Harlon Bronson Carter (August 10, 1913 – November 19, 1991) was an American advocate for gun rights and a leader of the National Rifle Association of America.

[2] During his tenure, from 1977 to 1985, he shifted the organization's focus from promoting marksmanship and sports shooting towards strident advocacy for less restrictive gun laws.

Carter rose through the ranks and in 1950 was appointed chief of the Border Patrol until 1957 where he led Operation Wetback.

Many of the organization's leaders believed that the NRA should focus on its traditional mission of promoting marksmanship and shooting sports.

Carter, on the other hand, led a faction that wanted to see the NRA focus on advocating against gun control legislation.

Franklin Orth, the group's Executive Vice President at the time of the act's passage, supported some parts of law, including limits on mail-order gun purchases and bans of Saturday night specials, inexpensive, often low-quality handguns, while opposing other provisions as "unduly restrictive and unjustified in their application to law-abiding citizens".

However, in 1977, at the NRA's annual meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, Carter and other activists succeeded in changing the organization's bylaws and voting out much of the leadership.

[4] In 1981, newspaper reporters learned that Carter had been convicted of murder related to the 1931 death of 15-year-old Ramón Casiano.