The N.R.A. Sees a Threat, and an Opportunity, in Covid-19

As the two sides of the firearms debate prepare to square off in the 2020 election, gun control groups have rallied around the likely Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Guns are one of the rare issues on which Mr. Biden has more progressive credentials than his remaining rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, who comes from a rural state, Vermont, and has had a cautious approach to gun control.

But for gun groups, Mr. Biden has become a polarizing figure. Last month, the N.R.A. seized on Mr. Biden’s confrontation with a gun owner at a Michigan assembly plant. Gun activists were also incensed when Mr. Biden embraced former Representative Beto O’Rourke at a Texas rally earlier this year, promising, “You’re going to take care of the gun problem with me.” Mr. O’Rourke took the hardest line on gun control during his presidential bid, proposing not just to end sales of assault weapons but to confiscate existing ones.

The election will be a test for the N.R.A. and for Mr. LaPierre. Amid the N.R.A.’s troubles last year, the White House increased its contacts with other organizations.

“They are reaching out to other gun rights groups for this election,” Alan Gottlieb, head of the Second Amendment Foundation, said in an interview earlier this year. Mr. Gottlieb said that he had come to the West Wing in December and met with officials there, though not Mr. Trump, and that he separately met with Trump campaign officials last fall and had been in contact since.

“The fact they have been reaching out as much as they have been, since things started internally at the N.R.A., one has to assume that they want to stay plugged in to the gun rights constituency,” he said.

Several organizations, along with the N.R.A., were involved in the lobbying effort to have gun stores declared essential.

“We talked to a number of folks at the White House and Homeland Security,” said Lawrence Keane, general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group. “The ability to exercise your constitutional rights begins at the retail counter. If you can’t purchase at the retail counter, your rights are denied.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/nra-guns-coronavirus.html