National Rifle Association

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National Rifle Association
(NRA)
National Rifle Association (NRA) badge
purpose Target shooting, safe handling of firearms, lobby organization
Chair: Carolyn D. Meadows (President); Wayne LaPierre (CEO)
Establishment date: November 17, 1871 in New York (state)
Number of members: 5 million people,

10,700 associations

Seat : Registered Office: New York City ; Headquarters: Fairfax County , Virginia , USA
Website: www.nra.org
NRA Headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia (2007)

The National Rifle Association of America , also in short NRA (from the National Rifle Association , "National Rifle Association") was founded in the USA in 1871 as an organization for sport shooting and training on firearms . By 1977 it developed into a gun lobby , which, as one of the largest interest groups, influences numerous political elections in the USA financially and propagandistically. Legally, the NRA is a nonprofit corporation (Association), exempt under § 501 (c) (4) in Title 26 of the United States Code .

Her goal is to defend the United States Constitution , especially its 2nd Amendment . It interprets this as the “guaranteed individual right of all US citizens to acquire, possess, carry, transport, transfer and legitimate use of weapons, so that they can exercise their legitimate individual rights for the self-preservation and defense of their families, persons and their property and also in An adequate militia can serve the general defense of the republic and individual freedom of its citizens. ”From this the NRA derives the political opposition to almost every form of legal gun control . It combats all licensing, registration and waiting periods for the purchase of firearms, the ban on semi-automatic firearms and any capacity limitation of gun magazines. It claims to represent the interests not only of its members, but of all hunters and gun owners in the USA.

In 2010 the NRA comprised 9,900 shooting clubs and 51 associations. In 2013, the number of registered NRA members rose to five million, despite falling in the meantime.

In August 2020, New York State Attorney General Letitia James brought fraud charges against the New York City Registered NRA. In January 2021, the NRA files for bankruptcy with the intention of restructuring and relocating to Texas .

organization

The NRA Board of Directors consists of 75 members, 25 of whom each stand for election or re-election at the annual NRA meeting. Anyone who has been a permanent NRA member for at least five years is entitled to vote. About 140,000 out of 2.6 million members (~ 4%) voted in these elections in the early 1990s. Candidates who showed a willingness to compromise on legal gun control generally had no chance to vote.

Until 1977, the actual management was the responsibility of the Management Committee , which included the president, who was elected for one year each, and fewer than ten board members. This leadership group appointed a nominating committee that selected the NRA members who had to stand for re-election or new election each year. At the 1977 Cincinnati annual meeting , those proposed by the board of directors were replaced by candidates selected by the general meeting, and the management committee was dissolved. The previous Vice President was elected directly by the assembly and received executive powers ( Executive Vice President , EVP). Political lobbying is the responsibility of the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA), which was founded in 1975. Its director was directly subordinate to the Vice President in 1977 and thus received the same rights as the Chief of General Operations , to whom he had previously been accountable. Since then, essential association statutes could only be changed by a general assembly. After the dismissal of the then ILA director Neal Knox in 1982, the board of directors achieved an amendment to the statutes in a member vote, which again gave it the right to elect the Executive Vice President (EPP) himself.

Since 2003, the presidents of the NRA have been elected for one year each and can be re-elected for a maximum of another year. Unlike the respective Vice President and the ILA Director, they only have representative tasks and powers. The following people have held or have held these management positions in the NRA:

president Executive Vice President Director of the ILA
Ambrose Burnside (1871)
William Conant Church (1872-1882)
Ulysses S. Grant (1883)
Philip Sheridan (1884-1888)
George Wood Wingate (1888-1913)
Alexander Shaler (1913ff)
Winfield S. Hancock
Tbsp Molineaux
Karl Frederick (1920ff)
- Franklin L. Orth (1959-1970) -
- Maxwell Rich (1970-1977) Harlon Carter (1975-1977)
- Harlon Carter (1977-1985) Neal Knox (1977-1982)
Howard Wallace Pollock (1984–1988) G. Ray Arnett (1985-1986) J. Warren Cassidy (1982-1986)
Joe Foss (1988-1990) J. Warren Cassidy (1986ff) Wayne LaPierre (1986-1991)
Marion P. Hammer (1995–1998) Gary L. Anderson (until 1991) Tanya Metaksa (1994-1998)
Charlton Heston (1998-2003) - James Jay Baker (1998-2002)
Kayne Robinson (2003-2005) Wayne LaPierre (since 1991) Chris W. Cox (since 2002)
Sandra Froman (2005-2007)
John C. Sigler (2007-2009)
Ron Schmeits (2009-2011)
David Keene (2011-2013)
James W. Porter II (2013-2015)
Allan D. Cors (2015-2017)
Pete Brownell (2017-2018)
Oliver North (2018-2019)
Carolyn D. Meadows (since 2019)

In addition to the ILA, the NRA has other sub-organizations, including the NRA Foundation , the sponsoring organization Friends of the NRA and the election campaign organization Political Victory Fund (PVF). The NRA raised $ 70 million in 1994 through regular fundraising and e-mail campaigns from all of these sub-organizations. The individual donations are also backed by major industrial donors, including 20,000 arms dealers and arms manufacturers as well as some wealthy conservative financiers. The NRA earned another $ 8.6 million in 1993 from advertisements for the US arms industry in their club newspapers. For their part, the arms dealers solicited donations to the NRA from arms buyers; millions more come from this every year. By calling on its members to transfer specific donations of a fixed amount directly to the PVF, the PVF received over $ 16.5 million from 1988 to 1994, which it was legally allowed to use as campaign donations. In doing so, the NRA circumvented the statutory maximum limits for individual donations to political interest groups. In 1993/94 the NRA spent over a third of all party-independent campaign funds. This makes it the largest and most effective lobby group in the USA.

Training and education

The NRA offers a wide variety of courses and training programs in all types of firearms, tailored to specific target groups, including children, youth, women, teachers, hunters, police officers, law enforcement officers and the military. It is therefore recognized as a non-profit organization in the USA and is tax exempt. She has established shooting competitions for young people since 1903, training for hunters since 1949, for police officers since 1960. Some states require hunters to take part in NRA courses. In 2012, up to one million young people took up NRA courses every year. 10,000 law enforcement officers received NRA certification as firearms instructors. Today, a total of 55,000 certified NRA instructors train around 750,000 firearms owners every year. For women there is a program called Refuse to be a Victim (“ Refuse to be a victim”).

The NRA publishes several monthly magazines for its various audiences that members receive free of charge: American Rifleman , American Hunter , Americas First Freedom (1997 to 2002 under the name American Guardian ), Woman's Outlook .

For children from preschool to sixth grade, the NRA has been offering a program with the mascot Eddie Eagle since 1988 . It is intended to educate children to handle firearms carefully in order to avoid gunshot accidents. The program has been criticized as promoting the arms industry, which seeks to establish a gun culture among young people and thus recruit future NRA members. It makes children responsible for the safe use of weapons instead of requiring adults to keep weapons out of the reach of children. At the same time, the NRA is fighting all legal steps that make access to weapons difficult or forbidden for children and young people.

story

The beginnings

The journalist William Conant Church and the lawyer George Wood Wingate, two former officers of the US Army in the Civil War , founded the US NRA on November 17, 1871 in the state of New York based on the model of the British NRA founded in 1860 as a rifle club . They wanted to improve the accuracy of reservists of the militia (later the US National Guard ) and civilians and promote general shooting sports in order to keep the US citizens ready for war even in peacetime. In doing so, they reacted to the industrial mass production of rear - loading and repeating weapons , which were new at the time , which allowed multiple shots to be fired more quickly over longer distances and required precise aiming. They advertised the private purchase of such weapons, which took off enormously after the US Civil War.

The first NRA president, former Potomac Army Commander-in-Chief Ambrose Burnside, managed to get the New York government to donate $ 25,000 (three-quarters the price) to the NRA in 1872 to purchase a target range on Long Island . The first NRA shooting competition with a selection of US militias against a selection of Irish shooters took place there in 1874 in front of about 8,000 spectators. Weapons manufacturers such as Remington Arms and Sharps built especially precise rifles for this purpose, donated the main prizes, including a high-quality gold-plated Winchester rifle and a Gatling bolt-action gun , and paid the entrance fees for NRA clubs. But after the US Army founded its own organization for firearms training in 1879, the new Governor of New York Alonzo B. Cornell stopped the financial aid for the NRA in 1880.

After William Church, former US President Ulysses S. Grant became NRA President in 1883. He served as a figurehead to increase their reputation. In 1892, however, the NRA had to cede its practice area to New York State and stop the shooting competitions. In 1901 it re-established itself and committed itself as a national citizens' organization that it would never again be dependent on a federal state.

Target shooting and hunting association

Since 1906 the NRA offered firearms training for young people. In 1907 she moved her headquarters to Washington, DC. In 1909 she added to her statutes: These allowed the US Secretary of Defense and the commanders of the Navy and the National Guard to appoint up to five board members of the NRA. Since 1912, the US Congress granted the NRA grants for its annual shooting competitions. A 1916 law granted US $ 300,000 state aid for civilian weapons training. By the end of the 1920s, the number of NRA members grew to 3,500 and the shooting clubs belonging to the NRA to over 2,000.

The National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice, founded on the recommendation of the NRA in 1903, consisted of over a third of NRA members. It had shooting ranges built and advertised for civilians. In 1905 it passed a law that allowed the sale of surplus army weapons and ammunition to shooting clubs that complied with and were sponsored by the NRA rules. From 1910 this law allowed the free distribution of army weapons to NRA-funded shooting clubs. From 1912, the US Congress co-financed the annual shooting competitions of the NRA, and from 1913 onwards, 1,000 US soldiers took part each year. These support measures were suspended during World War I , but continued immediately afterwards. From 1924 onwards, only registered NRA members received firearms from the US Army. By 1939, this gave the NRA associations 200,000 weapons.

The first state gun control law in the United States, the Sullivan Law of New York of 1911, provided for the police to register handguns to make it difficult for criminals to buy guns. The NRA opposed it in advance, but did not try to revise the law, as it was dependent on government funds. After gang wars with many deaths in the 1920s, the US Congress considered a first national gun law. The Department of Justice's draft of the National Fire Arms Act of 1934 required all buyers of handguns, machine guns and sawed-off rifles to apply for the purchase and have their fingerprint checked by the police. Fancy gun types should be subject to a high tax, gun licenses should be noted by previous owners. With a letter campaign from its members, the NRA succeeded in getting the US Congress to accept a compromise draft drawn up by its lobbyists without general background checks.

After World War II , the NRA tripled its membership by welcoming many of the nine million returning ex-soldiers. Because they were more interested in hunting than in shooting competitions, the NRA promoted them with special courses that were also intended to improve the poor image of war veterans among rural civilians. The NRA gradually changed from a government-affiliated, paramilitary training organization to an advocacy group for all civilian gun owners in the USA.

After the murder of US President John F. Kennedy , which was carried out in 1963 with a carbine mailed to the NRA in writing , a committee submitted the draft Gun Control Act (GCA68) to Congress . He passed the law in 1968 after the further murders of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy . It banned the sale of weapons by remote ordering and across state borders, as well as the import of inferior, foreign "non-sporting weapons", raised the minimum age for purchase to 21 years and had the purchase eligibility checked using a questionnaire. The Congress tightened a draft of the NRA.

The then Vice President of the NRA, General Franklin Orth, endorsed the law in front of Congress: No sane US citizen could refuse to legally control the tool with which the US president was murdered. In doing so, he drew violent protests from a younger minority in the NRA, which strictly opposed any state gun control. Its spokesman was Harlon Carter, who was elected to the NRA board in 1951.

Starting in 1972, the NRA prevented effective state gun controls by persuading US Congressmen to cut funding and equipment for the newly established Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF). In 1975 the NRA founded the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) to influence state legislation and appointed Harlon Carter to head it. A few years earlier, she had moved her central target practice range to Camp Perry , Ohio. The US Army subsidized its national shooting competitions at that time with three million US dollars annually and provided 5,000 soldiers for each. Because of the costly Vietnam War , Senator Edward Kennedy planned to cut this funding from the US defense budget. As a precautionary measure , the NRA board of directors bought a stretch of land in New Mexico for shooting competitions, tent camps, survival training and environmental courses, and planned to rename this area from the National Shooting Center to the National Outdoor Center . The board also wanted to move the NRA headquarters to Colorado Springs . These plans met with fierce opposition from Carter and his supporters in the NRA. They saw it as a change of course for the NRA to a purely civilian sports association.

Lobby organization

In November 1976 the NRA board laid off 76 employees, most of whom were Carter's supporters. He then resigned from his position as head of the ILA. At the following annual meeting in 1977 in Cincinnati, he organized a majority of members who, with prepared motions, forced changes to the NRA statutes, more say for ordinary members and the removal of most of the older board members, as well as their plans for the headquarters and training area. Carter was elected as the new executive president of the NRA, marking the beginning of a new era in NRA history. The NRA had thus developed into a political gun lobby in the USA, and from then on it played its role without compromise.

From 1977 to 1983 the NRA grew from one to 2.6 million members. In the 1980 US presidential election, she supported one of the candidates, Ronald Reagan , for the first time in her history . He was a lifelong member of the NRA, had won the highest internal NRA award as governor of California and opposed any legal gun control during the election campaign. As a western actor , he already embodied the values ​​of personal responsibility, independence, willingness to fight and patriotism, which the NRA propagated as original American values. His opponent Jimmy Carter had turned the NRA against him because he tried to dissolve the Department of Civil Marksmanship as US President , banned hunting in part of Alaska and appointed an advocate of gun control as a federal judge. The NRA saw a cultural clash between modern urban liberal and traditional rural conservative values, the symbol of which it declared the right of every US citizen to possess and carry a firearm. She interpreted every gun control, including a deadline of 14 days proposed by Jimmy Carter for permission to apply for a gun purchase, as a secret intention to deprive all US citizens of their weapons and thus their right to self-defense. The NRA itself advocated a waiting period when buying weapons around 1975.

In March 1981, John Hinckley, Jr. shot Reagan and his press officer James Brady with a handgun whose parts had been imported and legally assembled in the United States . Reagan then considered dissolving the BATF and transferring weapons permits to the respected United States Secret Service . Although the NRA had always fought the BATF, they rejected Reagan's plan, fearing far more effective gun control by this secret agent-equipped law enforcement agency.

As of 1977, the NRA had sought to repeal the Gun Control Act of 1968. A draft by the Democratic MP and NRA member Harold Volkmer found a majority in the US Senate in 1985 , which has been dominated by the Republicans since 1980. In 1986 the Firearms Owners Protection Act also found a majority in the US House of Representatives . He again allowed the private sale of rifles across state borders, facilitated the unregistered private sale and sale by arms dealers at arms shows and lifted requirements for ammunition sellers. He banned the BATF from all measures which would have resulted in a central registration of the gun owners. Of numerous amendments to gun controls, only a ban on the sale of handguns between states and a ban on private ownership of machine guns have been added to the law. The NRA invested $ 1.6 million in promoting the draft and hailed its adoption as a great lobbying success. Their opponents, organized as Handgun Control, Incorporated (renamed Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in 1986 ), hailed the inclusion of some control provisions as their success. Police organizations had rejected the law and from then on were permanently at odds with the NRA.

In 1981 it became known that Harlon Carter had been convicted of murdering a Mexican youth in 1931, but had been acquitted on appeal on formal grounds. He had concealed the procedure in his NRA office. According to media reports, he claimed it was against someone with a similar name. Once this was proven to be false, his reputation in the NRA did not suffer.

In the campaign for the US presidential election in 1988 , the NRA invested over 7 million US dollars in advertising against the Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis . It used an ad campaign to spread its alleged statement, "I don't believe in gun-owning people." It read, "Sportsmen versus Dukakis." In 1988 NRA board member Charlton Heston claimed in radio commercials in 1988 that Dukakis "did everything to be honest." To take away their weapons from citizens ”. He now wants to do this all over the USA. Americans could not take this risk. As governor of Massachusetts, Dukakis had tried in vain in a 1976 referendum to ban the private sale of small arms - not sporting weapons. He denied the testimony attributed to him, but narrowly missed the majority in four states that had otherwise mostly elected democratic applicants. Historians attribute this to the NRA campaign.

From 1983 to 1988, 21 candidates financially and ideologically supported by the NRA lost their seats in the US Senate; only 5 NRA-backed candidates won a Senate seat. Analysts saw the NRA's influence on politics weakening as the rural membership base gradually dwindled and police in large cities tended to advocate tighter gun control. In 1991, the NRA spent $ 10 million (about 10% of its annual budget) mobilizing its members against new gun control legislation, which it offset with calls for private donations.

The winner of the 1988 presidential election, George HW Bush , had joined the NRA at the beginning of the election campaign and had rejected gun control, although he moderately affirmed it in office. The NRA therefore did not support his re-election in 1992. In an appeal for donations in 1995, she described BATF members as “brutal gangsters” with “Nazi helmets and black storm troop uniforms”. Shortly thereafter, the bomb attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City (168 dead), targeted by employees of the BATF and other federal agencies there. Then Bush resigned from the NRA. The assassin Timothy McVeigh had been a member of the NRA until 1992, had his letters stamped with their advertising slogan "I am the NRA" and enjoyed going to gun shows and meetings of militias. At the 1995 annual meeting, the NRA board distanced itself from anyone who justified a war against the government with the constitutional right to own weapons. They are not involved in militias, but neither do they discourage anyone from fully exercising their constitutional rights. In the same year, a founder of the militia was re-elected to the board, and another received an NRA award.

The NRA supported the election and re-election of George W. Bush as US President in 2000 and 2004 and claims a crucial role in mobilizing voters for the 2002 and 2006 congressional elections, which resulted in majorities for the Republican Party . With the federal judges appointed by Bush, the US Constitutional Court ruled in 2008 that the second amendment to the constitution contained an individual right of US citizens to own and carry weapons. As a result, the NRA, with its lobbying work, reached laws in many US states that allow US citizens to carry firearms undercover outside of their homes and for attackers to carry out potentially fatal armed self-defense (see stand-your-ground law ) as well as allow gun manufacturers from prosecution and claims for damages protect against illegal use of their products.

After Ronald Reagan , US President Donald Trump turned directly to the NRA - almost 100 days after his inauguration - and assured it that it now has “a real friend and lawyer in the White House ”: “the eight-year attack [his predecessor Barack Obama ] on their rights is now over ”.

From 1998 to early 2018, the NRA donated at least $ 4.1 million to Congressmen.

In 2008 they spent $ 1.67 million on lobbying, in 2009 they spent $ 2.06; 2010 2.65 2011 2.91; 2012 2.98; 2013 2.98; 2014 3.36; 2015 3.61; $ 3.19 million in 2016 and $ 5.12 million in 2017.

Cooperation with the arms industry

The NRA annual meetings have been offering the most important international arms manufacturers, including the German company Heckler & Koch , an advertising and sales platform with a large exhibition hall for decades.

A major lobbying success of the NRA is a law of 2005 that exempts gun manufacturers from liability for improper use. It is seen as the rescue of the manufacturers from the threatened bankruptcy of the industry in the USA due to product liability . In the same year, the NRA began a fundraising program aimed at gun manufacturers. In the following years, the association's funding through membership fees and small donations decreased and direct support from the large arms manufacturers increased.

Although the NRA called John McCain an enemy of the US Constitution in 2001 because he approved background checks at gun shows, it supported his candidacy in the 2008 US presidential election and invested well over $ 10 million against the election of his Democratic rival Barack Obama . The NRA presented this, for example in TV and radio commercials as well as nationwide newspaper advertisements, as an acute danger to the individual right of US citizens to own guns. In March 2011, the NRA declined an invitation from Obama to a dialogue on the effective application of existing gun control laws from.

In November 2011, the NRA rejected an attempt by the UN to negotiate the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) with its member states to regulate the international trade in conventional weapons. Wayne LaPierre claimed against the wording of the draft treaty and its necessary ratification in the US Congress that the UN could and wants to repeal the constitutional right of US citizens to own weapons. 51 senators and 130 members of the US Congress signed a petition for protest by the NRA against the treaty. Its failure at the UN in July 2012 was recorded by the NRA as its success.

During the 2016 election campaign, NRA representatives met in Moscow with figures close to Putin, such as Alexander Torzhin .

Dissolution proceedings and filing for bankruptcy

On August 6, 2020, attorney general Letitia James stated at a press conference in New York: "We are seeking an order to completely dissolve the NRA." In the lawsuit, the attorney general calls for the dissolution of the NRA and the resignation of CEO Wayne LaPierre . The NRA and three other leadership members around LaPierre are accused of fraud, corruption and self-enrichment through embezzlement of US $ 64 million. LaPierre and others from the NRA leadership have used funds from the association to finance a luxurious lifestyle. LaPierre has also signed a contract with the NRA that will secure him 17 million dollars (14 million euros) when he leaves. The procedure in New York is possible because the NRA is registered as an association in New York. At the same time, there is a case against the NRA Foundation, a foundation of the association, by the Attorney General of the Washington capital district. The NRA Foundation is accused of sponsoring luxury spending by executives.

On January 15, 2021, the NRA and its sub-organization Sea Girt LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the federal bankruptcy court in Dallas , Texas. The tax-deductible donations for the NRA Foundation, which pays several million dollars annually to the NRA, collapsed in the wake of the difficult acquisition process after the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic . According to court records, assets between $ 100 million and $ 500 million are offset by liabilities between $ 100 million and $ 500 million. The largest creditor is the advertising agency Ackerman McQueen with around 1.2 million dollars, which worked for the NRA from the 1980s and, among other things, set up and operated the television channel NRATV. The business relationship ended in 2019 because the NRA had filed a lawsuit against the agency, including allegedly inflated bills and content of the television program that did not comply with the goals of the NRA. The NRA also denies the agency claims are justified. The NRA owes more than $ 960,000 to Membership Marketing Partners LLC , which has the same address as the NRA. Another $ 200,000 is owed to Speedway Motorsports , the owner and operator of the NASCAR races.

The NRA said it wanted to move the legal seat to Texas in the course of the bankruptcy proceedings and restructure itself as a non-profit organization . It is the most profound transformation in the history of the organization. But it is by no means bankrupt, there will be no major changes in its activities and staff, and the administrative headquarters will remain where it is. She justified the plan with a "toxic political environment" and "illegal abuse of power" in New York, with lower costs and benefits in litigation. A company or organization does not have to be insolvent to initiate Chapter 11 proceedings; it is sufficient that a payment claim that endangers liquidity appears possible. Legal action against the applicant can be prevented until the reorganization is complete.

The New York attorney general said she will not allow the NRA to use bankruptcy or any other method to evade its oversight. Texas Governor Greg Abbott welcomed the proposed move.

media

The National Rifle Association publishes a number of publications, primarily magazines, on various aspects of firearms and their use. The American Rifleman is the NRA's first and oldest publication. Originally the magazine was called The Rifle and was edited by Arthur Corbin Gould under his editor. It later became NRA Magazine .
Other magazines the NRA publishes for special membership and interest groups include: NRA Family , American Rifleman , American Hunter , Shooting Illustrated , America's 1st Freedom, and Shooting Sports USA .

The NRA operated an online television platform called NRATV until June 26, 2019, with a daily news program of around ten minutes. The show was hosted by Grant Stinchfield. After natural disasters, Stinchfield regularly argued, in line with NRA policy, for unregulated access to firearms in order to protect against criminal elements. After Hurricane Harvey , he praised Texas gun laws, which make it easy for everyone to get hold of firearms. He warned urgently against being unarmed in the next natural disaster.

Current controversies

Fight against lobbying

Several organizations in the US have been fighting the NRA and its political goals since it turned to lobbyism in 1977: including the Brady Campaign to prevent Gun Violence (since 1986), the Violence Policy Center (since 1992), the Mayors against illegal Guns and various associations of Gun victims , including the Gun Victims Action and the Americans for Responsible Solutions group founded in January 2013 by the murder victim Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly . Prominent opponents of the NRA include some Hollywood actors, filmmaker Michael Moore with his film Bowling for Columbine , former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg , Senators Dianne Feinstein (California), Charles Schumer (New York) and others.

NRA calls for easing

The NRA has repeatedly called for the gun control laws to be further relaxed and removed , for example after the 2007 Virginia Tech rampage and the Sandy Hook Elementary School (Newtown, Connecticut, December 14, 2012) rampage . It calls for the lifting of gun bans in public spaces such as schools, universities, cinemas and hospitals in order to enable law-abiding US citizens there to defend themselves against possible gunmen and other violent criminals. Wayne LaPierre called on December 21, 2012, to allow schools to hire armed guards and school teachers to carry firearms in class.

Commission for Stricter Gun Control

US President Barack Obama, who did not comment on gun control in the election campaign for his re-election in November 2012, set up a commission in December 2012 to hear affected interest groups, including the NRA, and to draw up workable legislative proposals for better protection against firearms violence. On January 17, 2013, he called for the US Congress to take legal steps to tighten gun controls, including a ban on all automatic and semi-automatic firearms, a limitation of ammunition magazines to 10 cartridges, background checks (police review of any criminal records) for all gun buyers and funds for examining the mentally ill . He issued 23 corresponding executive orders. He advised congressmen of both parties to be concerned about the protection of children rather than about their judgment by the NRA. This immediately rejected all of his proposals and announced that it would strictly and permanently oppose corresponding legislative initiatives in the US Congress.

Ban on semi-automatic rifles

The legislative initiatives to ban semi-automatic rifles and limit ammunition magazines failed due to resistance from the NRA and were not put to a vote in the US Congress. A bipartisan draft bill to expand background checks was also rejected in the US Senate on April 18, 2013 with a blocking minority of 46 against against 54 for. The NRA had threatened re-election senators from both parties with public devaluation if they approved the draft. It influenced 51 percent of all members of the current US Congress with donations, threatened some with donation withdrawals and covertly financed several advertising campaigns against the proposed gun control laws. At the NRA's annual meeting on May 4, 2013, attendees, including several prominent Republicans and presidential candidates, celebrated the failure of gun control legislation as a major victory. According to a Gallup poll in October 2015, a representative majority of US citizens surveyed wanted stricter gun laws.

Children's fairy tale

In 2016, the NRA of children's book author and blogger Amelia Hamilton published changed children's fairy tales in which the availability of weapons turns the stories for the better. It is criticized that children repeatedly injure and kill themselves and others with firearms.

See also

literature

  • Brian Anse Patrick: The National Rifle Association and the media: the motivating force of negative coverage. Peter Lang, New York 2002, ISBN 0-8204-5122-3
  • Tom Diaz: Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America. New Press, 2000, ISBN 1-56584-567-6
  • Glenn H. Utter (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Gun Control and Gun Rights. Oryx Press, Phoenix, Arizona 2000, ISBN 1-57356-172-X
  • Joseph P. McGarrity, Daniel Sutter: A Test of the Structure of PAC Contracts: An Analysis of House Gun Control Votes in the 1980s. In: Southern Economic Journal , Volume 67 (2000)
  • Robert J. Spitzer: The Politics of Gun Control. Chatham House Publishers, 2nd Edition, New York 1998, ISBN 1-56643-072-0
  • John M. Bruce, Clyde Wilcox (Eds.): The Changing Politics of Gun Control. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham 1998, ISBN 0-8476-8615-9
  • Osha Gray Davidson: Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control. University of Iowa Press, 2nd Edition 1998, ISBN 0-87745-646-1
  • Jack Anderson: Inside the NRA: Armed and Dangerous. Dove, Beverly Hills 1996, ISBN 0787106771
  • Wilbur Edel: Gun Control: Threat to Liberty or Defense against Anarchy? Praeger Publishers, Westport 1995, ISBN 0-275-95145-6
  • Wayne LaPierre: Guns, Crime, and Freedom. Regnery, Washington, DC 1994, ISBN 0-89526-477-3
  • Pauline Gasdow Brenan, Alan J. Lizotte, David McDowall: Guns, Southernness, and Gun Control. In: Journal of Quantitative Criminology 9, No. 3 (1993), pp. 289-307
  • Joshua Sugarmann: National Rifle Association: Money, Firepower, and Fear. National Press Books, Washington DC 1992, ISBN 0-915765-88-8
  • Laura I. Langbein, Mark A. Lotwis: Political Efficacy of Lobbying and Money: Gun Control in the US House, 1986. In: Legislative Studies Quarterly 15 (1990), pp. 413-440
  • James B. Trefethen, James E. Serven: Americans and Their Guns: The National Rifle Association Story Through Nearly a Century of Service to the Nation. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg 1967

Web links

Commons : National Rifle Association  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 38 ° 51 ′ 47 "  N , 77 ° 20 ′ 8"  W.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b usatoday.com: Post-Newtown, NRA membership surges to 5 million
  2. ^ Foundation for Public Affairs (Ed.): Public interest profiles, 1988–1989. Congressional Quarterly, Washington DC 1988, ISBN 0-87187-461-X , p. 166
  3. ↑ Douglas S. Weil, David Hemenway (Harvard School of Public Health, Violence and Victims , Volume 8, No. 4, 1993) "I Am the NRA": An Analysis of a National Random Sample of Gun Owners ( Memento from 5. February 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 833 kB)
  4. ^ Gregg Lee, Carter: Guns in American Society. ABC-CLIO, 2nd edition 2012, p. 466
  5. ↑ US gun lobby NRA files for bankruptcy at orf.at, January 16, 2021, accessed January 16, 2021.
  6. ^ New York Times, March 12, 1992: Hurt in Gun-Control War, NRA Rejects Retreat
  7. ↑ Chris Knox (Ed.): Neal Knox - The Gun Rights War. MacFarlane Press, 2009, ISBN 0-9768633-0-8 , pp. 298-300
  8. ↑ Ronald J. Hrebenár: Interest Group Politics in America. ME Sharpe Inc, 1997, ISBN 1-56324-703-8 , p. 50
  9. ↑ Jan E. Dizard, Stephen P. Andrews, Robert Merrill Muth: Guns in America: A Historical Reader. New York University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8147-1879-5 , pp. 239-242
  10. ^ Steffen W. Schmidt, Barbara A. Bardes: American Government and Politics Today. Wadsworth Inc Fulfillment, 2011, ISBN 0-495-91066-X , p. 250
  11. ↑ Chris Miller, Steven Harmon: The US Justice System 3 Volume Set: An Encyclopedia. ABC-Clio, 2011, ISBN 1-59884-304-4 , pp. 628f.
  12. ^ Brian Anse Patrick: Rise of the Anti-Media: In-Forming America's Concealed Weapon Carry Movement. Lexington Books, 2010, ISBN 0-7391-1886-2 , p. 147
  13. ↑ John Boghosian Arden: America's Meltdown: The lowest-common-denominator Society. Praeger Frederick, 2003, ISBN 0-275-97639-4 , p. 83
  14. ↑ Deborah Homsher: Women and Guns: Politics and the Culture of Firearms in America. ME Sharpe, 2001, ISBN 0-7656-0679-8 , p. 301
  15. ^ Richard Bernstein, Michael A. Bellesiles: Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. Soft Skull Press, 2003, p. 580
  16. ^ Osha Gray Davidson: Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control. 1998, pp. 23-26
  17. ^ Osha Gray Davidson: Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control. 1998, p. 41
  18. ^ Josh Sugarmann: National Rifle Association: Money, Firepower & Fear. CreateSpace , 2010, ISBN 1-4515-0022-X , p. 27
  19. ↑ Earl Mcdowell: America's Great Gun Game: Gun Ownership vs. American's safety. iUniverse, 2007, ISBN 0-595-43032-5 , p. 32 .
  20. ↑ Carol Vinzant: Lawyers, Guns, and Money: One Man's Battle with the Gun Industry. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, ISBN 1-4039-6627-3 , p. 64 .
  21. ↑ Carol Vinzant: Lawyers, Guns, and Money: One Man's Battle with the Gun Industry. 2005, p. 65 .
  22. ^ Osha Gray Davidson: Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control. 1998, p. 27f.
  23. ↑ huffingtonpost.com: NRA 'Corporate Partner' Exploits JFK Death in American Rifleman Ad.
  24. ↑ Carol Vinzant: Lawyers, Guns, and Money: One Man's Battle with the Gun Industry. 2005, p. 66.
  25. ↑ Carol Vinzant: Lawyers, Guns, and Money: One Man's Battle with the Gun Industry. 2005, p. 66.
  26. ↑ Washington Post : How NRA's true believers converted a marksmanship group into a mighty gun lobby. January 12, 2013.
  27. ^ Osha Gray Davidson: Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control. 1998, pp. 34-36.
  28. ^ Osha Gray Davidson: Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control. 1998, pp. 39-45. and p. 194.
  29. ↑ Carol Vinzant: Lawyers, Guns, and Money: One Man's Battle with the Gun Industry. 2005, p. 68.
  30. ^ Gregg Lee Carter (Ed.): Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law. ABC-Clio, 2002, ISBN 1-57607-268-1 , p. 437.
  31. ^ New York Times : Harlon B. Carter, Longtime Head Of Rifle Association, Dies at 78 November 22, 1991.
  32. ^ Osha Gray Davidson: Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control. 1998, pp. 30-33
  33. ^ Osha Gray Davidson: Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control. 1998, p. 142.
  34. ^ Kathleen Hall Jamieson: Packaging The Presidency: A History and Criticism of Presidential Campaign Advertising. Oxford University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-19-508942-1 , p. 477.
  35. ^ Gregg Lee Carter (Ed.): Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law. 2002, p. 514.
  36. ^ Osha Gray Davidson: Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control. 1998, p. 142.
  37. ↑ Peter Squires: Gun Culture or Gun Control? Firearms and Violence: Safety and Society. Routledge, 2000, ISBN 0-415-17087-7 , p. 118.
  38. ^ Gregg Lee Carter (Ed.): Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law. 2002, p. 664.
  39. ↑ Adam Winkler: Gun Fight. The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America. WW Norton & Company, 2011, p. 102.
  40. ^ Roger Chapman: Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices. ME Sharpe, 2009, ISBN 0-7656-1761-7 , p. 391.
  41. ↑ nbcnews.com , April 28, 2017, Ali Vitali: Trump to NRA: 'Eight-Year Assault' on Gun Rights Is Over. (April 28, 2017)
  42. ↑ Have your representatives in Congress received donations from the NRA? (interactive graphic)
  43. ↑ Spending more than doubled since 2008 . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed January 16, 2021]).
  44. ^ Josh Sugarmann: National Rifle Association: money, firepower & fear. National Press Books, 1992, pp. 89, 99, 209
  45. ^ Forbes: The NRA Industrial Complex , July 23, 2012
  46. ↑ Dennis A. Henigan: Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths That Paralyze American Gun Policy. Potomac Books, 2009, ISBN 1-59797-356-4 , p. 13
  47. ↑ Meredith Jessup, TheBlaze.com, March 15, 2011: NRA Refuses to Meet With Obama on Gun Control
  48. ↑ Craig Whitney: Living with Guns: A Liberal's Case for the Second Amendment. Public Affairs Press, 2012, ISBN 1-61039-169-1 , pp. 248f.
  49. ^ Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan: The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope. Haymarket Books, 2012, ISBN 1-60846-231-5 , p. 319
  50. ↑ http://amp.mcclatchydc.com/latest-news/article212756749.html
  51. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung: New York Attorney General calls for dissolution. Retrieved August 6, 2020 .
  52. ↑ Danny Hakim: New York Attorney General Sues NRA and Seeks Its Closure . In: The New York Times . August 6, 2020, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed August 6, 2020]).
  53. ↑ 'No one is above the law': NY AG files lawsuit to dissolve NRA. Retrieved August 6, 2020 .
  54. ↑ SPIEGEL Politics: New York attorney general calls for the NRA to be dissolved. Retrieved August 6, 2020 .
  55. ^ National Rifle Association Files Bankruptcy, Citing New York Politics . In: Bloomberg.com . January 15, 2021 ( bloomberg.com [accessed January 16, 2021]).
  56. ↑ Associated Press: NRA declares bankruptcy, plans to incorporate in Texas. Retrieved January 16, 2021 .
  57. ↑ NRA-ILA, National Rifle Association: NRA-ILA | NRA Dumps New York to Reincorporate in Texas, Announces New Strategic Plan. Retrieved January 16, 2021 .
  58. ↑ USA: NRA files for bankruptcy and wants to regroup in Texas. In: DER SPIEGEL. Retrieved January 16, 2021 .
  59. ↑ tagesschau.de: US gun lobby NRA: Bankruptcy instead of prosecution? Retrieved January 16, 2021 .
  60. ^ Jan Wolfe: New York's top lawyer vows to not let National Rifle Association evade oversight . In: Reuters . January 15, 2021 ( reuters.com [accessed January 16, 2021]).
  61. ↑ National Rifle Association: American weapons organization NRA files for bankruptcy . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed January 16, 2021]).
  62. ^ NRA Publications. In: nrapublications.org. Retrieved September 23, 2017 .
  63. ↑ FAZ.net June 27, 2019: NRA discontinues its own television station
  64. ^ Cydney Hargis: How the NRA exploited hurricanes to promote gun ownership. In: mediamatters.org. September 18, 2017. Retrieved September 19, 2017 .
  65. ^ Roger Chapman: Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices. 2009, p. 391 ; VPC press releases
  66. ↑ Mayors against Illegal Guns, December 21, 2012: Statements of Mayors against Illegal Guns Co-Chairs On National Rifle Association Press Conference ( Memento of March 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  67. ↑ Gun Victims Action: Gun Violence and NGVAC's Economic Strategy to Change it ( Memento from April 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  68. ^ Paul Harris (The Guardian, Jan. 8, 2013): Gabby Giffords campaigns against NRA with new gun control organization
  69. ↑ Rebecca Macatee (eonline.com, December 21, 2012): Hollywood vs. NRA: Kristen Bell, Denis Leary, Tom Colicchio & More Rip Post-Sandy Hook Pro-Gun Speech
  70. ↑ Lauren Effron (ABC News, Dec. 20, 2012) Bloomberg Blasts NRA: 'Connecticut Is Because of Some of Their Actions'
  71. ↑ US gun lobby wants to protect schools with armed guards
  72. ↑ Ewen MacAskill, Ed Pilkington (guardian.co.uk, January 17, 2013): NRA promises 'fight of the century' over Obama's bold gun control plan
  73. ↑ Talking Points Memo, April 11, 2013: NRA To Grade Lawmakers On Background Checks After All
  74. ^ The Guardian, April 19, 2013: Gun control reform: all but three 'no' senators received pro-gun cash ; Lee Drutman (Sunlight Foundation): NRA's allegiances reach deep into Congress
  75. ↑ Julie Bykowicz (Bloomberg, May 4, 2013): NRA Celebrates Gun Control Defeat, Senators Face Backlash
  76. ^ Art Swift (Gallup, October 15, 2015): Americans' Desire for Stricter Gun Laws Up Sharply
  77. ↑ orf.at, March 26, 2016: Hansel and Gretel shoot sharply: armed instead of "unfortunate"