[The River Reporter feels that, with regard to various controversial issues, it is useful from time to time to present to the public facts about the history of those issues without arguing a specific position. Our aim is to improve the common base of information available for the public conversation about that topic. In such cases, we may provide “background briefings” such as this one on our editorial pages. We welcome further thoughtful input from our readers on the topic of gun control.]

According to the website of the National Rifle Association, the organization was formed by Union veterans Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate in 1871 because they were concerned by the lack of marksmanship among union soldiers. The goal was to “promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis.”

The NRA began to promote shooting sports in 1903, when the organization began to urge colleges and universities to create rifle clubs. By 1906, there were 200 boys in competing matches at the NRA’s rifle range in Sea Girt, NJ.

The spate of gangster-related shootings during the Prohibition era led to the passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA), the first federal gun control measure, which especially targeted machine guns like those used in the Valentine’s Day Massacre. The president of the NRA at the time, Karl Frederick, testified during congressional hearings and said, “I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons. I seldom carry one. I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns.” The NRA supported passage of the NFA, and formed its Legislative Affairs Division after the passage of that act. NRA input was reflected in both the NFA and the Federal Firearms Act of 1938, in seeing to it that handguns and “sporting guns” were exempt from the language of those acts.

When President John Kennedy was killed in 1963, the shooter used an “Italian military surplus rifle purchased from an NRA mail-order advertisement.” According to an article in Time Magazine, “NRA Executive Vice-President Franklin Orth agreed at a congressional hearing that mail-order sales should be banned stating, ‘We do think that any sane American, who calls himself an American, can object to placing into this bill the instrument which killed the president of the United States.’”

The NRA also supported the Mulford Act of 1967, which banned the carrying of loaded weapons in public because of activities of the Black Panther Party, which included a protest march to oppose gun control legislation.

Riots in 1967 and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 prompted Congress to act. The NRA supported the Gun Control Act of 1968, which created a federal system of registering guns and gun dealers and, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, established “new categories of firearms offenses, and prohibits the sale of firearms and ammunition to felons and certain other prohibited persons.”

The abovementioned Time Magazine article (time.com/4431356/nra-gun-control-history) says, “A shift in the NRA’s platform occurred when in 1971 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, during a house raid, shot and paralyzed longtime NRA member Kenyon Ballew suspected of stockpiling illegal weapons. The NRA swiftly condemned the federal government.”

In the 1970s, the NRA began to focus more on politics and established the Institute for Legislative Action, its lobbying arm, which was headed by a man named Harlon Carter. In 1976, the leadership in power at the time wanted to move the organization’s headquarters from Ohio to Colorado and to build a $30 million recreational facility in New Mexico. But members who wanted to put the emphasis on protecting their interpretation of the Second Amendment voted out the incumbents, and Carter became executive director.

In 1980, the NRA for the first time endorsed a candidate to become President of the United States, with their support going to Ronald Reagan. In 1991, staff lobbyist Wayne LaPierre was appointed executive vice president, and after Bill Clinton was elected president, the NRA organized against the Assault Weapons Ban (AWB). They were not successful in stopping the ban, but they were successful in convincing lawmakers to have it expire after 10 years, and in 2004, it did.

In 2016, the NRA endorsed Donald Trump to become president. It did so before Trump officially became the Republican candidate, and said its decision was due to Hilary Clinton’s strong support of gun control legislation.

In the wake of the shootings in Parkland, FL at the Stoneman Douglas High School, several companies embarked on a boycott of the NRA, including car-rental companies, tech companies, airlines, trucking businesses and others.

But that also sparked a backlash, especially with the lieutenant governor of Georgia, who is also a candidate for governor, and who threatened to kill any tax breaks for Delta Airlines unless it changed its stance.

On April 20, a coalition of celebrities and Stoneman Douglass survivors announced the No Rifle Association (NoRa) initiative to publicize politicians who take money from the NRA and then block gun control laws.