The NRA is the most effective lobbying body in history. It has not only stopped the creep of gun control, it has reversed it with 49 out of 50 states now with legal concealed carry, Washington DC legalizing gun ownership, and federal-level gun control now a non-issue. American politicians have learnt that advocating gun control is political suicide. The NRA works so well for two reasons.
Firstly, it does not hobble itself with the 'sporting' argument. The NRA knows that when you argue against gun control (whose advocates claim it will save lives) on the basis that people need guns for sport, you lose your guns. Non-gun-owning voters do not care about your hobby, if there is even a chance that lives could be saved at the cost of your hobby they will try to save lives every time. Instead the NRA argues that gun rights, not control, saves lives. Self defence, not sport. Nor do they argue simply to maintain the status quo, they aggressively argue to improve and expand gun rights which shifts the debate. It is no longer 'should we ban guns', it is 'do we need to keep banning machineguns?' When your issue is on the fringe, it's easy to lose. Push the fringe way back and even if you lose at the margin, your core interests stay safe.
Secondly, the NRA is highly political. They don't just 'consult' with legislators or appear on the news, they run highly political campaigns to get gun rights supporters registered to vote, to 'approve' pro-gun candidates and get gun rights supporters to vote for them, and to attack and expose anti-gun candidates and ensure gun rights supporters never vote for them. Relatedly, they also push an agenda. Their educational role is not just in firearms safety and proficiency but also in teaching people how guns save lives and the evils of gun control. So while people may join the NRA because they hunt or shoot skeet and actually aren't too sure about concealed carry and think maybe gun registration sounds like a good idea, they are then bombarded with literature and videos and podcasts and all the rest that turn them into ardent gun rights advocates.
The problem in the UK is that BASC and the NRAUK do not use and are terrified of the self-defence argument, they try only to maintain the status quo, on the whole, rather than push for increased rights, they don't involve themselves in electoral politics which means they can be largely ignored, and the vast majority of British shooters don't even really want or believe in gun rights.
<- Lifetime NRA member
