How the NRA's Internal Election Became a Civil War Over Radical Islam

Grover Norquist, Frank Gaffney, and the battle that could reach Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), speaks at the Bloomberg Washington Summit in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, May 1, 2012.
Photographer: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

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By David Weigel

March 16, 2015 at 12:54 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Last week, when Glenn Beck threatened to quit the National Rifle Association, the news rocketed around the progressive media. It had seemed to shoot out of the blue—what would put Beck at loggerheads with the gun lobby? What was his beef with Grover Norquist?

"If this man is elected, or re-elected, and confirmed on the board of the NRA, I may drop my membership in the NRA," Beck told listeners and viewers of his show. "I am that concerned that he is a very bad influence and a very bad man that, if this is who the NRA decides to put on their board of directors, I don't think I can be associated with them."