The NRA’s early endorsement of Donald Trump makes any third-party bid on the right more difficult. | AP Photo NRA facing member backlash over Trump endorsement The early endorsement was a push for GOP unity. But not all NRA members are eager to fall in line.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With its last-minute decision to formally endorse Donald Trump, the National Rifle Association put itself out in front of the fight for Republican party unity.

Just a day later, it’s already taking flak.


Chris Cox, the NRA’s top strategist, was met with raucous applause when he announced to the estimated 80,000 people gathered here for the group’s annual leadership forum on Friday that the nation’s biggest and most influential gun-rights organization was officially backing the presumptive Republican nominee. To endorse so early in the process is virtually unprecedented for the group; they didn’t get behind Mitt Romney in 2012 and Sen. John McCain in 2008 until October.

“If your preferred candidate dropped out of the race, it’s time to get over it,” Cox said.

But not everyone is there yet.

“I have no clue why they did it,” said Brian Abney of Missouri. He was among the much smaller contingent that showed up to the NRA’s Annual Members Meeting on Saturday, hoping to grill the NRA’s brass about the decision to endorse a man who not long ago backed longer waiting periods to buy guns and a ban on assault weapons (which, NRA activists will tell you, is an inaccurate, anti-gun term for that category of firearms).

Trump has since disavowed those views, and on Friday, he called for an end to gun-free zones while warning that Clinton would overturn the Second Amendment.

“I will not let you down,” Trump vowed.

Abney is in complete agreement that Hillary Clinton is unacceptable.

“I don’t trust her,” Abney said, who traveled from St. Louis to attend his sixth NRA conference. “It seems like scandal follows her around.”

But of Trump, he added, “I think of him about the same way I think of Hillary,” noting the billionaire’s many position changes over the years. Abney said he hopes Trump can somehow win his trust, but he’s also considering a third party.

The NRA’s early endorsement of Trump makes any third-party bid on the right more difficult.

“It was a very clear choice,” said an NRA official on Saturday, who insisted on speaking anonymously about internal NRA deliberations. “Hillary Clinton is not an option. She must be defeated at all costs.”

The campaign was “heated,” the official said, so the NRA saw the early endorsement as “an opportunity to begin the process of bringing everyone together to defeat Hillary Clinton and elect a pro-Second Amendment president.”

Trump’s more recent statements put him on strong footing, the official said. “Throughout this campaign, Donald Trump has been very clear that he is a staunch supporter of Second Amendment rights.”

It had been unclear, initially, whether the NRA would simply trash Clinton while giving Trump a platform on Friday, or formally back him. Rep. Allan West, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and Tea Party darling, was ambivalent about the move.

“What’s the alternative?” West said Saturday in a brief interview. As a freshly elected member of NRA’s board, he wasn’t involved with the endorsement decision.

“You’ve got to endorse someone that you think will look after your interests,” West said. “I guess they figured that Donald Trump will protect the Second Amendment.”

Asked whether he trusts Trump to protect the Second Amendment, West responded, “We’ll have to see.”

The backlash, which also played out in a pitched debate among the rank-and-file on NRA’s Facebook page, is a sign that GOP unity cannot be rushed, even by groups with the credibility of the NRA.

“You can endorse anyone you want including the lying, progressive, anti-gun democrat DJ Trump, but you don't get to tell your dues paying membership ‘get over it,’” posted David Davis, who said he was ending his 30-year membership. “I didn't leave the NRA, the NRA left me.”

There’s still plenty of support, both enthusiastic and resigned, for Trump among the attendees here.

“I don’t think it’s a change of heart. I think he’s become educated,” said John Coffindaffer. He and his wife considered Ted Cruz before ultimately backing Trump in the Alabama primary. And as former Connecticut residents who say they faced harassment for their advocacy of gun rights after the Newtown shootings, they are committed Second Amendment defenders.

“Trump’s son is a big time hunter and I believe without a doubt that our second amendment rights are way safer with Trump than Hillary Clinton!” wrote Josh Moriarty on Facebook. “I have a hard time believing that no one has different views as they grow as a person or change.”

Even without the endorsement, the NRA’s anybody-but-Clinton message was seared into every speech and video. Indeed, attacks on her approach to Benghazi, her honesty and, of course, her threat to the Second Amendment dominated the entire five-hour program on Friday.

“Were there differences between the candidates for the nomination? Of course,” Cox said Friday. “Will any of it matter if Hillary wins in November?”

The audience answered him, with a resounding “NO!”