that this is the craziest election

Americans have ever seen.

I mean, attack ads have been replaced by Twitter.

Saying terrible things now gets you more votes.

And, uh, we watched a man sleepwalk

through an entire presidential campaign.

But in all this chaos, thankfully,

there is one pillar of consistency,

and that is the National Rifle Association,

America's largest firearms lobby

and proud retailer of gun-shaped mailboxes,

for when you really want to shoot the messenger.

Now, every election,

this organization reminds us how powerful they are.

And last Friday, they did it again by getting Donald Trump

to fly to their national convention in Louisville

and pledge his support

in exchange for their endorsement.

And that's really impressive.

Because Donald Trump doesn't care about the things

Republican leaders are supposed to care about.

I mean, he supported Planned Parenthood, you know?

He doesn't support free trade.

And he won't even wear those little Reagan nipple clamps

that they're all supposed to wear. Yeah.

Well, why do you think Ted Cruz always has that creepy smile?

Now you know. Now you know.

So, a lot of politicians support the NRA.

But what makes this surprising

is that Trump himself, on multiple occasions,

supported gun control measures

and even famously tweeted that President Barack Obama

spoke for him on the need for more gun control

after Sandy Hook.

But that was three years and a nomination ago,

and so at Friday's NRA event,

Trump was far more on target.

Thank you very much. This is, uh, amazing.

Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment.

Just remember that. We're not gonna let that happen,

I can tell you that right now. We're gonna preserve it.

We're gonna cherish it.

I've been watching what's going on,

and I've been looking at airplanes getting blown up

in the air and lots of bad things happening.

But if you look at Paris, 130 people killed,

and these guys came in, boom, boom.

"You, over here." Boom.

"Boom, boom"?

Well, I-I don't know if that's the most respectful way

to explain the Paris shootings.

"Boom, boom"?

Although, to be fair,

Trump explains every terrible historic event like that.

"Hindenburg, huge balloon, boom,

"flames, humanity, terrible.

"Lincoln assassination,

"boring play, nagging wife,

"out of nowhere, boom,

"he gets some peace and quiet.

"Julius Caesar, stab, stab, pizza, pizza.

"You can hear all those and more on my album,

Now That's What I Call Tragedy."

(cheering and applause)

Now...

now-now, you can argue that Trump isn't pandering,

that he might really love guns.

And I'll say maybe, just maybe that's possible.

But the way he talked on Friday makes me think

he's not totally on board.

My sons have been members of the NRA

for many, many years, and they're incredible.

They have so many rifles and so many guns,

sometimes even I get a little bit concerned.

I say, "That's a lot."

Oh, oh, what happened there?

Oh, what happened there? Yeah.

A little bit of a Truth Trump slipped out, huh? Yeah?

Yeah, it's a Trumpian slip, when you tell the truth

when you're trying to pander. That's what that is.

I love that. I love it.

It's... And it almost feels like, at times, Trump is trying

to feel out how crazy the group actually is.

It's like he's testing the room. "I mean, there's, uh...

"th-there is such a thing as too many guns, am I right?

"Am I right? No? No, of course not.

"Yeah. What was I saying? Of course not.

"I mean, as long as you're mentally stable.

"That's the rule. N-No? Okay, not that. Whatever.

"Anyway... But, I mean, that's just the guns, though,

"not missiles... Get the (bleep) out of here.

"Get the (bleep)... Missiles, too?

Wow, we are nuts." (clears throat)

Now, uh, you shouldn't be surprised

that the NRA got Trump to fall in line with their agenda,

because they always get what they want.

At the urging of the NRA, Congress passed a law

that specifically shields gun manufacturers from lawsuits.

REPORTER: After the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown,

the National Rifle Association bullied just enough members

of Congress to block any real action.

REPORTER 2: The NRA supported some of the most permissive

gun laws this country has ever seen.

You're allowed to carry a gun into a national park.

You can transport a gun on Amtrak.

And the NRA fought the handgun ban in the nation's capital.

Wow. That is a (bleep) ton of accomplishments.

Even the Illuminati's like, "Damn, you guys run (bleep).

Can we join you?"

And here's one of the craziest laws

that the NRA has gotten passed,

because they talk so much about good guys and bad guys.

When it comes to actually catching bad guys,

the NRA still takes the side of the gun over the victim.

MAN: This is the ATF's library of weapons

where feds try to help local police solve a crime,

figure out the exact type of gun

and trace where it was bought.

That means paperwork, and here, they are forced by Congress

to do things the old-fashioned way,

because members of Congress, backed by the NRA,

passed laws forbidding the agency from using computers.

-Are you (bleep) kidding me? -(laughter)

In the name of gun rights, the NRA found a way

to stop law enforcement from using computers.

Now they have to rely solely on paperwork.

That's like telling a teenager he can only jerk off

-to the Mona Lisa, that's all. That's... -(laughter)

"You can jerk off, but only to the Mona Lisa."

And the kid will be like, "What? Are you crazy?!

"I mean, I'll get it done, but it's just not very efficient.

-Oh! Oh!" -(applause)

"I don't even know if she's smiling. Ugh!"

And a lot of people think

the NRA has always been an extreme gun rights group,

but that's not true,

because that's actually not how it started.

BARRETT: This is an organization that, back in the '60s,

was a very tame, not particularly

political organization.

BENNETT: The NRA was a safety organization.

They helped people

teach their children and their friends and family

how to use and store and keep firearms safely.

The NRA supported

the Gun Control Act of 1968, for example.

Oh, wow.

So the NRA was a firearms safety organization

that also supported gun control.

What a dramatic change in goals.

It's like learning that the Ku Klux Klan

was once an organization devoted

to the care and maintenance of bedsheets.

(laughter)

And then one day, someone was like,

"Aah, there's holes in these sheets!

Now we have to find something else to do with them."

-(laughter) -So, going back.

During the 1960s and '70s,

there was a surge in riots and assassinations,

and because of that,

more gun laws and more gun control laws were passed.

And because of that,

a few people within the NRA decided to act.

CASSIDY: The NRA people said, "Wait a minute.

"We've got other things to worry about

than teaching guys how to shoot or how to hunt."

And that was the transformative period.

NARRATOR: It formally happened in 1977

at the NRA convention in Cincinnati.

As they got down to business, there was a showdown--

hunters and sportsmen, versus gun rights activists.

A group of hard-liners committed

to a no-compromises approach to