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The NRA Supported Gun Control When the Black Panthers Had the Weapons (Original Post) SummerSnow Nov 2018 OP
The NRA was a very different organization prior to 1977. sl8 Nov 2018 #1

sl8

(13,665 posts)
1. The NRA was a very different organization prior to 1977.
Mon Nov 12, 2018, 09:51 AM
Nov 2018

From https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-nras-true-believers-converted-a-marksmanship-group-into-a-mighty-gun-lobby/2013/01/12/51c62288-59b9-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_story.html

How NRA’s true believers converted a marksmanship group into a mighty gun lobby

By Joel Achenbach , Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz
January 12, 2013

In gun lore it’s known as the Revolt at Cincinnati. On May 21, 1977, and into the morning of May 22, a rump caucus of gun rights radicals took over the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association.

The rebels wore orange-blaze hunting caps. They spoke on walkie-talkies as they worked the floor of the sweltering convention hall. They suspected that the NRA leaders had turned off the air-conditioning in hopes that the rabble-rousers would lose enthusiasm.

The Old Guard was caught by surprise. The NRA officers sat up front, on a dais, observing their demise. The organization, about a century old already, was thoroughly mainstream and bipartisan, focusing on hunting, conservation and marksmanship. It taught Boy Scouts how to shoot safely. But the world had changed, and everything was more political now. The rebels saw the NRA leaders as elites who lacked the heart and conviction to fight against gun-control legislation.

And these leaders were about to cut and run: They had plans to relocate the headquarters from Washington to Colorado.

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