Perhaps the Grinnell president should learn a little history. The NRA is the oldest civil rights organization in the USA, and helped train and arm black citizens after the civil war.
The donation is not from Reconstruction-era NRA. It’s from today’s NRA.
Nice to know that the NRA is a civil rights organization. No wonder so many GOP Congressmen are taking donations!
Is it their current mission to arm and train blacks? Asking for a friend.
Lysander Spooner.
The claim that the NRA was founded to help defend Blacks in the era of Reconstruction has been debunked several times. It seems to have arisen from nowhere in the organization’s own self-promotional efforts about five years ago. Its organizational documents make clear that it was founded by retired generals who were concerned that the quality of marksmanship in the troops they had led during the Civil War had been very poor, that the increasing urbanization of American life meant that fewer young men were being taught to shoot rifles accurately, and that modern warfare made accuracy with long-range rifles increasingly important, while the Army had made no efforts to teach shooting skills systematically. They wanted to establish a shooting range and training program in New York State to train young men to shoot so they would be better soldiers when needed.
The NRA did not oppose Jim Crow laws prohibiting Blacks in the South from owning firearms. As those laws fell to constitutional challenges in the 20th Century, the NRA colluded with Southern legislatures to enact permitting legislation which gave local sheriffs wide discretion to permit or to disallow a person to carry weapons, on a case-by-case basis. Those measures worked to preserve the status quo of denying Blacks access to weapons.
I think the NRA today is basically a manufacturer’s lobby.
@jhs thanks for the history lesson.
What’s the over/under on how many post it takes to close this political thread? 
Is an nra member accused of a mass shooting?
It could be argued to be a civil rights organization insofar as its goal is to uphold the constitutional issues regarding the Second Amendment.
Civil rights organizations by nature defend “unalienable rights granted by our Creator” and are only summarized in the Constitution.
Many of the Framers considered the Bill of Rights redundant, as we already possess rights and the Constitution is merely a limitation on governmental power.
I don’t remember anything about the right to own guns in the Bible, Torah, Koran, Dianetics, etc.
Did you read the article? This is Grinnell. Which is about as close to pacifism as you can get without being Quaker.
Obviously this shakes all people there.
The question is, Can you accept gifts from individuals whose lifelong beliefs led to actions your school’s mission is specifically against? Even if it doesn’t come with strings attached? What do you do when you learn that accepting the gift led to a propaganda piece that makes fun of your school’s mission or that the gift has been used as if it were an endorsement and a seal of respectability targeting some circles? Can you refuse some gifts? Can you afford to?
Note that the school indicates that the donor should be invited to speak - their discussion deals with accepting gifts that come from donors who stand against the school’s mission/philosophy.
Does Grinnell ask the students to agree to the mission of the school? No guns, no violence? Do they have to give up watching boxing or going hunting?
Well, basically I don’t think most students who attend Grinnell hunt or watch boxing. They can take classes in or major in Peace and Conflict studies where other colleges have military science and leadership (ROTC).
Grinnell’s endowment was $1.8 billion last year and is typically in the top 10 for endowment levels per student. They can afford to take ethical stances. Good for them for sticking to their principles.
I bet Grinnell doesn’t ask if there if the parent is a gun owner before accepting a tuition payment, or if the money was earned by being a payday lender or in a non-green manner. Grinnell can turn down the tainted money if it is prepared to cancel the program those funds support or use other money for it. It’s a hard decision.
If I refused to do business anywhere where anyone in any capacity has any values contrary to my own, I’d have to be out on the grid somewhere growing my own food, I guess.
As far as my statement about unalienable rights, that was directed to the idea that the NRA can argue it is a civil rights organization. It was not at all suggesting the Second Amendment of the Constitution is in the Bible (or any religious text).