Longtime Democratic Rep. John Dingell, who helped make the NRA's lobbying arm into a political force, privately sought to repeal the 1994 assault weapons ban that he voted for: report

• The late Rep. John Dingell played a major role in the rise of the NRA's lobbying operation in DC.
• In the 1970s, Dingell advocated for the NRA, in an era where many Democrats backed the group.
• The New York Times examined a trove of documents which outlined Dingell's relationship with the NRA.

The late Democrat Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, an institution in US politics who served in Congress from 1955 to 2015, played a significant role in enacting countless pieces of legislation over the course of generations, with his eye always on the constituents that he represented in his Detroit-area district.