Any doubts about whether the NRA is feeling the pressure of an increasingly powerful gun violence prevention movement can be quelled by reading Wayne LaPierre’s latest keynote rant. While never the most coherent thinker, this year’s stream-of-warped-consciousness epic hate poem, showed LaPierre giving up all pretense and appealing directly to his audience’s worst fears, deepest prejudices and festering anger. Here’s why:

For years the National Rifle Association has maintained its stranglehold on national politics by convincing politicians that it is politically invincible. But now there is fresh evidence — actual numbers — that show the NRA is increasingly feeling the heat of Americans’ shifting attitudes about gun violence prevention. This is a big deal.

The numbers appear in a tax form known as a 990, which charitable organizations must file every year to let the Internal Revenue Service know what they are up to. The NRA’s 990 for the year 2014 just appeared online at Guidestar, where all such filings are made public.

The invincibility myth has always been just that […]