In the United States in October 1993, the National Rifle Association (NRA) published a four-page advertisement in the center of its magazine American Rifleman, the first page of which showed goose-stepping, jackbooted legs under the question, "What's the First Step to a Police State?" Two years later, the NRA's executive vice-president, Wayne LaPierre, created controversy when he referred to federal agents as "jackbooted government thugs" in an NRA fund-raising letter. The term had been invented by United States Representative John Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, in 1981. Such statements prompted former U.S. president George H. W. Bush to resign his membership in the organization soon afterward.
