Opinion How the N.R.A. Builds Loyalty and Fanaticism The covers of the group’s magazine illuminate its incendiary tactics.

’23 ’33 ’59 ’70 ’71 ’71 ’72 ’73 ’73 ’77 ’78 ’80 ’82 ’83 ’85 ’88 ’91 ’91 ’92 ’93 ’93 ’94 ’94 ’94 ’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’02 ’04 ’04 ’06 ’08 ’08 ’10 ’12 ’12 ’13 ’13 ’14 ’14 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’16 ’17 ’17 ’23 ’59 ’70 ’71 ’33 ’71 ’72 ’73 ’73 ’77 ’78 ’80 ’82 ’83 ’85 ’88 ’91 ’91 ’92 ’93 ’93 ’94 ’94 ’94 ’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’02 ’04 ’04 ’06 ’08 ’08 ’10 ’12 ’12 ’13 ’13 ’14 ’14 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’16 ’17 ’17 ’23 ’33 ’59 ’70 ’71 ’71 ’72 ’73 ’78 ’80 ’73 ’77 ’82 ’83 ’85 ’88 ’92 ’93 ’91 ’91 ’93 ’94 ’94 ’94 ’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’00 ’02 ’98 ’99 ’04 ’04 ’06 ’08 ’13 ’13 ’12 ’08 ’14 ’14 ’14 ’15 ’17 ’17 ’16 ’16 Covers of The American Rifleman magazine. Subscribers’ information has been blurred in all images. Photographed by Tony Cenicola

Another needless tragedy in America: This time a gunman opened fire in a bar in Thousand Oaks, Calif., killing at least 12 people and injuring many more.

These horrors happen far more often in America than in other advanced countries partly because of the outsize political influence of the National Rifle Association. N.R.A. candidates suffered some important defeats in Tuesday’s midterm elections, but in a broad swath of red state America it remains potent, controlling politicians who know that an N.R.A. endorsement can make or break an election.

It is not the richest interest group. The National Association of Realtors has spent twice as much in the 2018 federal election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

It is not the largest interest group. It claims about six million members (probably an exaggeration); AARP has more than six times that number.

But the N.R.A. attracts incredible loyalty from its members. “That’s the critical thing people miss,” said Robert Spitzer, a political scientist at SUNY Cortland and the author of five books on gun policy. He said that the group combines a shared pastime with “ideological fervor.”

“It’s a layer on top of a hobby,” he said. “It’s bowling plus fanaticism.”

All N.R.A. members receive a subscription to one of the organization’s magazines. We studied one of them, The American Rifleman, for clues about how the N.R.A. spurs its members’ zealotry.

There are newer N.R.A. publications that focus expressly on gun rights. But The Rifleman has been published under its current title since 1923, revealing how the group has politicized and mobilized its members over the past century.

The covers of the magazine show how the N.R.A.’s conception of itself has evolved from a largely apolitical association of hunters and sportsmen …

… to the last line of defense against “gun-banning” politicians.

The group’s identity, once defined by sports shooting, is now dominated by politics.

Early issues of The Rifleman focused on marksmanship and gun safety. A cover from 1923, for example, questions the importance of “hand-gun fit.” Another from 1959 places “firearms safety” first among the organization’s priorities.

Through the early ’70s, the covers often showed bucolic hunting scenes. Stories about hunting were broken out into a separate magazine, The American Hunter, in 1973.

But beneath the idyllic covers of the ’70s was internal strife. A faction of the N.R.A. pushed the group to take a more active role in defending gun rights, and hard-liners staged a coup at the N.R.A.’s 1977 gathering.

They overwhelmed the moderates, who wanted to preserve the organization’s focus on marksmanship and hunting, ousted the leadership and installed Harlon B. Carter to run the organization. He appears on the July 1977 cover.

Mr. Carter was a former Border Patrol chief who, in his youth, was convicted of murdering a Hispanic teenager he believed might have committed a crime; the conviction was later overturned on a technicality. After he took charge, the N.R.A. became increasingly focused on individual gun rights, sometimes seeming to embrace the vigilantism that Mr. Carter had embodied as a boy.

The organization also became more explicitly political. In 1980, Ronald Reagan became the first presidential candidate to receive the N.R.A.’s endorsement, and in 1982, The Rifleman put him on its cover. The following year, Mr. Reagan became the first sitting president to address the N.R.A.’s annual convention, and he appeared alongside Mr. Carter on a 1983 cover.

Politicians — especially purported enemies of the N.R.A. like President Barack Obama and Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York — have frequently appeared on the pages of The Rifleman.

The group exaggerates threats to manufacture paranoia.

The N.R.A. mobilizes its supporters by emphasizing threats to gun owners’ rights and values.

One oft-repeated claim is that the government wants to assemble a database of gun owners to aid future firearm confiscation.

On a 1991 cover, the magazine printed the subscriber’s name and address on a mock “Federal Firearms Registration Center” screen, alongside a callout that warned, “They Want Your Guns!”

Fear of confiscation also animates a 1998 cover that warns members to vote or risk the same future as Australian gun owners. The photograph shows guns being destroyed as part of a mandatory Australian buyback program.

A 2013 cover declares a “siege” and presents a litany of threats: a “hostile Justice Department,” “anti-gun indoctrination in schools” and, simply, “George Soros,” the progressive philanthropist who is a favorite target of right-wing conspiracy theories.

Recent covers have used apocalyptic language and imagery to provoke subscribers.

Political opponents are caricatured as liars and villains.

Though the N.R.A. aligns most often with Republicans, it says its sole priority is defending the Second Amendment, and it will battle politicians from any party who back gun safety measures.

The organization bitterly opposed President Bill Clinton, who supported two major firearms safety laws. Before his election in 1992, it urged members to elect a “Clinton-proof Congress” to combat his legislative agenda.

President Clinton signed the Brady Bill, which imposed background checks and a waiting period for purchasing firearms, and the N.R.A. was not pleased.

A 1993 cover offers a rogue’s gallery of “gun banners,” including Sarah Brady, a leading proponent of the bill. The magazine also targeted Hillary Clinton, the first lady at the time.

“The interesting tension is that the organization is simultaneously flag-waving and patriotic, and it also treats politicians and the state as though they are the actual enemy,” said Matthew Lacombe, a graduate student at Northwestern University who has studied The Rifleman’s editorials.

The magazine’s opposition to President Obama was particularly fierce. After he said he shot skeet as a hobby, the White House released this photo to back up his claim.

The Rifleman repurposed the picture for its cover and dubbed Obama “King Pinocchio,” painting him as a false friend of gun owners.

In the 2016 election, The Rifleman again attacked Hillary Clinton, then a presidential candidate, with an unflattering portrait. They later reused the tactic with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York.

N.R.A. leaders are lauded as noble defenders of freedom and tradition.

If “gun-banning” politicians are the villains in The Rifleman’s world, then gun owners — and the N.R.A. itself — are the heroes.

A 1999 cover lionizes two of the organization’s leaders fighting “hidden enemies.” Wayne LaPierre, the group’s executive vice president, appears again on a 2016 issue.

In 1995, Mr. LaPierre appeared alongside the actor Charlton Heston, who played the titular hero in the classic religious drama “Ben-Hur.”

After that, Mr. Heston began cropping up frequently in The Rifleman. A 1997 cover doubles down on the religious allusion, labeling his pro-gun advocacy a “crusade.” In 1998, Mr. Heston became the N.R.A.’s president.

During the 2000 election, Mr. Heston raised a replica rifle and challenged the Democratic presidential nominee, Al Gore, to pry it from his “cold, dead hands.”

Charlton Heston at the 2000 N.R.A. annual meeting via 2Asupporters on YouTube

The phrase became a rallying cry. Later, the magazine offered the rifle as a prize to solicit donations and memberships.

The group is extremely deliberate about mobilizing its members.

Since 1994, The Rifleman has printed N.R.A.-endorsed candidates at the bottom of its November cover each year, using subscribers’ information to personalize the “ballots” to their voting district.

The election issues pair these ballots with threats from outsiders whom the magazine suggests are acting “conspiratorially,” Mr. Lacombe at Northwestern said.

Covers have warned about “John Kerry’s Nightmare Presidency,” pointed to “Clinton’s Ambitions” and denounced “Pelosi’s Intentions.”

The language often addresses the reader directly.

“The number of times the word ‘you’ appears is remarkable,” Mr. Lacombe said. “Bad things will happen to you unless you take action.”

Recently, the group has found a friend in Mr. Trump, who has spoken at the 2017 and 2018 N.R.A. conventions. A 2017 cover highlights his meeting with Mr. LaPierre in the White House.

But despite a friendly administration, in November The Rifleman released an issue online that shows the Statue of Liberty drowning in a potential “socialist wave.”

The group cannot “backtrack from the apocalyptic messaging,” Professor Spitzer at SUNY Cortland said. “They can’t say, ‘We won.’ They still need a villain, even though they hit the jackpot with Donald Trump.”