From the
NRA-ILA mission statement:
The NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), established in 1975, is the NRA’s lobbying and political arm.
Now the NRA may do things that seem political to us, but rest assured that either it's not considered "political" from a
legal perspective or that it's the NRA-ILA that's doing them.
When I run NRA training courses, towards the end of class when I get to the last part of the presentation (which is essentially an "NRA commercial"), before this slide comes up I ask students "raise your hand if you thought,
before today, that all the NRA does is political stuff."
Most students raise their hand.
Notice that it doesn't say a dang thing about politics or political activism?
The NRA was, is, and remains a training organization. It's only because every member has a common interest in protecting their heritage that the NRA-ILA was formed back in the 70's. Even so, the NRA organization didn't depart from it's core mission and core goals; it formed a new group to coordinate those common interests among members.
(Personally) I am more interested in the work of the Second Amendment Foundation at this juncture, as it's proven more
effective and
important (albeit more expensive and time consuming), to challenge bad laws and get them struck, than to try to keep them from getting passed in the first place. At this point there's enough bad gun laws out there to choke a Clydesdale. Through victories like the 7th and 9th circuit on "Shall Issue" concealed carry, gun owners are gaining BACK a lot of lost ground.
Lobbying and political activism are still important aspects - don't get me wrong - the NRA-ILA does some very important work, and we need to try to prevent bad laws from getting passed and the ONLY effective way to do that is to get the right people in office, and keep people in office aware of the ramifications of their actions in the chamber. But we've lost a massive amount of ground over the last 30 years, and the front lines are in the
courtrooms now. (And that takes money....)
Anyway we've deviated from the course a little here.
But the NRA is NOT a political organization, and it is NOT a lobbying organization.
That's the NRA-ILA, and it's a separate entity.
(NOTE: I'm giving my own opinions here, and NOT expressing an opinion on behalf of the NRA.)