全国步枪协会同时声称其是竞选中的强劲力量； 1994年位列其黑名单上的24位议员，其称击败了19位。但最近《美国展望》的一篇文章对此表示怀疑，声称由于全国步枪协会发展缓慢而且趋向于支持共和党导致其影响弱小。

　　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.

　　尽管全国步枪协会表面上致力于保护4百万会员的持枪权利，而来自如枪支管制团体“暴力政策中心”的批评者认为其从军火生产商那里获得的资金数量已经让其实际上变成了一个枪支产业的贸易协会。其募集的部分资金直接来自于枪支的销售额中。例如枪支生产商斯图姆去年销售的每支枪中都有1美元捐给了全国步枪协会，共计120万美元。

　　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.

　　全国步枪协会激进的执行副总裁Wayne LaPierre先前说，全国步枪协会现在是要破釜沉舟和奥巴马一战。而奥巴马似乎没作出什么惹到它的行为，而且很爽快地批准将枪支带进国家公园和火车的法令。但许多局中人认为，奥巴马前期的平静其实是阴谋的一部分，他致力于在其第二任期内废除宪法第二修正案。

　　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.

　　然而种种迹象表明全国步枪协会已经同当代美国人，甚至其内部成员（根据调查，他们如今倾向于在枪支展览会上对枪支购买者许进行诸如强制的背景核查的管制）脱节。未来不容乐观。尽管全国步枪协会尝试获得更多女性的支持，其在圣路易斯的盛会参与者基本上是40岁以上的白人男性，而这一数量在美国人口中正不断下降。全国步枪协会的杂志如《美国步枪》的分类栏目中除了各种武器外就是花园用具和伟哥的广告。