If you saw CNN’s town hall dog and pony show following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, you saw students berating the NRA’s Dana Loesch and asking Sen. Marco Rubio how he liked the blood on his hands. Not to mention Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel grandstanding for the anti-gun crowd. But you may not have realized that you were also watching an extremely effective ad for the NRA.
Maybe you watched some of the saturation coverage of the March For our Lives gun control bacchanal in D.C. It culminated in David Hogg raising his balled-up little fist in defiance against the big bad NRA and the evil gun lobby.
You may not have realized that with every spoon-fed speech delivered by a sympathetic little moppet, tailor-made to pull on middle America’s heartstrings, you were also witnessing the best commercial for NRA membership since Barack Obama assigned the task of “reforming” America’s gun laws to Slow Joe Biden.
Newton said every action has an equal and opposite reaction. That being the case, the other side of the gun control push has been a fundraising bonanza for the NRA.
As the student-led March for Our Lives movement captured the nation’s attention in the weeks after the Parkland shooting, the other side of the gun control debate enjoyed a banner month of its own.
The National Rifle Association’s Political Victory Fund raised $2.4 million from March 1 to March 31, the group’s first full month of political fundraising since the nation’s deadliest high school shooting on Valentine’s Day, according to filings submitted to the Federal Elections Commission. The total is $1.5 million more than the organization raised during the same time period in 2017, when it took in $884,000 in donations, and $1.6 million more than it raised in February 2018.
To be fair, a new president who isn’t Hillary Clinton had just been sworn into office last February. America’s firearm owners and gun rights advocates had visions of over-the-counter suppressors and national reciprocity dancing in their heads. Still . . .
The $2.4 million haul is the most money raised by the NRA’s political arm in one month since June 2003, the last month when electronic federal records were readily available. It surpasses the $1.1 million and $1.5 million raised in January and February 2013, the two months after the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Worth noting is that the haul wasn’t made up of a few big dollar donors opening their checkbooks.
Most of the donations, $1.9 million of the $2.4 million total, came from small donors who gave less than $200.
Meanwhile the cash hasn’t been flowing in quite so fast for the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex.
Gun control groups haven’t been able to match the NRA’s fundraising. Everytown for Gun Safety’s Political Action Fund raised $13,580 in March while former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ Political Action Committee raised $129,589 in March. Two South Florida lawmakers have received donations from gun control groups this election cycle. Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo, who introduced a bill to ban bump stocks after the Las Vegas shooting, received $1,000, while Democratic state Rep. David Richardson, who is running for Congress to replace retiring Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, received $14,108 from gun control groups.
Keep talking, David Hogg. Keep talking.
I did my bit by sending in another NRA membership. Que the anti-NRA trolls…no one mentions GOA or does a Nazi salute against them.
I know I contributed to the NRA surge, as well as GOA, SAF, and Florida Carry. You’re absolutely right. These events were literally the thing all our pro gun groups have been warning about for years. And the anti gunners have REALLY let the mask slip this time. It truly has become a battle of maintain/expanding gun rights vs a total gun ban and eradication of all gun owners. These anti gun rallies literally give off the same feeling as the Nuremberg Rallies, Godwin be damned.
Mission Accomplished.
1) Breaking with a decades-old practice of denouncing new gun control measures
2) Sacrificing unpopular gun items (bump stocks) on the altar of appeasement
3) Allowing a Republican president & representatives to promote gun control without a response
4) Record fundraising totals
Brilliant!
(I wonder how much of the fundraising was from people buying memberships in order to gain a vote towards dethroning all the Fudds in charge of the organization. I saw more than a few references to this exact motivation for new members over the past several months)
Pushing the fudds out of the NRA is a much better, and time proven tactic as opposed to just screaming “F THE NRA JOIN GOA”… you can do both. Why not achieve more influence over the much stronger of the two? It’s going that way as it is. If anyone looks at the history, the NRA has gone from not even combating gun control, to being a relatively effective hedge against it. It’s a much more effective tactic to gain influence to shape agenda, rather than to combat everything that’s not ideologically pure.
I’m an NRA member. As well as with other groups like GOA. But there is a reason the NRA is the 800 lb gorilla in the room. There is a reason why the only gun rights group the Leftist attack consistently is the NRA. It is because, over all, the NRA does a good to excellent job in coordinating the efforts of people like us to fight for our gun rights. It is when we go out and personally vote in local and federal elections that the NRA had given us heads up about, that we have, in the end, have vastly increased our gun rights.
Who would’ve imagined 20 years ago that we would have the kind of concealed carry laws in the vast majority of states as well as 12 States? now that have constitutional carry.
So yeah, the NRA is effective in rallying the troops in raising money and they are also effective in coordinating gun rights efforts. they don’t do a perfect job, but they do a better job than most.
So go ahead and point out and protest and point out when the NRA gives too much to the left in supporting the bump stock ban, as one example, but in the end, I don’t believe you’re giving a balanced picture of what the NRA does accomplish for us in protecting our gun rights.
They’re good at fundraising and rallying crowds but they don’t use that power for any benefit to gun rights. They still trade away “scary” accessories and back down from the debate because they are more afraid of losing their power than actually using it. They care more for their multi-million dollar paychecks than actually repealing any gun control regulations.
The only thing the NRA does is slowly give away our gun rights….they are COMPROMISED from the inside. The left has infiltrated. They have continually capitulated over the last 6 years. Its sickening…now this latest garbage they tried to pull with Yeti is just the latest in a long line of self serving crap they’ve pulled lately, not the least of wich is how quick they were to give up OUR bump stocks. GOA all the way!
Well, if you don’t like the way the NRA is being run, if you think they’ve become too corrupt and FUDD’ish again, do what was done in the eighties when the old FUDD’s were voted out and the more shall not be infringed crowd took over. Join the board with other like minded absolutists, toss out the new FUDD”s, and make the NRA true shall not be infringed advocates.
” Sacrificing unpopular gun items (bump stocks) on the altar of appeasement”
What a load of crap.
How about having to explain to a Congressman why someone could fire multiple 100 round magazines into a crowd with a 750 RMP Rate of Fire and it NOT be a machine gun. The fact is there is NO support to allow people to own machine guns. Now someone can add a stock and fire at the rate ? What did you expect after something like that was turned on a crowd?
Argue, lobby do whatever it takes to get back you machine guns. But don’t modify a semi-auto to achieve the same ROF as a machine gun and then claim is is just a typical semi-auto. Because that little lie we tell the uninitiated how the giggle switch makes all the difference in the world won’t work anymore.
“The fact is there is NO support to allow people to own machine guns. ”
I support people owning machine guns and so does every person who I’ve ever seen shoot a machine gun.
The point is that my 2nd amendment right includes everything from pointy sticks to tactical nuclear weapons. If the congressman in question doesn’t like that, he’s welcome to come discuss the matter with me personally.
I think I could go for a low yield nuclear exchange in my area. After the bugs get huge from the radiation, I’ll be able to eat them and save money on groceries.
And the GOA filed a brief in Hollis v Lynch, but that did not get anywhere. But I will give them credit for the effort. This was filed in the 5th Circuit, so where is this “support” you are taking about?
So it looks like the NRA’s political games, trading away our rights, and fear mongering were successful in getting them more money and power. Obviously they care more about their donation numbers than our gun rights and people have rewarded them for their awful behavior, guaranteeing that bad behavior will continue. This is what you get with an us vs them, lesser of two evils team mentality. Everybody loses except those in power.
Oh yeah, there’s supposedly some sort of effort out there by the anti-gunners to join the NRA & destroy it from within (why they think action on their part is necessary to achieve this is anyone’s guess)
Wouldn’t it cost over a billion dollars to stack the votes in the NRA in less than five years and over $300M to do it in five years?
Although I’ve been around guns my entire life, I only joined the NRA after Sandy Hook. I continue to contribute money to the NRA because it has been singularly successful in protecting gun-rights and the 2nd Amendment—for literally decades. Simply put, the NRA understands the “realpolitik” of American congressional politics which explains why it is so successful—much to the dismay of gun-controllers—at winning the support of both Democrat and Republican national politicians. But then, 5 million voting members who pay close attention to gun-rights issues certainly weighs heavily on the minds of minds of elected politicians who’s loyalties are always for sale and who, as the NRA well understands, will do anything to keep their lucrative jobs.
Hey, at least now it looks like they can still afford those Yeti coolers after all!!!
Oh, right. Just like how the vast majority of people voting for Trump in the 2016 primary were actually democrats, tanking the chances of a GOP victory?
The NRA is AARP run by AMWAY.
It’s a pyramid scheme wrapped up in an enigma, surrounded by mystery, shrouded in anal lube.
Just like how AARP was the muscle for Walmart, to be used to round up everyone, and heard us all into Walmart FEMA camps during Jade Helm 15?
no.
Just like every other national ‘lobbying’ group, they claim they represent “the field” of interested concerns; are flubbing the hard-points of argument to drag out their organizational ‘half-life’; and are an impenetrable shield and nearly-impossible hurdle to individually shout-through or over for the rest of us.
Whatever part of that broke (D)1<k thing you said, that I didn't cover in my two posts here, you'll just have to owe me.
Complain all you want about the NRA not kowtowing to your brilliance, but if it wasn’t for the NRA there wouldn’t be a gun left in the hands of any American who isn’t an enforcer for the government or private security for the elite.
I contribute to several gun rights groups — even the SAF, which sold us out in 2012 when Alan Gottlieb supported Manchin-Toomey. NRA gets the most because it does the most.
Exactly. They are far from perfect, but to throw them away for a position (or two, three, four …) you don’t agree with makes the rest of the stuff they support that you do that much harder to get accomplished. The smaller groups I support just don’t have the same pull, at least yet.
Unfortunately, stating this, as seen in the Yeti thread, causes some to wet themselves and start name calling those that disagree with them. With friends like that… the antis thank you.
“wouldn’t be a gun left in the hands of any American who isn’t an enforcer for the government or private security for the elite. ”
SAYS
Fv<KING
YOU
You're pretending the conversation's better than a fight, and you're pretending the fight can't be brought upon anyone unless you have a gun in your hand.
I appreciate that the NRA got a lot of money but the article is a little biased. It doesn’t mention that the “March for Our Lives” had a go fund me campaign that raised $3.5 million within 1.5 months. Granted, the majority of that money went to organizing marches and relief for families so we luckily won’t be seeing that money lining the anti gun politicians pockets.
” . . . Granted, the majority of that money went to organizing marches and relief for families . . .”
The money supporting and organizing the anti-gun marches mostly came from George Soros funded NGO’s which are staffed by professional social movement organizers. Those marches were as carefully stage managed as the “spontaneous expressions of peoples’ loyalty” displayed in marches in the old Soviet Union. Guns up. Join the NRA.
“NRA gets the most because it does the most.”
The NRA also does the most because it gets the most. I highly question whether they do the most per dollar spent, but am still uncertain.
Spineless fear mongers.
I joined the NRA in march. I had been reloctant before for a lot of the reasons mentioned in these comments. But I believe the good the NRA does far out ways their failings and they piss off the left the most do I’m happy with my decision.
I’ve been a proud NRA member for more years than I can remember. What I didn’t and still don’t understand with all the parent indoctrinated teens out marching around in a dreamworld where all criminals would turn their firearms in to the communist gov if there was a ban why hasn’t the NRA ran aggressive and common sense commercials? What most of the public saw every time they turned the news on were these ignorant Tide Popping teens ranting about saving lives by banning firearms. Our NRA could and should have been counteracting with commercials stating FBI Stats on the number of deaths related to alcohol, drugs, suicide Etc.
Comments are closed.