How the NRA transformed from marksmen to lobbyists

Gun Control Act

In the turbulent aftermath of the assassinations of three national leaders and rising fears over race-related violence, the White House pushed for a national gun registry and licenses for all gun carriers. The NRA blocked those provisions. The law that did pass restricted mail-order sales, barred the mentally ill and drug-addicted from owning guns and required serial numbers on all weapons. In signing the new law, President Lyndon B. Johnson excoriated the NRA, saying: “The voices that blocked these safeguards were not the voices of an aroused nation. They were the voices of a powerful lobby, a gun lobby.”

Events

• Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert Kennedy in 1968
• Riots throughout the United States

Firearms Owners’ Protection Act

After years of lobbying by the NRA, which donated $1.4 million to congressional candidates in 1984, Congress rolled back the 1968 restrictions on buying, selling and transporting firearms across state lines and limited inspections of gun dealers to one per year.

Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act

Seven years after it was introduced, the bill became law. mandating a federal background check on firearms purchasers. It created a new electronic system, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, that went online in 1998. It was named for presidential press secretary James A. Brady, who was shot in the head by John Hinckley when he tried to kill the Reagan outside a Washington hotel.

Events

• Assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act

One of the most sweeping crime bills in U.S. history included a 10-year ban on the manufacture, ownership or transfer of 19 semiautomatic weapons, including the AR-15, which had become the weapon of choice of violent drug gangs. It also limited the capacity of magazines to 10 bullets. The NRA warned that this law and the Brady Act would lead to the disarming of law-abiding Americans.

Events

• Mass shootings, including on a California school yard, at a San Francisco law firm and on the Long Island Railroad

Federal assault-weapons ban expires

After repeated attempts to renew the ban failed, it ended. Despite the ban, there were still ways for people to legally obtain rapid-fire weapons.

Events

• The NRA worked to defeat members of Congress who voted for the original ban.

Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act

President George W. Bush signed the bill, granting gun manufacturers immunity from civil lawsuits filed over crimes committed with firearms. The NRA called it “a vitally important first step toward ending the anti-gun lobby’s shameless attempts to bankrupt the American firearms industry through reckless lawsuits.”

Events

• A spate of lawsuits, including from New York City, aimed at establishing liability for gun crimes

Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act

After the New Orleans police chief ordered officers to seize any firearms from citizens who stayed in the flooded city, the NRA sued and won a temporary injunction. An amendment that prohibits the confiscation of a lawfully owned firearm during an emergency or natural disaster was attached to a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security and became law.

Events

• Hurricane Katrina

Assault Weapons Ban

President Barack Obama supported reinstating the ban on assault weapons, and polls showed a majority of Americans favored stricter gun control after 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., by a gunman using a semiautomatic weapon. The NRA started a “Stop the Gun Ban” campaign even before the bill was introduced. It failed in the Senate, 60 to 40.

Events

• Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting