Vote Gun by Patrick J. Charles;

Author:Patrick J. Charles;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 3)

9

1974–1980

The Gun Rights Reformation

When President Gerald R. Ford was sworn into office, the National Rifle Association (NRA) was facing an internal crisis of sorts. Many gun rights supporters no longer considered the organization the preeminent defender of the Second Amendment. Rather, the NRA was increasingly viewed as being more concerned with expanding its own stature. There were several grievances from gun rights supporters regarding the direction the organization was headed. For one, the NRA appeared much more focused on raising funds for its new National Shooting Center in New Mexico than helping gun rights political action groups. There were also whispers that the NRA might move its headquarters away from Washington, D.C. But what was most concerning to gun rights supporters was the NRA’s insistence that it was not a lobby and therefore had no intention of getting politically involved.1

The NRA’s insistence that it was not a lobby ultimately afforded other, more extreme gun rights advocacy groups the opportunity to fill the political vacuum, causing many dedicated supporters to redirect their attention and pocketbooks elsewhere. And it did not take long for the NRA to take notice. For in early 1973, at the request of Michigan representative and longtime NRA congressional surrogate John D. Dingell, the board of directors commissioned a “feasibility” study on the establishment of a separately funded “lobbying branch.” The authors of the study were asked to explore three possible roles for the lobbying branch: (1) serving as a “think tank” to deal with “political and public efforts dealing with gun control”; (2) providing a “legislative drafting and analysis service” that would “scrutinize proposed firearms control legislation at Federal, State and local levels of governments”; and (3) establishing a “political activism service” that would “organize and mobilize sportsmen at the local and State level to lobby in the State capitals and municipal governments.” The first two roles were old hat for the NRA. Its legislative division, its public relations division, and the editors of American Rifleman had long performed these functions. The third role was also arguably old hat for the NRA. Ever since commandeering the gun rights movement in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the group had effectively organized and mobilized its state and local club affiliates to political action through grassroots advocacy. The only difference between this longstanding practice and the proposed “political action service” was that the latter included direct election involvement, but only on the condition that said involvement was “nonpartisan.”2

On September 22, 1973, after receiving the results of the feasibility study, the NRA board of directors elected to proceed with establishing a separately funded lobbying branch, officially named the Legislative Action Unit (LAU). In doing so, however, the board limited the “lobbying” role of the new branch to merely analyzing proposed firearms control legislation. The NRA urged its membership to send whatever money they could with the goal of reaching $500,000 in annual donations. NRA members were informed that the LAU’s “prime responsibility” was to study and analyze “anti-gun and anti-hunter legislation and recommend what response would be appropriate.

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