[18][19][20] The National Rifle Association of America was chartered in the State of New York on November 17, 1871[21][7] by Army and Navy Journal editor William Conant Church and Captain George Wood Wingate.

[31] The Central Railroad of Long Island established a railway station nearby, with trains running from Hunter's Point, with connecting boat service to 34th Street and the East River, allowing access from New York City.

Publicity of the event generated by the New York Herald helped to establish breech-loading firearms as suitable for military marksmanship training, and promoted the NRA to national prominence.

[42] After the passage of the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934, the first federal gun-control law in the US, the NRA formed its Legislative Affairs Division to update members with facts and analysis of upcoming bills.

[55] Leadership planned to relocate NRA headquarters to Colorado and to build a $30 million recreational facility in New Mexico, but activists within the organization, whose central concern was Second Amendment rights, defeated the incumbents (i.e. Maxwell Rich) and elected Carter as executive director and Neal Knox as head of the NRA-ILA.

[56][57] Insurgents including Carter and Knox had demanded new leadership in part because they blamed incumbent leaders for existing gun control legislation like the GCA and believed that no compromise should be made.

[62]: 262–68 In April 2019, the group unexpectedly sued its longtime public relations firm Ackerman McQueen, which was responsible for two decades of aggressive gun-rights advertising on behalf of the NRA.

The lawsuit questioned recent programming on NRATV, an online channel operated by Ackerman, which has taken political positions unrelated to the NRA's traditional focus on gun-related issues.

[65] At the convention a letter was read from North, saying he had been told he would not be granted a second term as NRA president and adding that he intended to create a committee to investigate allegations of financial mismanagement.

[108] NRA leader Knox echoed this sentiment, assuring members that Republicans would be defenders of Second Amendment rights and repeal recently passed gun control legislation.

"[113] Morse and Giron helped to pass expanded background checks and ammunition magazine capacity limits after the 2012 Aurora, Colorado, and Sandy Hook, Connecticut, shootings.

The FBI acquired an email Erickson had sent to an acquaintance in 2016 stating, "Unrelated to specific presidential campaigns, I've been involved in securing a VERY private line of communication between the Kremlin and key [GOP] leaders through, of all conduits, the [NRA].

[141] Dan Freedman, national editor for Hearst Newspapers' Washington, D.C. bureau, stated that it, "clears the way for senators from pro-gun states—Democrats as well as at least some Republicans—to vote for Jones without fear of political repercussions".

[147] In February, the NRA wrote to Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell to say that it "strongly opposes" Murthy's confirmation, and told The Washington Times' Emily Miller that it would score the vote in its PAC grading system.

[165] In October 2008, San Francisco was forced to pay a $380,000 settlement to the National Rifle Association and other plaintiffs to cover the costs of litigating Proposition H.[166] In April 2006, New Orleans, Louisiana, police began returning to citizens guns that had been confiscated after Hurricane Katrina.

[175] The ordinance requires city residents to "dispose, donate, or sell" any magazine capable of holding more than ten rounds within a proscribed period of time once the measure takes effect.

[201] The NRA supports marksmanship training as well as hosting the National Rifle and Pistol Matches at Camp Perry, events which are described by the El Paso Times as "America's world series of competitive shooting".

[214] Other previous notable holders of that office include: Milton Reckord, Floyd Lavinius Parks, Franklin Orth, Maxwell Rich, Harlon Carter, J. Warren Cassidy, and Gary Anderson.

[217] In 2017, political commentator Dana Loesch was appointed as the NRA's national spokesperson, with the formal title of "Special Assistant to the Executive Vice President for Public Communication.

In addition to Grant, they are: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush (who resigned in 1995), and Donald Trump.

[235][236] Current or past members also include journalist Hunter S. Thompson,[237] Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh,[238] documentarian Michael Moore (who joined with the intent of dismantling the organization),[239] actor Rick Schroder,[240] and singer James Hetfield.

[247] In 2018, the NRA alleged in an official Court document that it suffered tens of millions of dollars in damage from actions of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the State's financial regulator.

The brief noted that if proven true, the allegations disclose an abuse of government regulatory authority to retaliate against a disfavored advocacy organization by imposing a burden on the NRA's ability to conduct lawful business.

[267][268] On November 3, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo about whether the director of the New York DFS violated the First Amendment by instructing financial institutions not to do business with the NRA.

[301] In November 2018, a social media dispute was seen, after a paper was published by the American College of Physicians that stated that medical professionals had a special responsibility to speak out on prevention of gun-related injuries and that they should support appropriate regulation of the purchase of legal weapons.

[303] Economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton have also noted that the NRA has been effective in pressuring Congress to not fund high-quality research on gun accessibility and suicide rates.

The organization also suggested additional regulations on so-called bump fire stocks, which allow a semi-automatic weapon to function like a machine gun; the Las Vegas shooter had used such a device.

[322] The NRA also issued a statement that the incident was proof that more guns were immediately required in schools in the hands of a bolstered force of armed security personnel in order to "harden" them against any further similar assaults.

[323] A Florida law passed in the wake of the shooting, which includes a provision to ban the sale of firearms to people under 21, was immediately challenged in federal court by the NRA on the grounds that it is "violating the constitutional rights of 18- to 21-year-olds.

For several years, and increasingly in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, "affiliate companies" have been targeted in social media as part of a boycott effort[329] to terminate their business relationships with the NRA.