National Rifle Association. The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) was incorporated in 1871 by William C. Church and other
Civil War veterans.Military doctrine of the time emphasized massed rifle fire, downplaying marksmanship. The NRA stressed accurate shooting and promoted competitions at its rifle range. The early NRA focused its efforts on state militia units, and its fortunes varied with their support. In 1880, New York state stopped funding NRA activities, leaving it effectively moribund. The organization revived after the U.S. Congress established the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice in 1903 and in Public Law 149 (1905) allowed members of NRA‐approved clubs to purchase guns and ammunition at low cost.
Through the twentieth century, the NRA steadily expanded its scope and membership and broadened its interests to include safety instruction, firearm collecting, hunting, and police training. From the 1960s on, the NRA also devoted increasing attention to firearm‐control legislation. It supported laws that punished armed criminals but fought most limits on general gun ownership and use. A lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action, was formed in 1975. At the 1977 annual meeting, a group led by the activist Harlon Carter gained control of the organization. Carter's group increased the membership's role in governance and launched an unyielding campaign against
gun control. By 1995, membership exceeded 3 million.
From 1989 to 1999, the NRA contributed some $8.4 million to political candidates sympathetic to its cause. The movie actor Charlton Heston, famed for his role as Moses in
The Ten Commandments and for many other films, served as president of the NRA from 1998 to 2003.
Bibliography
James B. Trefethen , comp., Americans and Their Guns: The National Rifle Association Story through Nearly a Century of Service to the Nation, 1967.
Osha Gray Davidson , Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control, 1993.
David McDowall and and Alan Lizotte
; Updated by
Paul S. Boyer
