Until Gun Control / Prohibition Advocates started advocating the Prohibition of Handguns, then Semi-Automatics, and for some Anti-Gun Advocates, all guns. Attempt to take people rights and freedoms away, and they will react.
Another factor contributing to the change in the NRA was the realization that the "Fudds" (those who believe the only purpose of owning guns was to hunt) would be perfectly willing to sell out other guns owners as long as they were allowed to keep their hunting guns. And since fewer gun owners hunt these days, the non-hunters were not about to let themselves be sold out.
The big internal change in the NRA occurred in 1977 with what became known as the Cincinnati Revolt. Make no mistake, this was not some covert action by gun manufactures it was a real grass roots revolution from within.
How NRAs true believers converted a marksmanship group into a mighty gun lobby
The rise of various organizations seeking to strictly limit or ban handguns.
Mark Borinsky founded the National Council to Control Handguns in 1974
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_Campaign
Also involved was Nelson T. (Pete) Shields III whose son, Nelson 4th, was shot and killed in San Francisco in 1975, a victim in a series of racially motivated killings of whites by four blacks that came to be known as the Zebra killings.
"We'll take one step at a time, and the first is necessarily - given the political realities - very modest. We'll have to start working again to strengthen the law, and then again to strengthen the next law and again and again. Our ultimate goal, total control of handguns, is going to take time. The first problem is to slow down production and sales. Next is to get registration. The final problem is to make possession of all handguns and ammunition (with a few exceptions) totally illegal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_to_Stop_Gun_Violence
In 1974, the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society formed the National Coalition to Ban Handguns, a group of thirty religious, labor, and nonprofit organizations with the goal of addressing "the high rates of gun-related crime and death in American society" by licensing gun owners, registering firearms, and banning private ownership of handguns with "reasonable limited exceptions" for “police, military, licensed security guards, antique dealers who have guns in unfireable condition, and licensed pistol clubs where firearms are kept on the premises.” In the 1980s and 1990s, the coalition grew to 44 member groups. In 1989, the National Coalition to Ban Handguns changed its name to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, in part because the group felt that "assault rifles" as well as handguns, should be outlawed.
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