What comes after the NRA
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2022
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
The NRA faces critics from all sides, with infighting among its executives and, after the Uvalde, Tex., school shooting, renewed pressure from gun control advocates. And then there are the radical gun groups that say the NRA hasn’t gone far enough.
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Tomorrow, the National Rifle Association will kick off its annual meeting. Just a few hours from the site of Tuesday’s school shooting, the convention will feature a 14-acre gun show and headliners including former president Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott (R).
Post national political reporter Isaac Arnsdorf will be there to cover it. And he says the NRA’s place in the gun control landscape is shifting: Mired in internal battles and legal troubles, the organization now has to compete with a handful of even more adamant gun rights groups that are growing in popularity. Today, how the NRA navigates bad press in the wake of mass shootings, and how the American gun culture it helped create has evolved.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just a four hour drive from the site of this week's massacre at an elementary school, |
| 0:07.3 | the National Rifle Association will hold its biggest event of the year. |
| 0:11.3 | It's going to be at this huge convention center in downtown Houston. |
| 0:16.2 | There are going to be headliners, including former president Donald Trump, Texas governor |
| 0:20.8 | Greg Abbott, Texas Senator Ted Cruz. |
| 0:23.4 | Isaac Arndtdorf is a national political reporter for the post. |
| 0:27.4 | And he's actually heading to Houston to cover the NRA's annual meeting starting Friday. |
| 0:34.3 | It's this big convention for the gun rights group. |
| 0:37.3 | And it looks like the event is going to go forward as planned. |
| 0:41.2 | There certainly been calls from Democrats that they shouldn't be going ahead with this, |
| 0:46.6 | the NRA and Republican politicians have really been unflinching. |
| 0:51.4 | The NRA says it has five million members across the US. |
| 0:55.4 | For a long time, they've been the voice of the gun lobby in America. |
| 1:00.0 | But as Isaac has reported, that might be changing. |
| 1:03.4 | You've seen President Biden and a lot of other Democrats in the aftermath of this latest |
| 1:09.2 | tragedy talking about needing to overcome the gun lobby. |
| 1:13.9 | And you know, the image that a lot of people have in their minds is the NRA as this brick |
| 1:19.2 | wall that stands between Congress and any gun legislation. |
| 1:23.8 | And the reality at this point is really pretty different. |
| 1:27.2 | The NRA for years has been struggling with lawsuits and an investigation by the New York |
| 1:34.8 | Attorney General and infighting between its executives and allegations that they were |
| 1:39.5 | misspending resources. |
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