The Problem with the NRA is they have not gone on offense against real gun control. The National Firearms Act of 1934 IS THE REAL GUN CONTROL. Yes this is the law referred to as the NFA that made it technically illegal for Americans to possess machine guns, short barrel shotguns, suppressors and many other such weapons that the Police and the Federal Government are allowed to have. The existence of the NFA is the validation behind all gun control measures. The idea Americans are limited to the types of arms we are allowed to bear is a myth. We are constitutionally protected to be armed the same as our government and the NFA defies that protection.
The NRA should have been fighting the NFA of 1934 on day one.
Full reapeal of the NFA and the GCA of 1968 should be the number one goal of the NRA. All gun control is rooted in these dangerous and unconstitutional laws.
Yup.
You might be interested in the following two 2nd Amendment decisions that never got any press (the NRA should have been all over them at the time). The government didn't appeal the decisions to a higher court because a loss would have devastated all important gun control.
This is one of the most important, though little known appellate court decisions concerning the second amendment in recent years. This decision basically struck down the 1934, 1968 and 1986 gun control acts. It was not appealed by FedGov, I assume because a loss of this magnitude at the Supreme Court level would have been devastating to all federal gun control laws. See also Emerson below.
U.S. v. Rock Island Armory, Inc.
Similar to the Dalton case above, this case would be extremely important to gun owners if only people knew about it. It held that the National Firearms Act was "originally passed as a taxing statute". Since Fedgov is not allowing citizens to purchase weapons covered under the act (machine guns and the like) because they will not allow them to purchase new tax stamps for them, they have effectively removed the 'tax nexus' from the act, which is what made it constitutional in the first place. Therefore, the entire house of cards of gun control at the federal level is struck down. That would include the 1934, 1968, and 1986 gun control acts.
Why did we never hear anything about these 2 huge victories from the NRA?