I joined a while back for a year and before the year was over I used the opportunity for a $300 life membership. IMO, if you can join only one gun organization it should be the NRA. If you don't care for some of the things they do, work from within to change them. To me having the 2nd amendment is a great start, but we cannot depend on legislators following the constitution. Also the 2nd leaves a little wiggle room with the wording about "regulation". No one I know thinks all citizens should have access to firearms. If you are mentally ill, a spouse abuser, convicted of a violent crime, obviously you should not have access to guns. The NRA agrees with this. But this bull hockey about 30 round magazines being banned is plain stupid. Only a tiny amount of the firearms are involved in crime and of those that are, only a tiny amount are rifles. The larger the number of members that the NRA can claim the more clout they have with legislators. This means votes and campaign donations.
I even found a file so I could show my life membership on the Colt forum.
My Dad signed me up back in the fifties and I've been a member since. This provides me a Rifleman magazine to go with the Handgunner magazine. Pretty much all I need.