DISCLAIMER: I'm a long-time member of the NRA.
Parts of the current NRA endorsement policy helped keep Thad Cochran and Harry Reid.
The NRA back then was mostly a sportsman’s organization composed of gun enthusiasts, hunters, and competitors. The NRA was such jerks that you had to get your local sheriff to approve your being a member.
They did not want sporting arms banned but really didn’t care otherwise. Self defense and those who thought citizens should be armed to prevent an all powerful central government were not their cup of tea.
The 68 gun control act was a very harsh law. We suffer from it today tho some parts have been softened. Many of the manufacturers secretly supported it because it banned importation of military surplus which the dealers saw as competition.
The Cincinnati reforms were a major step in changing the NRAs focus and they have been much better since but they still are not hard core enough.
What if there wasn’t? People might actually have to exercise their rights themselves, rather than coming to a cooperative agreement to abridge the rights of others as happens time and time again with NRA approved legislation.
While the NRA does some great things, those great things do not depend upon the NRA existing. In the end, it is ultimately up to the citizen to stop the government from infringing in God given rights.
I dunno. Maybe a more effective gun rights organization would have taken their place.
The National Rifle Association was originally founded by former Union soldiers and officers to give newly freed black slaves firearms to protect themselves from the Democrat created Ku Klux Klan. Gun Control laws were first enacted so blacks couldn’t own firearms. The first president of the NRA was former Union General Ambrose Burnside.
The NRA helped, if not led, on two MAJOR efforts, both of which were TOTALLY SUCCESSFUL:
1) The attempted gun grab after Columbine
2) The attempted gun grab after Sandy Hook
While I don’t appreciate some of their IDIOT political stances (like endorsing Harry Reid), I do really appreciate the above - things would be a LOT WORSE without their help.
No other organization has done more to compromise your Second Amendment rights than the NRA.
Until they come out as purist on the Second Amendment as it was written and intended they will receive no support from this family.
NRA is to gun owners as Al Sharpton is to “blacks”.
Then we would have to rely on some other organization to send us stuff we didn’t request, e.g. DVDs, then pester us to pay.
***What If There Were No NRA?***
Handguns would have been regulated like machine guns in 1932.
Rifles and shotguns would have been excessively regulated in 1968.
Private ownership banned or heavily regulated by 1972.
Only registered low powered single shot rifles and shotguns would have been allowed to the peasants. The elite would still have full ownership of anything they wanted.
Which organization do the Gun Grabbers attack