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The NRA also claims to be a potent force in elections; it says it defeated 19 of the 24 congressmen who were on its hit-list back in 1994. But a recent article in American Prospect disputes such assertions, arguing that the NRA’s impact is marginal these days because it spreads itself thinly and tends to support Republican incumbents.
全國步槍協會同時聲稱其是競選中的強勁力量； 1994年位列其黑名單上的24位議員，其稱擊敗了19位。但最近《美國展望》的一篇文章對此表示懷疑，聲稱由于全國步槍協會發展緩慢而且趨向于支持共和黨導致其影響弱小。
Although the NRA is ostensibly an organisation seeking to protect the civil rights of its 4m members, critics such as the Violence Policy Centre (VPC), a gun-control group, contend that the level of funding from firearms manufacturers makes it, in effect, just a trade association for the gun industry. Some of the NRA’s fund-raising comes directly from gun sales. For example, Sturm, Ruger & Co., firearms manufacturers, donated $1 for each gun they sold last year and thereby collected $1.2m for the NRA’s lobbying arm.
盡管全國步槍協會表面上致力于保護4百萬會員的持槍權利，而來自如槍支管制團體“暴力政策中心”的批評者認為其從軍火生產商那里獲得的資金數量已經讓其實際上變成了一個槍支產業的貿易協會。其募集的部分資金直接來自于槍支的銷售額中。例如槍支生產商斯圖姆去年銷售的每支槍中都有1美元捐給了全國步槍協會，共計120萬美元。
Looking ahead, the NRA’s combative executive vice-president, Wayne LaPierre, says the NRA is “all in” for the fight to defeat Barack Obama. Mr Obama might be supposed to have done little to upset the NRA, having meekly signed legislation that allows guns to be brought into national parks and on to trains. But his quiet first term is, say many at the convention, actually part of a conspiracy to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term.
全國步槍協會激進的執行副總裁Wayne LaPierre先前說，全國步槍協會現在是要破釜沉舟和奧巴馬一戰。而奧巴馬似乎沒作出什么惹到它的行為，而且很爽快地批準將槍支帶進國家公園和火車的法令。但許多局中人認為，奧巴馬前期的平靜其實是陰謀的一部分，他致力于在其第二任期內廢除憲法第二修正案。
There are signs, though, that the NRA is growing out of touch with modern Americans and even with its own members—who, according to surveys, now tend to support restrictions such as mandatory background checks on buyers of weapons at gun shows. The future does not look bright, either. Despite attempts to attract women, most convention-goers in St Louis were white men over the age of 40—a segment of the population on the decline. The classified sections in NRA magazines such as American Rifleman feature, besides all the weaponry, advertisements for gardening equipment and Viagra.
然而種種跡象表明全國步槍協會已經同當代美國人，甚至其內部成員（根據調查，他們如今傾向于在槍支展覽會上對槍支購買者許進行諸如強制的背景核查的管制）脫節。未來不容樂觀。盡管全國步槍協會嘗試獲得更多女性的支持，其在圣路易斯的盛會參與者基本上是40歲以上的白人男性，而這一數量在美國人口中正不斷下降。全國步槍協會的雜志如《美國步槍》的分類欄目中除了各種武器外就是花園用具和偉哥的廣告。
