Status: 11/16/2021 5:22 p.m.
150 years ago the NRA trained shooters, only after political murders did they turn to lobbying. Today the US club is an actor who helps decide elections – and yet has its back to the wall.
The NRA, the National Rifle Association in the USA, is associated with sentences such as “The only thing that can stop an evil person with a weapon is a good person with a weapon”. Voiced by Wayne LaPierre, director of the largest gun lobby in the United States for 30 years, one of the most influential political organizations ever.
If the NRA celebrates its 150th birthday now, then this man will represent its rise and at the same time the existence-threatening crisis in which it finds itself. It stands for the strategy of fueling the culture war over the right to own weapons and thus turning it into a means of political pressure – pressure exerted by the NRA in all political directions. In doing so, she plays with two basic themes: freedom and security.
The second amendment to the constitution, the right to own weapons, symbolizes for them the right to defend oneself against an excessive, controlling state. The fear that law and order will collapse and that one could depend on this state for protection is the parallel approach. For this fear there is a large and politically important clientele that conservative politicians do not want to mess with in the election campaign.
Weapons as a symbol for “dignity and freedom”
The NRA has not always been a gun lobby. When it was founded 150 years ago, it is supposed to help soldiers learn to shoot better. The accuracy during the civil war is catastrophic on both sides. In peacetime people should be able to practice shooting in order to be prepared for war. The new organization builds shooting ranges and founds shooting clubs for this purpose.
At the beginning of the 20th century, this no longer plays a major role, it is about the safe handling of weapons. The focus is primarily on hunters and marksmen – because the ubiquity of firearms has become a real security threat. It was only when Congress began to tighten gun laws after the murders of John F. and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Malcom X and thus act against gun violence that the NRA made political lobbying the center of its work.
“Not 200 million guns killed Kennedy, one” – with arguments like these, the then President of the organization, Harold Glassen, begins to make the NRA the spearhead of the fight for gun possession, which it calls the “fight for the freedom of the individual”. This was preceded by a bitter power struggle in the leadership ranks, which the conservative political wing is gaining. You always have prominent help, for example from actor Charlton Heston, who has been president of the NRA for five years. He is popular and manages to combine weapons and freedom in the mind. “If the hands of normal people are allowed to own such an extraordinary instrument, then it symbolizes human dignity and freedom,” he said to great applause at one of the annual meetings.
After the rampage, there have been violent protests against the NRA for years (archive picture from 2018) – far from the lobby group’s self-perception as a freedom fighter.
Image: AP
Trump disappointed the NRA
The NRA has a good five million members and receives donations from weapons manufacturers as well as from conservative foundations. Conversely, it finances politicians’ election campaigns and ensures that legislation is appropriate to their goals. She makes campaign donations dependent on the right attitude towards weapons – and for many years her election questionnaires have been feared by politicians.
Ex-President Donald Trump is one of those who supports the NRA. Very early on in the 2016 election campaign, she spoke out in favor of him, and with her campaign fund she provided a financial blessing for the Trump campaign. It promises to support the goals of the NRA. The fact that he later advocates better controls when buying weapons has earned him a lot of criticism from the gun lobby.
Donald Trump with the two NRA leaders Chris Cox (left in the picture) and Wayne LaPierre at the NRA congress “Leadership Forum” 2016.
Image: AFP
Scandals about leaked funds
Public pressure is growing stronger than can least be needed. Especially after school rampages, more and more uncontrolled possession of guns is being blamed for the crimes – and with it the organization that rejects stricter controls and gun laws. When the NRA called for armed police at schools in 2012, it also lost conservative supporters. But mainly because of a series of scandals and uncontrolled spending, corruption and self-enrichment, the organization has had its back against the wall for a few years.
“Tens of millions of dollars went into private flights, six-figure sums for Wayne LaPierre suits. Exotic trips and so on,” says Tim Marks, who has just published an investigative book about the NRA’s scandals. Added to this is the suspicion of having laundered Russian money for Donald Trump’s election campaign – not least, the NRA financed, probably unknowingly, a Russian spy for years who has since been convicted. The competent court rejects an attempt to get yourself out of the line of fire with an orderly bankruptcy. The NRA has so much money that it can pay off any debts. In any case, a big, high-profile anniversary celebration is not planned.