The group was founded in by two US Civil War veterans as a recreational group designed to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis".
The NRA's path into political lobbying began in when it started mailing members with information about upcoming firearms bills. In , it began attempting to influence policy directly via a newly formed lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action. The NRA is now among the most powerful special interest lobby groups in the US, with a substantial budget to influence members of Congress on gun policy.
It is run by executive vice-president Wayne LaPierre. In August , prosecutors in New York and Washington DC announced that they would seek to dissolve the organisation over allegations that senior leadership misused a charity fund, redirecting the money for lavish personal spending.
But the NRA has a much larger membership than any of those groups and disburses funds for things such as gun ranges and educational programmes. That is only the recorded contributions to lawmakers however, and considerable sums are spent elsewhere via PACs and independent expenditures - funds which are difficult to track. Analysts point out that the NRA also wields considerable indirect influence via its highly politically engaged membership, many of whom will vote one way or another based on this single issue.
Those ratings can have a serious effect on poll numbers and even cost pro-gun control candidates a seat. But since the election of Donald Trump in , NRA spending on campaigns in the states has plummeted. In , it mustered only about half of what it spent in to elect Donald Trump. Read: The secret history of guns. The attorney general recently filed a page amended complaint outlining dozens more allegations brought to light during the bankruptcy proceedings.
The NRA has even started to argue in court filings that the allegations against LaPierre should not be held against the group at large if they are found to be true. And they are what now stand in the way of new gun laws. Passionate opposition to restrictions on gun ownership can be formidable even when polling indicates broad support for specific proposals.
By the time his reelection came around in , Toomey had managed to stave off any attempt at a primary challenge. But his campaign noticed that many gun voters held a grudge, even without another box to check on the ballot. In , the gun-rights advocates were outspent about six to one by gun-control advocates in a battle over a Maine referendum that would have expanded background checks.
Despite the many polls showing overwhelming national support for the general concept of expanded background checks, the referendum was narrowly defeated. Now a renewed assault-weapons ban faces the same fate.
King, the senator from Maine, expressed his skepticism toward an assault-weapons ban while talking with the Bangor Daily News last year. Democrats managed to pass two background-check bills through the House on slim margins. Both senators have also publicly suggested that the House bills have even less support in the upper chamber than their deal did back then. Christopher J. When one clip is emptied, it can be ejected and replaced by the shooter with a fresh clip in seconds.
Civilian assault guns maintain the key design features that make this deadly spray firing easy. These features include:. Some assault guns also feature folding stocks, which make the gun more concealable and easier to hold in a from-the-hip firing position, grenade launchers, bayonet mounts, and threaded barrels for adding silencers and flash suppressors to reduce flash from the muzzle at night.
The ability to quickly lay down a high volume of fire makes semi-automatic assault weapons particularly dangerous in civilian use, and explains why terrorists, mass killers, and violent criminals favor them.
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