The National Rifle Association has opened a museum tracing the history of American firearms, as well as subtly burnishing its bona fides as the de facto protector of the Constitution’s Second Amendment.
The NRA National Sporting Arms Museum is nestled within a hunting and fishing store in Springfield, Mo., and includes historical artifacts like an engraved shotgun Napoleon once gave to a favored general, guns used by Jesse James, as well as nods to Hollywood gunslingers like Clint Eastwood and John Wayne.
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"If you are a gun person, you are going to love this place," museum director Jim Supica says in an online vide promoting the museum as "one of the premier firearms museums in the world," according to Reuters.
One diorama will portray President Theodore Roosevelt on safari, while another ode of Americana within the museum depicts explorers Lewis and Clark.
“These guns came from the NRA collection built over 80 years,” Supica told Reuters during a phone interview, adding that “a lot came from special collections that haven't had a place for display."
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