Brief History of the National Rifle Association :: NRA Guns Historical Militia Essays

Brief History of the National Rifle AssociationThe National Rifle Association in its simplest form is the largest gunclub in the world. The organization was founded in 1871 by former Union Armyofficers to encourage sport shooting in recite to have a fine tuned militia incase of emergency. The Union officers believed that a well regulated militiawas integral for the security of a discontinue state. It is an organization thatopposes gun control, it believes in the individual defense of the uses offirearms, and it is interested in all aspects of shooting sports.1Today, the organization stands with approximately 3.4 million members.Within the NRA, there are four major organs. The Institute for LegislativeAction (is the lobbying arm), the political Victory entrepot (which is a politicalaction committee), the Civil Rights Legal Defense Fund (deals with scholarlyresearch and legal developments), and the Grass Roots Division (whichspecializes in raising support through grass roots meth ods). As a rank and fileorganization, the NRAs directions is set by voting members. The direction ofthe policies are carried out by a 75 member board that is geographicallydistributed. The Board of Directors are elected by secret ballot.2Brady ActThe Brady Act was approved by Congress in November of 1993 and was thensigned into law by President Clinton later in the month. The act was originallynamed for anti gun lobbyist Sarah Brady, and not for former press secretary JimBrady. It was through Jim Bradys support and the media coverage that linkedhis name to the act. The act requires that there be a waiting period of fivestate government business days at the time an individual applies to purchase a pistol from a federal firearm license. During the five day wait, the localsheriff or police chief must make a reasonable effort to get out if the purchaseris prohibited from owning a handgun. The police official may approve the salebefore the five day period only if the record guard has been completed or if hebelieves the purchaser needs a handgun immediately to protect himself or hisfamily.3Presently, the Clinton administration isnt complying with the Brady Act.The act requires that within 60 months of enactment, the lawyer General mustestablish a national instant criminal background check system that allowsfederal firearms licensees to have access through virtually type of electronic method.The reason for the delay lies with the fact that U.S. Circuit Courts have spliton whether the Brady Act violates the 10th amendment of the Constitution byallowing law enforcement agencies to divvy up criminal records checks in