When was the nra founded

The group, led initially by Church and Gen. George Wingate, quickly set about addressing the problem of producing better American marksmen, holding their first Wimbledon-esque tournament in Write to Lily Rothman at lily. A Union infantryman in uniform, carrying a large rifle and bayonet, during the U. Civil War. By Lily Rothman. Get our History Newsletter. Put today's news in context and see highlights from the archives. Please enter a valid email address. Please attempt to sign up again.

Ronald Reagan. After gunmen assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. Kennedy, Congress passed the Gun Control Act of The law imposed various new restrictions, including on the shipping of guns across state lines. When did things change? By , there were rumbles of rebellion against gun control within the NRA.

Though the organization supported the Gun Control Act, it blocked attempts to include a national gun registry and a requirement for all gun carriers to hold a license. Then in , federal agents shot and paralyzed longtime NRA member Kenyon Ballew during a gun raid at his home in Maryland.

Anti-government sentiment surged within the ranks, and hard-liners became increasingly impatient with the leadership's "soft" stance. Things came to a head on the night of May 21, — known in NRA lore as the Revolt at Cincinnati — when gun-rights radicals stormed the group's annual meeting in Ohio and demanded changes to the governing structure. The old guard was ousted, and new Executive Vice President Harlon Carter, who had served time for shooting dead a Mexican teenager, spelled out the new approach: "No compromise.

No gun legislation. How did it build its power? Those with the best report cards were given campaign money; the rest earned the wrath of the NRA's ballooning membership, which tripled following the Cincinnati revolt.

Bob Dole R-Kan. Each piece of gun legislation was framed as the first step toward total disarmament, driving members to the ballot box. What about recent years? In , when support for universal background checks rose to 91 percent after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the organization blocked congressional efforts to pass background-check amendments.

Founded in the aftermath of the Civil War , the NRA was actually in favour of gun control until The men were shocked by official Union Army statistics from the war that estimated 1, bullets were fired for every Confederate soldier hit.

In those early days, there was no strident insistence on the Second Amendment guarantee of the right to bear arms. The NRA was simply concerned with training hunters to shoot and promoting responsible gun ownership. The US Army donated surplus rifles to their cause and the state of New York even funded the construction of their first rifle range at Creedmoor, Long Island. The NRA continued to expand in the late 19th century, rolling out new clubs across the country as its membership grew and arranging long-range shooting competitions with rival British and Irish organisations.

Ex-president Ulysses S Grant was elected its head in It was followed by the Gun Control Act of and together the two pieces of legislation placed heavy taxes and new regulations on the ownership of machine guns, sawn-off shotguns and silencers and required owners to register, developments the NRA supported.

I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licences. Congress quickly brought in the Gun Control Act of to restrict and regulate the interstate sale of firearms. Ballew was a military veteran, newspaper printer and Boy Scout troop leader whom the ATFD believed had a stockpile of unregistered guns and grenades in his house after being tipped off by a teenage burglar turned informant. Hearing his front door kicked in, Ballew emerged naked to confront the agents holding a replica of an Colt revolver.

Three plainclothesmen opened fire and he was left paralysed for the rest of his life. A federal court subsequently ruled that the action had been justified as the weapons were found and Ballew had broken the law in possessing them.