The NRA Is Hobbled But Don't Expect Tougher Gun Laws

The gun-rights group is hobbled by lawsuits and has lost its longtime power brokers.

- Polly Mosendz and Neil Weinberg, with David Voreacos 

In February 2018, two weeks after a shooting at a Florida high school left 17 dead, President Trump made a blunt declaration to a roomful of politicians during a televised discussion on school safety: “You’re afraid of the NRA.” Trump promised action. He vowed—just as he would following the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton over the weekend of Aug. 3 and 4 that killed 31 people—to expand background checks on firearms purchases as a way to prevent shootings.

The earlier push for background checks brought a familiar figure to the White House. Chris Cox, then the National Rifle Association’s chief lobbyist, emerged from the Oval Office a day after Trump’s promise with a clear message of his own: “POTUS & VPOTUS support the Second Amendment, support strong due process and don’t want gun control,” he wrote on Twitter. Trump soon pivoted to discussing measures such as arming teachers and narrower state-level restrictions tied to severe mental-health risks—steps broadly supported by the NRA.

The difference this time, after a weekend with two massacres, is that there was no publicized visit from NRA officials to the White House. There’s also no Cox: He was ousted in June after losing a power struggle with NRA chief Wayne LaPierre.

This is the NRA’s first big test since April, when a brewing civil war resulted in a flurry of lawsuits from former allies, the departure of key players, and the consolidation of power by an embattled LaPierre.