Gun Policy during the NRA’s Quasi-Governmental Phase

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the National Rifle Association's (NRA) efforts during its quasi-governmental phase. Looking at the National Firearms Act and Federal Firearms Act from the 1930s, as well as the Gun Control Act of 1968, the chapter explores how the NRA used this worldview to influence gun policy outcomes during its quasi-governmental phase. The chapter also demonstrates how the NRA harnessed this worldview to advance its political agenda during a period in which it abstained from partisan politics. The chapter then shifts to investigate how these were intertwined with — and often went beyond — other potential sources of power, such as the NRA's financial resources. It digs into a wide range of archival materials to identify how the NRA mobilized gun owners to defeat or weaken gun control legislation in the 1930s through the 1960s. Ultimately, the chapter aims to show that the NRA's ideational resources had independent impacts on key policy outcomes — that they mattered above and beyond any other advantages and resources that the NRA may have had.