National Rifle Association (NRA)
The association is essential as it advocates for gun rights. The group was founded in about 1871 with the aim of informing the members concerning the fire-arm related laws. The goal was to advance the rifle marksmanship where it supported the issues of firearm safety and competency. The management could hold several marksmanship events to educate the members concerning the precision shootings. It also reaches the members through magazines that provides specific details concerning gun rights and legislation. The group has been considering the best influential interest association in Washington, DC. The group is vital to the greater good as it can defend and protect the Second Amendment just like some individuals like Martina Luther King Jr and Malcolm X who were on the ground to advocate for the equal rights. The group has remained as one of the oldest association in the US that protected the issues of Civil Rights among the Americans. The association supports that people should have the freedom to own firearms and guns. The ideas of NRA goes against another movement that wishes the owning of firearms should be condemned and stopped through strict fire am laws and regulations. However, NRA interest to protect gun owners is completely undeniable (Spitzer 45).
There are competing groups, firstly, The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence supports the idea of controlling the usage of Guns in the US. NRA supports that people have rights to own the guns safely, and no law should stop them from doing it, but the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence stands strong against holding any firearm and thus a law should be implemented to strategically stop people from using personal guns for public shooting (Spitzer 45). Secondly, the New Yorkers Against Gun Violence has another view concerning ownership of the firearms by the public. The group works together with the government to ensure there are strict laws for gun controls.
NRM is one of the groups that is doing good to accomplish its goals. The group played a significant role after the Hurricane Katrina onslaught and destruction scenario. During this period, most of the individuals complained a lot concerning how the authorities took away and confiscated their firearms. When NRA realized about the situation, the group forwarded the issues to the United States District Court in Louisiana. NRA explained how in such circumstances the government should allow the individuals to own guns for self-defense. After the presentation, the court weighed the matter and provided to ban the confiscation of weapons from the hands of the public. For such reason, NRA is considered the best association especially to defend the rights of the gun owners. Therefore, most of the people are satisfied after joining it. For instance, in a population where 84% of the people are gun owners, 74% are members of NRA. The group has been in a position to defend the members against the new gun law after the mass shootings incidents (Steidley and Cynthia 604). The actions have been achieved since NRA is in position to finance its executive teams that incorporate its mandate. There is a member who has been receiving financial support either directly or indirectly. The graph below shows the data of the beneficiary and the range of money collected.
The information recorded by the Centre for Responsive Politics indicated that the NRA had funded about eight lawmakers with approximately $1million per person to serve for the interests of NRA during their careers.
The New Yorkers Against Gun Violence has a point concerning the introduction of gun control laws. The group argues that gun violence is preventable especially the government accept to introduce legislation meant to curb gun ownership (Reich and Jay 450). To implement this idea, the group decided to endorse Executive director who will have the mandate to work to ensure the government introduces the federal legislation that controls gun usage by the public (Steidley and Cynthia 604). The new candidate will be voted on November 6th, 2018 which means after endorsement; the director will assist in protecting the families and communities by campaigning for the law for gun controls (Berry and Clyde 567).
New Yorkers against Gun Violence request its members to remain supportive of the goals of the groups. During the joining process, the group has a website where the new member is allowed to provide with personal details and email to create access account (Berry 89). The group requests the member to provide contributions or donations to support the implementation of the set goals. Also, some of the members are given the role of enacting sensible gun laws with the aim of stopping the dangerous legislation (Reich and Jay 450). On the other side, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence also has a membership website where new members provided with the personal details when joining it. Also, members are requested to pursue the given strategy to control gun use and support the life-saving policies. However, when entering the NRA group, new members are asked to pay some membership fees. The foreign new members are subjected to additional postage fees. The members are supposed to focus on the implementation of the laws to support the ownership of personal guns and firearms for the sake of self-defense (Berry 89).
The associations do not provide their members with any selective incentives to join them. Both New Yorkers Against Gun Violence and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence allows the members to participate freely without coercion. The member is supposed some membership fees while joining the associations.
Being a member of the group protects violation of any human rights by the government or other interest groups. For example, being a member of NRA is beneficial since the group even funds its members to conduct activities that protect the rights of the community. The group has programs to train the members concerning proper usage of the gun to avoid public shooting and cases of violence (Steidley 105).
NRA experiences different challenges when operating locally, nationally and internationally. The most significant problem when managing locally is competition from other human right groups (Jones and George 110). Since the group defends gun owners, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has challenged it for taking such stands as firearms lead to public violence and shooting. Members also resign from the group reducing the number of people financing or supporting the agenda of the group. For instance, in 1995, the former Us President George H.W. Bush removed his membership title from the group as it was termed as the “government thugs.” Currently, the group has been labeled nationally as the partisan group that supports the Republican Party but ignores the Democratic candidates (Steidley 105). It experiences opposition from the international human right organizations for supporting the gun ownership as it is viewed as interfering on government plans to research on gun control strategies. The criticism has been intensified after the continued mass shooting cases, but NRA still refuse to support new gun restriction rules Anestis et al. 67).
The group is social as it protects the rights of the members or other individuals concerning firearm ownership. NRA has about 5 million joined members who are served by the association. The group can support or oppose other political leaders or legislation. Instead, it operates with the aim of protecting the social groups against discriminations (Jones and George 100). The revenues of the group are used to accomplish the mission of social welfare especially safeguard the gun owners. It is somehow a political group as it influences to mobilize it, a million members, when implementing a specific agenda. Some of the group members are politically active and serve as the significant influence when opposing particular legislation meant to ban gun ownership.
When people are not involved, the group may not achieve the objectives. The association of composed of different stakeholders who play vital roles to complete the set goals. For instance, the legal department is supposed to participate during court rulings to ensure justice prevails. Also, the group is funded by different people who pay membership charges annually. Therefore, when people are ignored, the group might experience funding problems due to low membership fee incomes. Also, the association will lack enough experts to serve in different events to protect the rights of the gun owners.
Works Cited
Anestis, Michael D., et al. “The association between state laws regulating handgun ownership and statewide suicide rates.” American journal of public health 105.10 (2015): 59-67.
Berry, Jeffrey M., and Clyde Wilcox. The interest group society. Routledge, 2018 pp 56-95
Jones, Michael A., and George W. Stone. “The US gun-control paradox: Gun buyer response to congressional gun-control initiatives.” Journal of Business & Economics Research (Online) 13.4 (2015): 167.
Reich, Gary, and Jay Barth. “Planting in fertile soil: the National Rifle Association and state firearms legislation.” Social Science Quarterly 98.2 (2017): 485-499.
Spitzer, Robert J. Politics of gun control. Routledge, 2015. pp. 45-90
Steidley, Trent, and Cynthia G. Colen. “Framing the gun control debate: press releases and framing strategies of the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign.” Social Science Quarterly 98.2 (2017): 608-627.
Steidley, Trent. “Big Guns or Big Talk? How the National Rifle Association Matters for Conceal Carry Weapons Laws.” Mobilization: An International Quarterly 23.1 (2018): 101-125.
Winker, Margaret A., Kamran Abbasi, and Frederick P. Rivara. “Unsafe and understudied: the US gun problem.” (2016): 578.