DALLAS (AP) — A year ago, the nation’s most powerful gun lobby was riding high: The millions the National Rifle Association had spent to help elect Donald Trump, one of the nation’s most gun-friendly presidents, had paid off, and members were hopeful that more firearms restrictions would soon be eased.
Oh, how things have changed.
In the last 12 months, Americans have witnessed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, a gut-wrenching attack at a Florida high school and bitterly divided politics in Washington. Those factors gave fresh momentum to gun-control advocates and stalled the NRA’s agenda, despite firm GOP control of Congress and the White House. Then corporate America began turning its back on the group, dropping scores of discount programs or refusing to sell gun-industry products.
When the NRA holds its annual meeting this weekend in Dallas, the gathering will provide a window into the organization’s message and strategy ahead of this year’s midterm elections. The convention will also have a return guest: Trump, making his fourth consecutive visit to the meeting.
For the NRA, the meeting provides an opportunity to unite around the idea that members must push back against a liberal agenda that seeks to trample their Second Amendment rights. The thousands of people in attendance will listen to political speeches, check out the latest firearms, attend gun training courses and socialize. The audience consists mostly of hardcore gun-rights supporters.
“They’re taking a very hard line in the sand of our Constitution” that has to be protected “at all costs,” said Julianna Crowder, a firearms instructor and founder and president of A Girl and Gun Women’s Shooting League in Austin, Texas.
Gun-control groups have been spurred on by a younger generation impatient with inaction. Teenagers from Marjory Stoneman
