Is the NRA finally losing its power over America?

When Donald Trump[1] recently addressed the annual convention of the National Rifle Association[2] (NRA) in Indianapolis[3], it was for the fifth year in succession, and his third as president. In 2017, he bragged that he had received the NRA’s endorsement at the earliest ever stage in the election cycle, and was the first sitting president to address the event since Ronald Reagan[4] in 1983. This year, while Mr Trump went through the motions of publicly recognising the organisation’s leadership – “I’ve been following Oliver [North] for a long time. Great guy.” – he spent more time bragging about his own perceived achievements, than those of the NRA. The members of the organisation that spent $30m helping elect him in 2016 received just the briefest nod.  We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Subscribe now[5] “Every day, you stand up for our God-given rights without exception, without fail, and without apology,” he said. Indeed, the NRA the president was speaking to in 2019 was a very different beast to the all-powerful, political steamroller he addressed just two years earlier. Beset by leadership infighting triggered by allegations of massive fraud, targeted by prosecutors questioning its tax-exempt status and having seen many of the candidates it backed in the 2018 midterms lose badly, the NRA appeared much weaker and more vulnerable. Could it be that the NRA’s days are over? left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. 1/8 Camden shootings – 1949 Howard Unruh killed 13 people, including three children, during a 12-minute walk through his neighborhood on September 6, 1949, in Camden, New Jersey, when he was 28 years old. The incident became known as the "Walk of Death". Unruh was found to be criminally insane

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