National Rifle Association
From Skinny Moose Data Center
The National Rifle Association of America (Link) , or NRA, is an American non-profit (501(c)(4)) organization which lists, as its goals, the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights, marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection of hunting and self-defense in the United States. It was established in 1871 in New York by William Conant Church and George Wood Wingate as the American Rifle Association; its first President was former Senator and famous Civil War Union Army General Ambrose Burnside. President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant served as the NRA's eighth President.
The NRA sponsors firearm safety training courses, as well as marksmanship events featuring shooting skills and sports. The NRA is sometimes said to be the single most powerful lobbying organization in the United States. Its political activity is based on the principle that gun ownership is a civil liberty protected by the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights, and it claims to be the oldest continuously operating civil liberties organization in the United States. According to its website, the NRA has nearly four million members.
Second Amendment
In its lobbying for gun rights, the NRA asserts the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individuals to own and use guns. The NRA opposes measures that conflict with the Second Amendment and/or the right to privacy enjoyed by law-abiding citizens who are gun owners. The NRA has supported gun rights on other grounds as well—they opposed the Brady Bill in the courts on Tenth Amendment grounds, not Second Amendment.
On June 26th 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the first time in American history in District of Columbia v Heller ( http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-a-constitutional-right-to-a-gun/ ) that the Second Amendment provides for an individual right to own a gun. The implication of this major decision will play out over the next several decades.
In 2005, the NRA, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and others successfully sued the Mayor of New Orleans and others to stop unconstitutional gun seizures in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. As of March 2006, documents have been filed by NRA, SAF, et al. seeking to hold Ray Nagin and others in contempt of court for violating the consent order. The case is “National Rifle Association of America, Inc., et al. v. C. Ray Nagin et al.”.