Once upon a time, the National Rifle Association, NRA, was concerned above all with the safe use of firearms. The NRA even assisted in writing gun-control legislation in the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The focus has shifted over time, to a no-holds-barred defense of second amendment rights, even to the point of convincing the U.S. Supreme Court that the amendment contains a right to individual gun ownership.
Journalist Frank Smyth has covered many armed conflicts and the sources of the guns used in them. He is the author of The NRA: The Unauthorized History.
He tracks the changes in NRA direction over time, and how the organization works to conceal some of the details of its past.