Brief History of the NRA The National Rifle Association in its simplest form is the largest gun club in the world. The organization was founded in 1871 by former Union Army officers to encourage sport shooting in order to have a fine tuned militia in case of emergency. The Union officers believed that a well regulated militia was integral for the security of a free state. It is an organization that opposes gun control, it believes in the individual defense of the uses of firearms, and it is interested in all aspects of shooting sports.1 Today, the organization stands with approximately 3.4 million members. Within the NRA, there are four major organs. The Institute for Leg