The National Rifle Association is a long-standing organization that seeks to represent the opinions and ideals of gun owners while protecting the rights given to us as citizens under the Second Amend­ment. They influence politics and leg­islation around guns and gun owner­ship unlike any other organization, both pro-gun and pro-control. They also provide many different forms of outreach such as gun safety classes and information regarding such, including online materials and training on how to be a certified firearms instructor. They are credited as being one of the largest organizations to push wide­spread safety awareness and training from new to experienced shooters.

While they have been influential in maintaining our rights — to bear arms and how we choose to arm ourselves — they are not without criticism. Many have seen them as a gargantuan affront to “common sense” firearms regula­tions that could restrict certain types of weapons or buyers from the market. Some see them as profiteers of gun-related deaths and violence, only rep­resenting a portion of gun owners but stifle any conversation stating that fact.

However, many pro-gun individu­als recognize their pitfalls as well, and recognize that the NRA isn’t the perfect gun-rights-oriented organization that it claims to be. While its cause is im­portant to defend, many feel that the NRA either provides a poor public image and — most importantly — a lack of an offensive strategy to restore gun rights where they have been re­stricted. Other organizations have stepped in to represent what they won’t, and are beginning to gain more recog­nition as the NRA’s esteem drops.

While it is understandable that pandering to certain minority groups could make their more conservative base somewhat uncomfortable, the lack of focus regarding minorities is some­what off-putting. There are large con­tingencies of people of

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