GBC News Archives

When I started with NRA in 1995, most of the attention our organization received was over legislative efforts in Congress. Firearm-related legislation at the federal level obviously has an impact on far more law-abiding gun owners than what happens in a single state. As I wrote last month, though, Congress often moves at a glacial pace. If you want to see a more rapid advancement in our Right to Keep and Bear Arms, you need to examine what we have been doing at the state level. Although NRA-ILA had been active at the state level since its inception in 1975, the spark that ignited decades of legislative success in state capitals across the country was the enactment of Florida’s “shall issue” Right-to-Carry (RTC) law in 1987.