Great article, but long: nytimes.com - Nra congress firearms

Podcast:
nytimes.com - Nra gun rights

To understand the ascendancy of gun culture in America, the files of Mr. Dingell, a powerful Michigan Democrat (US Representative) who died in 2019, are a good place to start. That is because he was not just a politician ' he simultaneously sat on the N.R.A.'s board of directors, positioning him to influence firearms policy as well as the private lobbying force responsible for shaping it...

The lawmakers, far from the stereotype of pliable politicians meekly accepting talking points from lobbyists, served as leaders of the N.R.A., often prodding it to action. At seemingly every hint of a legislative threat, they stepped up, the documents show, helping erect a firewall that impedes gun control today...

Beginning in the 1970s, he pushed the group to fund legal work that could help win court cases and enshrine policy protections. The impact would be far-reaching: Some of the earliest N.R.A.-backed scholars were later cited in the Supreme Court's District of Columbia vs. Heller decision affirming an individual right to own a gun, as well as a ruling last year that established a new legal test invalidating many restrictions...

The group, he(Dingell) said, must 'begin moving toward a legislative program' to codify an individual's right to bear arms 'for sporting and defense purposes.' It was a major departure from the Supreme Court's sparse record on Second Amendment issues up to that point. The move would neutralize arguments for tighter gun restrictions in Congress and all 50 states, he said.

'By being bottomed on the federal constitutional right to bear arms,' he wrote, 'these same minimal requirements must be imposed upon state statutes and local ordinances....

Mr. Dingell had an idea.

In memos to the board, he complained of the N.R.A.'s 'leisurely response to the legislative threat' and proposed a new lobbying operation. Handwritten notes reflect just how radical his plans were. He initially said the group, which traditionally stayed out of political races, would 'not endorse candidates for public office' ' only to cross that out with his pen; the N.R.A. would indeed start doing that, through a newly created Political Victory Fund.

The organization's old guard, whose focus continued to be largely on hunting and sports shooting, was uncomfortable. Mr. Gutermuth, a conservationist with little political experience, wrote to a colleague that Mr. Dingell 'wants an all out action program that goes way beyond what we think we dare sponsor.'...

Mr. Dingell got his way. A 33-page document ' 'Plan for the Organization, Operation and Support of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action' ' was wide-ranging. The proposal, largely written by Mr. Dingell, called for an unprecedented national lobbying push supported by grass-roots fund-raising, a media operation and opposition research....

The changes mirrored an increasingly uncompromising outlook within the N.R.A. membership. In what became known as the 'Revolt at Cincinnati,' a group of hard-liners seized control of the group at its 1977 convention....

The N.R.A. also went ahead with Mr. Dingell's plans 'to develop a legal climate that would preclude, or at least inhibit, serious consideration of many anti-gun proposals.' A strategy document from April 1983 laid out the long-term goal: 'When a gun control case finally reaches the Supreme Court, we want Justices' secretaries to find an existing background of law review articles and lower court cases espousing individual rights.'

Tired. This entire article is well worth reading.
nytimes.com - Nra congress firearms