The NRA was created by Civil War vets who were appalled at the lack of shooting skills among recruits. For the first 100 years or so they really weren’t involved in politics, but in promoting shooting by citizens.
Both are true. A lot of what they did was to teach and train those who were newly recognized citizens (former slaves) about the rights. They were ensuring that we always had free citizens who were a well trained national militia. This in turn, helped freed slaves also be empowered to one aspect of the right which was to defend their personal lives and liberty. I remember when the asinine comments were made a few months ago by a Dem equating the KKK to the NRA, someone here posted an old ad from the 1800s by the KKK attacking the NRA because they empowered blacks. I’ll see if I can find it.
[FULL VERSION] Black conservative leaders discuss how the NRA was created to protect freed slaves
http://youtu.be/jKMi023Ofro