Josh Peter

USA TODAY Sports

PHOENIX, Ariz. — In unison, the men and women who’d traveled from far as Florida picked up their rifles, set out Monday on half-mile long shooting range here for an event the National Rifle Association called history-making.

The plan: One thousand shooters would line up shoulder by shoulder, simultaneously fire two rounds and set a world record, all in support of Second Amendment rights and in celebration of the Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in the presidential election.

Verbal shots were fired first, during opening ceremonies of the so-called “1000 Man Shoot.”

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“You know there’s something that just seems right about making history today,’’ Pete Brownell, an NRA board member told the crowd. “As some of you may know, we made history last week … by overcoming the liberal media, by denouncing (Clinton’s tactics) and defending and defeating their gun-ban agendas.’’

But the idea of getting 1,000 people shooting rifles side by side took root before Trump and Clinton engaged an a election campaign that mobilized gun rights advocates. Anthony Imperato, president of Henry Repeating Arms company that supplied the guns for the event, said he envisioned something big and patriotic when he conceived of the idea more than a year ago.

Presiding over the event at Ben Avery Shooting Facility, he took clear satisfaction as he surveyed the crowd of more than 1,000 people representing 16 states under the tents with red, white and blue bunting, and plenty of camouflage. The 1,000 slots were sold out in less than a week, according to Imperato, who estimated the event would raise $1 million for the NRA.

Most of shooters were mostly white, mostly male and mostly middle age and up. It had a family feel, too.

Jack MacDougall, a retired Navy officer and police officer, drove from Florida to be with his daughter, Julie Ann Gould, who drove from San Diego with her 13-year-old son. They were among father-daughter and father-son combinations at the event.

“I want my rights to bear arms,’’ Gould said.

The NRA hoped its history-making event would aid that cause — protecting Second Amendment rights — although the history part could not be confirmed. The Guinness World Records would not validate the word-record claim, according NRA spokesman Jason Brown.

Brown said Guinness World Records told him by email that it had no such record and would create no such category. Shrugging it off, Brown said the NRA, not the Guinness World Records, is the authority when it comes to firearms, shooting competitions and related records.

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“That’s how we’re positioning ourselves,’’ he said, moments before the participants at Ben Avery Shooting Facility got directions from the shooting “Tower Man.”

‘Shooters, ready.’’

“Take Aim.’’

“Fire.’’

And so the bullets flew — the first round at 3:04 p.m., the second round at 3:06 p.m.

Cheers followed the shots that the NRA hopes will be heard far beyond Phoenix.