They were formed to teach marksmanship and firearms safety right after the Civil War. As long as the country was largely agrarian and hunting was the primary use of guns that's how guns were marketed and why people bought them. In the late '50s through the '60s hunting declined in popularity both because the country had become urbanized and hunting property became scarce. Along with that the counter culture and civil rights movement turned society on it's head and scared shit out of white middle class America. The gun industry saw a new market to replace the dwindling hunting segment. That's when the NRA stopped being an educational organization and became a seller of fear.
Fear of angry black people, fear of crazy drug addled hippies, fear of commies under the bed, fear of change. As those fears subsided they were bolstered by fear of the Government, fear that Big Brother would take all the guns, fear that if you didn't have enough guns and bullets "they" would come for you.
Wayne Lapierre was a lobbyist and knew nothing about guns when he was hired in the early '70s but he knew DC and how to market a product. That was the turning point for both the NRA and the gun culture.
Gun owners were no longer the naturalists preserving wildlife and habitat, they were now the fearful urbanite.
Does the gun industry have a responsibility? They don't seem to think so any more than the auto industry. Every advance in auto technology was made through legislation. At this point there are 30+ federal specifications for safety items in the passenger compartment of a car. There are no federal specifications for the manufacture of guns. The BATF&E suggests that any new design or modification be submitted for approval and it makes sense for the manufacturers to do so to prevent having to destroy a lot of inventory, but there are NO federal specifications for the manufacture of guns.
So, no, the industry does not have a responsibility. That is the job of the legislature and they are owned lock stock and barrel by the firearms industry.
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