislative Action News Release, accessed March 15, 2009
  4. ^ NRA-ILA
  5. ^ FORTUNE Survey: NRA deemed most powerful lobbyist by lawmakers and their staffers
  6. ^ NRA Gun Safety Rules
  7. ^ FORTUNE Survey
  8. ^ "Power of NRA Showcased in U.S. Delegation to Small Arms Conference"
  9. ^ Eunice Moscoso, "NRA campaign against Obama carries $10 million price tag," Palm Beach Post, October 21, 2008)
  10. ^ "Washington Post"
  11. ^ [1]
  12. ^ [2]CNN transcript of NRA video interviews, aired on July 2, 2008 by Glenn Beck
  13. ^ [3] NRA video on You-tube of Katrina victims describing illegal confiscation of personal firearms.
  14. ^ Facts on File 1980 Yearbook, p.844
  15. ^ Vest, Jason (April 3, 2000). "The NRA Goes Global". Salon.
  16. ^ KHOU : 100,000 evacuees in Houston
  17. ^ Columbia Daily Tribune : Officials grab guns, holdouts
  18. ^ The Arizona Republic : Police prepare to use force
  19. ^ SFGate : Judge invalidates Prop. H handgun ban
  20. ^ NRA Publications as of 2009
  21. ^ American Rifleman website
  22. ^ NRAILA : National Rifle Association Announces New Officers and Board Members
  23. ^ NRA Advancement: Home
  24. ^ Dave Boyer, “NRA aims gun range at heart of New York,” Washington Times, May, 2000.
  25. ^ ""Gun Culture Threatens Democracy"". Retrieved 2008-12-03.
  26. ^ ""The Gun Industry, the Gun Lobby, and the National Rifle Association"". Retrieved 2008-12-03.
  27. ^ ""The Tiahrt Amendment: Time to Shoot It Down"". Retrieved 2008-12-03.
  28. ^ ""The Gun Lobby's Loss"". Retrieved 2008-12-03.
  29. ^ a b "NRA Apologizes for 'Jack Boot' Letter" Seattle Times (AP) 05/18/95 http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950518&slug=2121718
  30. ^ Letter To The Directors Of The NRA
  31. ^ Aaron Zelman Talks to the NRA Board
  32. ^ After an inflammatory ad in a national magazine, which called federal agents "jack-booted government thugs", and portrayed them in a negative light out to take guns away from law-abiding citizens, former U.S. President George Bush resigned his life-long membership in the organization, angry over such accusations at federal law enforcement agencies. TIME magazine
  33. ^ Neal Knox : The Mutiny At NRA
  34. ^ Gun Law News: Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986
  35. ^ FOPA, A Historical and Legal Perspective

Further reading

  • Anderson, Jack. Inside the NRA: Armed and Dangerous. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Dove, 1996. ISBN 0-7871-0677-1.
  • Brennan, Pauline Gasdow, Alan J. Lizotte, and David McDowall. "Guns, Southernness, and Gun Control". Journal of Quantitative Criminology 9, no. 3 (1993): 289–307.
  • Bruce, John M., and Clyde Wilcox, eds. The Changing Politics of Gun Control. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998. ISBN 0-8476-8614-0, ISBN 0-8476-8615-9.
  • Davidson, Osha Gray. Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control, 2nd ed. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1998. ISBN 0-87745-646-1.
  • Edel, Wilbur. Gun Control: Threat to Liberty or Defense against Anarchy? Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1995. ISBN 0-275-95145-6.
  • Langbein, Laura I., and Mark A. Lotwis, "Political Efficacy of Lobbying and Money: Gun Control in the U.S. House, 1986". Legislative Studies Quarterly 15 (August 1990): 413–40.
  • LaPierre, Wayne R. Guns, Crime, and Freedom. Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1994. ISBN 0-89526-477-3.
  • McGarrity, Joseph P., and Daniel Sutter. "A Test of the Structure of PAC Contracts: An Analysis of House Gun Control Votes in the 1980s". Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 67 (2000).
  • Spitzer, Robert J. The Politics of Gun Control, 2nd ed. New York: Chatham House Publishers, 1998. ISBN 1-56643-072-0.
  • Sugarmann, Josh. National Rifle Association: Money, Firepower, and Fear. Washington, D.C.: National Press Books, 1992. ISBN 0-915765-88-8.
  • Trefethen, James B., and James E. Serven. Americans and Their Guns: The National Rifle Association Story Through Nearly a Century of Service to the Nation. Harrisburg, Penn.: Stackpole Books, 1967.
  • Utter, Glenn H., ed. Encyclopedia of Gun Control and Gun Rights. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 2000. ISBN 1-57356-172-X.

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