The NRA is not the NAACP or the ADL Or LULAC. They are a one-issue extension of the gun lobby, concerned with protecting the rights of him manufacturers and dealers. To continue trying to deify them is a straw man.
I think the date of the creation of the NRA is not a coincidence. It was during the time of "reconstruction" in the south. Jim Crow laws passed by southern democratics were designed to disarm the freemen and their offspring. Jim Crow was passed to protect southern, democratic racists and the NRA was created to protect the rights of EVERYONE to have access to a gun (and self protection). Some idiots will say that it was not to protect black people but tell me who was trying to disarm white people in 1870? No one! Only minorities were being systematically disarmed by democrats. You (a white person) could buy an automatic weapon up until the 1930s, or a silencer (for the gentleman who likes to shoot in his basement) for his weapon. No, the NRA is in response to racism and discrimination. It is the oldest civil rights organization in the country.
JD, at the time of it's founding, the NRA supported gun control legislation. It did so up through the mid 1970's. It was only taken over by gun nuts in the fairly recent past.