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Unmasking The NRA's Inner Circle: Mother Jones

NRA's Shadowy Inner Circle Revealed
Nick Wing
By 

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2011, file photo, National Rifle Association Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre speaks in Washington. The next big issue in the national debate over guns _ whether people have a right to be armed in public _ is moving closer to Supreme Court review. A provocative ruling by a panel of federal appeals court judges in Chicago struck down the only statewide ban on carrying concealed weapons, in Illinois. The ruling is somewhat at odds with those of other federal courts that have largely upheld state and local gun laws, including restrictions on concealed weapons, since the Supreme Courts landmark ruling declaring that people have a right to have a gun for self-defense. LaPierre said, "Clearly, the individual right under the Constitution does not apply only to your home. People have lives outside their home and the constitutional right applies outside their home." (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2011, file photo, National Rifle Association Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre speaks in Washington. The next big issue in the national debate over guns _ whether people have a right to be armed in public _ is moving closer to Supreme Court review. A provocative ruling by a panel of federal appeals court judges in Chicago struck down the only statewide ban on carrying concealed weapons, in Illinois. The ruling is somewhat at odds with those of other federal courts that have largely upheld state and local gun laws, including restrictions on concealed weapons, since the Supreme Courts landmark ruling declaring that people have a right to have a gun for self-defense. LaPierre said, "Clearly, the individual right under the Constitution does not apply only to your home. People have lives outside their home and the constitutional right applies outside their home." (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

The resurgent debate over gun control has put a spotlight on the hardline leaders of the National Rifle Association. In the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, executive vice president Wayne LaPierre delivered a full-throated rejection of gun control and called for more firearms in schools, while David Keene, the group's president, predicted the failure of any new assault weapons ban introduced in Congress. The two NRA figureheads purported to speak for more than 4 million American gun owners, though the group's membership may in fact be smaller.

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