11 facts about the NRA

The National Rifle Association becomes a focus of coverage whenever gun-related massacres take place in the United States. But how well do you know the NRA's history and background?

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1. Its first president might be better known for sideburns.

Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, formerly a gunsmith, bemoaned the Union's shooting inaccuracy and tactics in the Civil War. He became the NRA's first leader when it was founded in 1871 in New York with the goal to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis.'' The word sideburns is a play on Burnside's last name, used to describe the hair on the side of his face that curled around to join his mustache.

/ Library of Congress/AP

2. It's local

The organization's headquarters, in a 1990s glass office building, is in Fairfax. In the building's basement is a 15-position NRA shooting range, open every day but Tuesday, a symbol of the association's mission to promote responsible use of weapons.

Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images

3. More than Charlton Heston

While it's known for former NRA president and movie star Charlton Heston, celebrity members also include Tom ("Magnum P.I.") Selleck, former NBA star Karl Malone (shown), and screenwriter-director John Milius.

Jim Urquhart / AP

4. Presidential members

Eight presidents have been lifetime members: Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy (the lone Democrat), Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. However, Nixon disavowed his membership in 1969 and Bush resigned his life membership in 1995 after an NRA ad called Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents ''jack-booted government thugs.''

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this caption incorrectly stated that Bush resigned his NRA membership in 1992.

David Valdez, the White House / AP

5. The NRA wasn't always reliably Republican.

The NRA did not endorse presidential candidates until 1980, when it supported Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter. However, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the NRA in the 2012 election cycle has contributed to Republicans over Democrats in races for Congress by a 6 to 1 margin. Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas was the only Democrat to show up in the top 10 recipients.

KAREN BLEIER / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

6. For decades, the NRA supported gun-control efforts

The NRA formed its legislative affairs division during debate over the National Firearms Act in 1934, which it backed. The Association also supported the Federal Firearms Act of 1938. Together the two acts, the first major federal laws on gun control, created a system to license gun dealers and imposed stiff taxes on private ownership of automatic weapons at a time when well-known gangsters were active. Clockwise from top left are Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Arthur "Doc" Barker and Lester J. Gillis, a.k.a. George Nelson, or "Baby Face" Nelson.

/ AFP/Getty Images

7. The Second Amendment

That article of the U.S. Constitution, shown on display at the National Archives, was not always the basis of the NRA's message. Karl T. Frederick, the NRA's president in the 1920s and '30s, said he did not consult the Constitution in helping craft model state-level gun-control provisions that included a two-day waiting period, required reporting of each gun sale, and the right of authorities to determine who could carry a concealed weapon, the Atlantic reported in 2011. Today, however, the NRA says the most important benefit of membership is ''the defense of your Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.''

Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images

8. Banning mail-order rifle purchases

After the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald (pictured), who had bought his gun from a mail-order ad in the NRA's American Rifleman magazine, then-NRA vice president Franklin Orth supported banning mail-order rifle sales. Orth told Congress: "We do not think that any sane American, who calls himself an American, can object to placing into this bill the instrument which killed the president of the United States."

/ AP

9. Tightening gun-control laws

The NRA was criticized by absolutist gun groups for not doing more to stop two 1968 gun-control laws enacted after the assassinations that year of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy and the rise of the Black Panther movement, which protested for its right to bear arms. Pictured (in berets) are Black Panther members Eldridge Cleaver, left, and Bobby Seale.

/ AP

10. Modern days

These days, the NRA's lobbying arm is known as one of Washington's most powerful. Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president since 1991, worked to see Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. placed in contempt of Congress for "Operation Fast and Furious,'' a botched effort to trace the flow of weapons bought in the U.S. by members of Mexican drug cartels.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

11. Outreach

The NRA and its foundation maintain ties with several youth groups, such 4-H and the Boy Scouts of America. Boy Scouts from Georgia and Miami gets some pointers at the range at the Boy Scouts' Camp Woodruff outside Blairsville, Ga., in 2005.

Ric Feld / AP

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ANNAPOLIS, MD - MAY 20: The Herndon Monument Climb is the traditional culmination of plebe year at the United States Naval Academy. The plebes climb to the top of the lard-covered 21 foot high monument and remove the 'dixie cup' hat at the top replacing it with an upperclassman's hat. After completing this, the freshmen are called 'fourth class midshipmen.' This class completed the task in 1 hour 32 minutes and 43 seconds. The hat was placed by Patrick Lien from Orlando. (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

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