NRA: The powerful US gun rights lobby

Yahoo – AFP, Joshua MELVIN, May 27, 2022

People look at semi-automatic guns at the Kalashnikov booth at the NRA's
annual convention in Houston (AFP/STRINGER) (STRINGER)

The National Rifle Association is the central and fiercest promoter of gun rights in America, and is again holding its annual convention days after a mass school shooting. 

Just like the NRA's meeting after the 1999 Columbine attack, which defined an era of gun massacres in America's schools, the gathering opening Friday in Houston follows the killing of 19 children and two teachers in a Texas classroom. 

The NRA has been weakened by scandal and turmoil, but remains the main force dedicated to advocating for the owners of the tens of millions of weapons that are readily obtainable across the country. 

Here are some key points about the organization: 

Potent political force 

The 150-year-old NRA concentrated its focus on battling gun restrictions in the late 1970s and has become one of the most powerful lobbying groups in US history. 

Its past influence on lawmakers has been far-reaching. 

From 2000 to 2012, the NRA and its allies in the firearms industry combined to pour $80 million into US House of Representatives, Senate and presidential races, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. 

In the 2016 presidential election, the NRA spent about $20 million for ads attacking Democrat Hillary Clinton and another $10 million for ads supporting Republican Donald Trump. 

Since the 1990s, the NRA has been able to deliver a powerful punch against local and national politicians it views as a threat to gun rights, contributing to the defeat of numerous centrist candidates. 

Many guns, many deaths 

The NRA has been a key proponent for an industry that has produced more than 139 million guns for the commercial market over the two decades from 2000, including 11.3 million in 2020 alone, according to government data. 

At the same time, America annually records a toll of tens of thousands of gun deaths, with US authorities saying killings underwent an "historic" increase in 2020. 

The US racked up 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, up nearly 35 percent over 2019, and 24,245 gun suicides, up 1.5 percent. 

The post-Columbine era 

In the April 20, 1999 shooting at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colorado, two students killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher, and signaled a new era of classroom killings in America. 

The NRA's annual conference was scheduled to open less than two weeks later in Denver, a short drive from Littleton, prompting state and local politicians to criticize the planned meeting. 

In the end, the NRA went ahead with a scaled-down gathering but voiced a defiant tone defending gun rights. 

"Over the next two decades, this unapologetic message would come to define the NRA's tone in the wake of mass shootings at American schools," US broadcaster NPR wrote, after publishing recordings it said captured the group's debate over the response to Columbine. 

A troubled NRA 

The state of New York sued the group and its leader Wayne LaPierre in 2020 for financial fraud and misconduct, aiming to dissolve the powerful lobby. 

Top NRA officials were accused of using dues and donations of members for years as a "personal piggy bank," spending tens of millions of dollars on themselves and their cronies in violation of laws governing non-profit organizations. 

The group called it a baseless political attack, and in March a New York judge ruled that alleged self-dealing by the group's leader, if proven, would not warrant such a strong penalty as the disbanding of the association. 

New York's lawsuit seeking to boot LaPierre from his post will, however, be allowed to proceed. 

Group in decline? 

NRA claims more than five million members, but there are signs that figure is on the wane, including a 2021 legal deposition from LaPierre in which he said numbers were "under 4.9 million." 

US network CBS reported NRA's revenue declined 23 percent from roughly $367 million in 2016 to $282 million in 2020, the most recent year for which its tax filings are available. 

It added that contributions and grants from members and corporations also have slipped 15 percent during that time. 

Yet after an 18-year-old man opened fire this week at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the group spoke up as the voice explaining why yet another mass shooting had happened. 

"We recognize this was the act of a lone, deranged criminal," their statement said. "As we gather in Houston, we will reflect on these events... and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure."

Canada gymnasts break silence on abuses and sport's 'toxic culture'

France24 – AFP, 

Amelia Cline performs on the balance beam at a national competition in Winnipeg,
Canada, in 2002 Handout Amelia Cline/AFP

Montreal (AFP) – They excelled in the athletic spotlight, but their feats on the beam and bars masked a darker reality: Canadian gymnasts are taking legal action to denounce a "toxic" culture of physical, sexual and psychological abuse by the sport's top brass. 

Having tolerated the harm for decades, victims around the world have come forward in the wake of a US gymnastics scandal that broke in 2015 before spreading abroad, including to Britain where athletes launched a similar legal action last year. 

As a child gymnast in Vancouver, Amelia Cline dreamed of Olympic glory. In her teens, the elite athlete devoted thirty hours a week to training. 

"Unfortunately the early years of my gymnastics days, as positive as they were, they've been somewhat wiped out by those last three years that were so brutal," the former gymnast, now 32, told AFP. 

She and other athletes on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Gymnastics Canada and several provincial federations for tolerating a climate of abuse and mistreatment for decades. 

"The lawsuit is essentially designed to hopefully hold these institutions accountable for systemic psychological, emotional, physical and sexual violence," she said. 

At the end of March, a group of more than 70 present and former gymnasts published an open letter to Sports Canada denouncing a "toxic culture and abusive practices that persist within Canadian gymnastics." 

The number of signatories has since grown to more than 400, with the group calling for an independent investigation to shed light on the sport's problems. 

The "general public really doesn't understand the magnitude of the abuses that are occurring at the gyms," said Kim Shore, a former gymnast and spokeswoman for Gymnast For Change Canada, who says her daughter has also suffered mistreatment in the sport. 

Micheline Calmy-Rey, president of the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation created in 2019 in response to the scandal said "it seems logical to us that an independent investigation be conducted." 

Gymnastics Canada has not yet responded to a request for comment about the lawsuit by AFP. 

'Grilled about my weight'

In a blog post, Cline says that at 14, she weighed 85 pounds (38.5 kg) and was "grilled about my weight on a weekly basis." 

Photo courtesy of Amelia Cline shows her performing a 2002-2003 balance beam move
during training in Coquitlam, Canada Handout Amelia Cline/AFP

Some 20 years after giving up gymnastics, she says she still suffers from the "long-term effects" of mistreatment that left her with chronic pain and made it hard for her to maintain healthy eating habits. 

Like many of her peers, she laments a "culture of fear and silence" in gymnastics clubs across the country. "You don't question what (the coaches) are doing. They're the experts, and they're the ones who are going to take you to the Olympics," she explained. 

"I was always afraid of my coaches," another gymnast told AFP on condition of anonymity. "I loved gymnastics. I loved travelling. I loved being with the other girls, but I was so afraid of them." 

She described a powerful loneliness felt by child gymnasts, whose parents were often banned from practices. Very young athletes were even told never to speak about their training. 

"Many times the kids are told what happens in the gym stays in the gym," recalled Shore. 

She says gymnastics has been corrupted by a "culture of control and dominance" over athletes. 

"The provincial bodies are made up of individuals who are conflicted," she said, explaining that "in some provinces, the chair of the board is also the head coach of a gymnastics club." 

Now that a claim has been filed and the problems have been exposed, Cline and her lawyers believe that the number of plaintiffs will increase "significantly." 

Cline just wishes her nightmare will never be experienced by other young gymnasts. 

"There's really no other mechanism within Canada to actually hold institutions like this accountable except through the legal system," she said.