Over the course of my lifetime, the National Rifle Association has changed from being an organization concerned with hunting, conservation and target shooting and has become a mouthpiece for gun and ammunition companies.
When I was interested in hunting in the 1950s, we had rifles and shotguns in most New England farmhouses, essentially as farm tools, though also sometimes to get a deer each fall for meat.
When I moved to Alabama in the late 1960s, I was surprised to learn that pistols in drug stores were being sold to be used against our fellow humans.
I went to the web to learn more about the history of this change and discovered a truly wonderful Washington Post article written Jan. 12, 2013, by Joel Achenbach, Scott Higman and Sari Horwitz:
“How NRA’s true believers converted a marksmanship group into a mighty gun lobby.”
It begins: “In gun lore, it’s known as the Revolt at Cincinnati.
“On May 21, 1977, and on into the morning of May 22, a rump caucus of gun rights radicals took over the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association.”
The article says that the NRA invented and exploited some of the culture wars of the last century and became closely aligned with the Republican party.
Wayne LaPierre was named executive vice president of the NRA in 1991, a position he still holds today.
He has, according to Wikipedia, transformed the NRA from a relatively small organization into one of the most powerful lobbying groups in America.
Bill Marsh,
Port Angeles