While the National Rifle Association may be perceived as the biggest protector of Second Amendment rights and the biggest nemesis of gun control, the president of the organization says those roles actually belong to the American people.

Speaking at the Montana Firearms Institute Conference at the Lodge on Whitefish Lake, David Keene said the NRA has a strong membership roster of 4 million, but there are at least 30 million who strongly support the association and what it does.

“It’s those 30 million people who make it possible for us to accomplish what we do on their behalf,” said Keene, who also is chairman emeritus of the American Conservative Union and has served on the NRA board since 2000.

Keene recalled that in the early 1960s, gun control wasn’t an issue and the Second Amendment was plainly understood and supported by both political parties. The NRA wasn’t even involved in politics.

But then came the Gun Control Act of 1968. “At that point things begin to change and change very quickly,” he said.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers were on board with some gun control measures that came forward in the years after, and leaders in the well-established NRA recognized they had to engage in politics.

“Even those who believed strongly in the Second Amendment thought were looking at a pretty bleak future” at that time, Keene said.

But the firearms world was highly fragmented, with little unity among hunters, collectors, manufacturers, dealers and other gun groups.

“We all started to work together,” he said. “Now everybody knows they are in the same boat.”

Keene said the tide was reversed with most Americans grasping the importance of their Second Amendment rights.

Most Americans now live in gun-owning households, the NRA has been highly successful in developing youth shooting sports programs, women are now a rapidly growing demographic supporting gun ownership and, put simply, firearms are deeply ingrained in the fabric of the country.

“Politically, it’s very dangerous for politicians to mess with the Second Amendment ... and it’s not because of the NRA,” he said. “Our rights are so deeply embedded in the people who think about it for our most tenacious enemies and critics to do anything about it.”

Keene said the NRA has been successful in court and in resisting regulations, but he predicts there will be continued challenges “that will revolve around what are ‘reasonable’ restrictions” on firearms.

There are other types of challenges.

Keene commented briefly on the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal directed by the Department of Justice and carried out by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The operation started in 2009 and involved guns being purchased from southern border-state gun dealers and being allowed to fall into the hands of gangsters in Mexico. Those guns resulted in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and more than 200 Mexicans.

Because the weapons weren’t being tracked, “there was no logical reason for the program” other than to wait for them to show up at crime scenes, which they did.

And that led many to ask, “Why are they doing this?” Keene said.

The most obvious answer, he asserted, was to enact new laws restricting border-state gun dealers under the political premise that they were responsible for violence south of the border.

“They tried to destroy the lives and the careers of the [licensed dealers] they forced to work with them,” he said, and the only reason it came to light was three ATF agents who came forward as whistle blowers. A subsequent investigation led to a Justice Department report that came out just recently confirming the details of Operation Fast and Furious.