History Book - The NRA’s first shot

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s The World and Everything in It on this 15th of November, 2021. We’re so glad you’ve joined us today. Good morning! I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Next up: The WORLD History Book. Today, tiny tech, the birth of the NRA, and purple mountains majesty. Here’s senior correspondent Katie Gaultney.

SONG: “Rocky Mountain High,” instrumental

KATIE GAULTNEY, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: We’re all familiar with Lewis and Clark, but their expedition wasn’t the only one to explore the Louisiana Purchase. At roughly the same time that duo was charting a course by way of the Missouri River, President Thomas Jefferson tasked U.S. Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike with his own expedition: exploring the Western Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. And Pike first spotted what would become known as Pikes Peak—the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains—on November 15th, 1806.

Pike and his team tried to summit the 14,000-plus-foot peak, but waist-deep snow and two days without food hampered their efforts. Pike wrote in his journal:

PIKE: I believed no human being could have ascended to its pinnacle. This with the condition of my soldiers who had only light overalls on, and no stockings, and every way ill provided to endure the inclemency of the region.

SONG: “America the Beautiful”

Pike called it “Highest Peak.” But in 1890, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names honored Pike by making him the mountain’s namesake.

The view from the top inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write the song "America the Beautiful" in July 1893.

SONG: “America the Beautiful”

From mountaineers to marksmen…

New York granted a charter to the National Rifle Association 150 years ago, on November 16th, 1871.

SONG: “Over There,” by George M. Cohan

Its founders envisioned a recreational group that would advance rifle marksmanship. The Wall Street Journal produced a brief piece on NRA history, noting the organization's creative efforts.

WSJ: By 1903, the NRA promoted shooting as a sport at colleges and universities and later created a summer youth camp.

Its efforts improved the shooting skills of American soldiers in World Wars I and II. Over the years, along with gun competency and safety training, the NRA entered the political fray. In 1934, the NRA began mailing information about upcoming firearms bills to its members and voicing opinions about gun-related laws. In 1975, the organization formed a lobbying wing, and two years later, its own Political Action Committee to direct funds to friendly legislators.

NRA head honcho Wayne LaPierre has long advocated against what he calls cumbersome and faulty gun restrictions proposed by legislators. In a 2013 speech, he called for alternatives that would provide more safety without restricting gun rights.

LAPIERRE: We want the federal gun laws on the books right now to be enforced against felons with guns… If they would just do that, those violent criminals would be off the streets, and they wouldn’t be on their way to their next crime scene…

The NRA has been a lightning rod for controversy as it lobbies against gun control measures and for Second Amendment rights. Illinois Senator Adlai Stevenson on a 1977 60 Minutes segment:

STEVENSON: The issue isn’t any longer control of pistols. The issue is the gun lobby! It’s whether or not the government can stand up to the gun lobby, and so far, it hasn’t been able to.

Today, the state that gave the NRA its first charter hopes to end the group. After coming under fire in New York in 2020 for questionable financial practices, NRA leaders announced plans to file for bankruptcy and reincorporate in Texas. A Texas judge rejected the filing. New York’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit aiming to dissolve the group.

And for our last entry, we’ll move from a big organization to a small technology.

A microprocessor is a computer chip that merges all the electronic circuitry of a computer into a single component. Engineers equip these tiny technologies with instructions and the capability to follow through on those instructions. That makes up the heart of how a computer functions. And 50 years ago, on November 15th, 1971, Intel released the world’s first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.

INTEL: About the size of a piece of candy, the 4004 incorporated 2300 transistors and had as much computing power as ENIAC, the world’s first electronic computer, which was called “The Giant Brain” when unveiled in 1946.

Federico Faggin led the team that developed the first microprocessor. Intel had a Japanese customer that was using three chips in its calculators. Faggin aimed to reduce the complexity and improve the integration of the devices. And he saw the potential for broader applications of this new tech:

FAGGIN: Nobody at Intel thought that it could be useful other than making calculators, and I say, “No, no, no, this is excellent to make controllers, you know, micro controllers… but they won’t listen. So I actually developed a tester of the 4004, using the 4004 as the controller of the tester…

SONG: “Computer Love,” Kraftwerk

Faggin managed to pull off something unprecedented: fitting a general-purpose computer processing unit onto a small, commercial silicon chip. The 4004 set the stage for all kinds of technological development and propelled the industry forward. In fact, in many ways, it was the forebear of the device you’re using to listen to this podcast.

That’s this week’s History Book. I’m Katie Gaultney.

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