The NRA got started as a way to arm free blacks and preserve their right to be armed against the Democrat KKK.
You are absolutely correct— the organization started by two Union Army generals to defend the right to keep and bear arms, to train people in their use, later to increase marksmanship training and safety— for ALL people, and in the initial start up it was to defend the right for former slaves to defend themselves against the Democrat machine— the first klan and its winding down and eventual closing down (by- Nathan Bedford Forrest as achieving its goals then). The second clan (the pinnacle of national membership in the 2 million range- was formed headquartered in Indiana (a Union state, and nationally no longer exclusively southern states).
When the second klan came along the NRA expanded its membership again in response. And... bipartisan in those days as today. Have tried explaining this to leftist loonie whites— and they just don’t get it, but then, they are just virtue signalling to cover their bigotry against blacks.
Did you have to mention the NRA? Sure as shootin', that'll trigger a bunch of b!tching & moaning about "Wayne's suits" and "why won't the NRA run educational infomercials" (as if anybody on the planet watches those things). In the future, you might call them "the predecessors to the GOA" - the guys who complain the loudest don't seem to have heard of the GOA, so maybe it won't set 'em off...
;^)