It'd be one thing if they were only opposed by people for more gun control, but they aren't even really good at their core mission. All they do is simp for the GOP, even when doing so runs counter to their stated agenda.
The NRA is a marketing team for gun manufacturers, and what sells guns is fear of gun bans. The NRA does everything in their power to fuel those fears.
Pro and anti gun alike hate them. It's mostly just boomers keeping them going.
They've even wormed their way into schools. They have "Eddie the Eagle" that teaches elementary school kids gun safety. With NRA logos all over the place, of course. I was disgusted when my daughter brought the information home.
Absolutely kids should be taught gun safety. They just shouldn't get it with a heaping helping of NRA.
I'd say it started with Harlan Carter. He was the one who decided that the NRA should be all about the profits of gun manufacturers, and not about safe and sane gun culture.
Gun culture is just a different and insane thing in the US. We have a bit of it in Canada and gun issues in the cities, but guns are highly regulated here, maybe too much in some specific aspects. I'm in favor of less restrictions for historical pieces similar to historical cars where you can apply for that status.
Where I'm from lots of people have guns but there's not really a gun culture, they're basically used for animal defense. Last incident I know of was a deliriously sick coyote getting in to a horse paddock in daylight.
But the damage it has done to the political landscape by pushing right wing agendas, fearmongering of every sort to get people to buy guns, and tying identity to gun ownership will live on far beyond the useful life of the NRA.
They've repeatedly attempted to disband and then reform in Texas to avoid New York's lawsuit against them for all the fraud, misuse of donor funds, and other such law breaking. Judges have repeatedly quashed their attempts, as well as multiple other counter suits and appeals trying to get the case dismissed. Lawsuit is still ongoing. Latest update I could find from NY attorney general's office was here:
If they start going after 3D printers I might join them. I've got an unregistered gun maker sitting in the corner of my office, even though I mostly use it for printing figurines.
The NRA had lost a lot of financial backing because when the main thing you endorse is being used to murder schoolchildren on a borderline industrial scale, of course sponsors and advertisers will want nothing to do with it.
They also got busted for money laundering and being a front for foreign oligarchs to fund US politicians... I'm guessing all those rubles drying up hits the bittom line, too.
From 2003 to 2013, the organization scored 230 legislative victories, according to an Insider tally from the time, including passing six state laws that forbid municipalities from limiting gun rights.
Since then its membership has declined to 4.3 million, CEO and executive vice president LaPierre revealed in a January board meeting, according to a report by The Trace, a nonprofit covering gun violence.
Since 2020, it has faced an ongoing lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James, which alleges that its top officials, including LaPierre himself, diverted donations for their personal use, violating numerous state and federal laws, and even the NRA's own bylaws and policies.
James alleged that the funds were used for family trips to the Bahamas and private jets, which contributed to a $64 million reduction in the balance sheet in three years, turning a surplus into a deficit.
"The NRA's influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets," James said at a press conference at the time.
Forty-five percent of U.S. households owned at least one firearm in 2022, according to research compiled by Statista, the highest figure since 2011—and 8 percentage points higher than in 2013, the year LaPierre said the NRA was on track for "unprecedented" growth.
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I feel like one of the 7 pro gun people on all of Lemmy, I'd like to share some perspective about the NRA being a boogieman. They absolutely are not the boogiman that leftists and anti gunners think they are. They are a ridiculously bloated, corrupt, beuracracy, no different than our federal government. They are all optics. In fact I'd say their only job is to be the boogieman and absorb negative attention, to allow the real gun rights groups to get some work done.
They keep a public list of approved politicians and downgrade anyone who even mentions gun reform. That feels like more than just a bureaucracy; since they're largely funded by weapons manufacturers, it seems more like an extremely influential lobby. And since what they're lobbying for is "keep pretending that there's no way to solve the deadly problem that kills more humans than any other thing you don't do to yourself and literally every other developed nation has solved," it seems like their job is to enforce the prioritization of gun manufacturers' profits over lives.