The Impact Of National Rifle Association On Gun-control Decision-making Of U.S.Government

On October 1,2017,a gunman opened fire on a crowd in Las Vegas,which made this massacre the deadliest mass shooting in U.S.history.In the first half of 2018,an alarming number of school shootings occurred almost every week and many students were killed in school shootings.Obviously,gun violence has become a serious social problem in America.For more than half a century,anti-gun-control interest groups have always affected the U.S.government decision-making about gun control,leading to the issue of gun control getting stuck in a dilemma.Up to now,the U.S.gun control has not made substantial progress,and sometimes even retrogressed.It should be noted that the biggest impediment to gun control is the National Rifle Association(the NRA),one of the most influential single-issue interest groups in the U.S.today.Starting with an overview of the evolution and political goals of the NRA,this thesis elaborates on its measures to impose pressure on the U.S.government decision-making in the legislative,executive and judicial branches respectively.In order to analyze how the NRA affects government decision-making,this thesis bases its study on examining its influence on the Gun Control Act of 1968,the 2018 U.S.mid-term elections,the 2016 U.S.presidential election,the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and the case of District of Columbia v.Heller(2008).By case studies,this thesis makes an in-depth analysis of how the NRA has affected congressional decision-making about federal gun control laws,the U.S.presidents' decisions about gun control in the White House and the Supreme Court's rulings about gun-right cases for decades.This thesis draws the conclusion that the NRA has gradually deepened its influence on government decision-making about gun control.With the increasing gun violence in American society,the NRA has not served as a safety valve to alleviate social conflicts.Faced with the rising calls for gun-control,the U.S.government has not enacted any strict gun control law to keep citizens safe.Clearly,the pressure of the NRA has made it more difficult for policymakers to make decisions for the benefit of the silent majority.