NRA’s annual convention comes to a close amid national debate on gun reforms

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• Geoff Bennett:

  At this weekend's National Rifle Association Annual Convention, former President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders rejected efforts to change the nation's gun laws while they mocked activists calling for reform.

  The NRA's gathering in Houston took place some four hours east of Uvalde were 19 children and two adults were killed this past week. NPR's Washington investigative Correspondent Tim Mak reported on the convention. He's back now from Houston and joins us now. Tim, it's good to have you with us.

  And this year's NRA convention, I think, in many ways is symbolic of the nation's divide and that you had gun rights advocates inside the convention hall and protesters calling for greater reform they were lining the streets outside. Give us a sense of what you saw and what your takeaways are.

• Tim Mak, NPR Washington Investigative Correspondent:

  You know, this is the first NRA convention in three years because the last couple have been canceled due to the pandemic. And, you know, I've never seen such a large protest outside an NRA event before.

  And not only that, the tone was just so much more vitriolic and so much more angry and so much more emotional than I've seen in the past. I mean, you had hundreds of protesters outside the convention hall in Houston. And they were confronting NRA members, as they were approaching, trying to get into the convention hall, they were booing, they were yelling at each other, mocking each other, exchanging middle fingers.

  And in a lot of ways, it was kind of this pent up emotion that that's been waiting three years perhaps to be expressed. But it's something that really shows just how divided people are on this issue and just how angry people are on this issue.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And Meantime, as you well know, the NRA is facing among the most serious threats to its influence with a number of investigations revealing corruption at its highest levels. How has that affected the organization standing, and its pull, especially when you've got the rise of all of these advocacy groups, these gun control groups like Every Town for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action, you have the Parkland students survivors, some of whom were at the NRA convention protesting outside.

• Tim Mak:

  It's remarkable the NRA has been accused of and there's been plenty of public evidence to back it up, tens of millions of dollars worth of mismanagement and misconduct, financial misconduct by executives, and top leadership and many of those people in the organization still remain in their jobs.

  I'm thinking for example of Wayne LaPierre, who's the CEO and Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association. And he was speaking over the weekend at the NRA Convention. He still remains the head of the National Rifle Association.

  And so the question is, what's their influence? And one of the big things that I've always tried to stress is that, you know, some folks think that the NRA is powerful because of money. And of course, money does help.

  But what really makes the NRA influential is its ability to mobilize millions of members on short notice when they need to work on a legislative issue like now. You know, it wouldn't be surprising, for example, if the NRA got a lot more members over the last week because of this new talk about gun legislation.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Well, let me ask you about that, because Senator Chris Murphy, the Democrat from Connecticut, who actually came to Congress, representing Sandy Hook, he's leading this latest gun safety push on Capitol Hill, I want to play for you what he said on one of the Sunday shows this morning,

  Sen. Chris Murphy (D), Connecticut: Every single time after one of these mass shootings, there's talks in Washington, and they never succeed. But there are more Republicans interested in talking about finding a path forward this time than I have ever seen since Sandy Hook.

• Geoff Bennett:

  So let's talk about that. Because these negotiations as I understand it, that they're in their infancy, and they're focused on red flag laws that would allow law enforcement to remove guns from people who are deemed to pose a threat to themselves or to others. And they're also focusing on expanding the background check system to screen gun sales, those two very specific things.

  Is there enough support on the left and the right to sort of move forward on that or do you think based on your years of reporting on this issue that the NRA that under other gun lobbies will be able to wield their influence and stop this — stop progress on this?

• Tim Mak:

  I'd be curious to know what Senator Toomey and Senator Manchin had to say about this because they have proposed background checks, expanding background checks in the past, and that's stalled in the Senate in times past.

  Now, the red flag law issue is a different one, which has had Republican support in the past. So I'd be curious to know if on Capitol Hill, they can find a way to get it done.

  But what I will say is that, you know, if the convention, the protests, demonstrations, and the tone of the NRA and the protesters outside against the NRA are any indication we're more divided on this issue than ever before. And it's hard to see where there can be middle ground on.

• Geoff Bennett:

  NPR Washington investigative correspondent, Tim Mak. Tim, I appreciate your sharing your reporting and your years of insight on this issue with us. Thanks so much.