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The National Rifle Association is spending $11.4 million of its members’ money in its campaign to oust anti-gun politicians and defeat the universal background check referendum in Washington State. The above seven-minute gun rights apocalypse ad has garnered some 10k views, but the gun rights group’s 30-second spots are where the action is. Check out the anti-Hickenlooper ad after the jump, part of the NRA’s $1.3m political payback effort in the Rocky Mountain State. The NRA’s also hitting the airwaves in Arkansas, Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Iowa and Louisiana. And supporting Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott and Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker. [Click here for a breakdown of their ad budget.] Will NRA-inspired gun rights voters exact their revenge on pols’ post-Newtown civilian disarmament legislation? Watch this space . . .

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49 COMMENTS

      • Seconded. I’m recent to the greater Portland area (WA side) so I was getting a little concerned that the NRA was leaving us hanging or planning on letting it pass then fighting it in the courts. And for me it’s better to stomp out this fire first before letting it catch and trying to fight it later.

  2. Unfortunately NRA backed Tillis in the NC Repub primary against an opponent that was CLEARLY more pro-gun and more intelligent. Tillis ineptitude is the reason that he is losing what many people thought would be a slam dunk win for the Repubs last year. I’ll hold my nose and vote for Tillis but the NRA got this at least half wrong. Their earlier blunder is now the reason that they have to spend more of our money into the sinking Tillis ship.

    In contrast, Tillis Republican primary opponent was favored by
    the Gun Owners of America and the National Association for Gun Rights.

    Story about the NRA mistake.
    http://www.redstate.com/diary/freedomrepublican/2014/04/26/thom-tillis-vs-greg-brannon-on-gun-control/

    Just saying that we have to acknowledge our mistakes so it’s less likely to happen again in the future.

      • Fair enough…but I’m pretty sure that we’ll never know if the NRA/ILA didn’t get early input from NC voters or if they ignored the input. If Tillis loses, I sure hope the NRA does a proper post-mortum. One clue that you may be on the wrong side is if other gun-rights orgs are going for a different person. Ideally this would trigger an automatic internal review and a more thorough analysis of the race.

    • Brannon’s a smart guy, a very successful man, and a strong 2A supporter, but he was never going to win. NRA or not, the guy barely picked up a quarter of the GOP primary vote. On top of that, he only managed to raise $1.5 million. He didn’t attract interest or money and in the end, didn’t attract votes, and that’s among Republicans. You think he would have fared better in the general election? There’s no indication he would have.

      As for Tillis, well, I’m no fan. He’s a go along get along establishment type. What can I say? I’d hold my nose and vote for him, myself.

      As for his status in the race, it’s an uphill battle. The fact is, the vast majority of incumbents are re-elected. They have the power and prestige of incumbency itself, as well as the skill in how to win.

      Look at Hagen, she’s running a strong campaign. Slam dunk predictions underestimated her. She’s raised nearly $17 million and spent about $8 million.

      Look at Tillis. He’s raised less than $5 million and spent less than $3.5 million. The NRA has spent over $3 million in the race, but even if every last penny had gone to Brannon, Brannon would still be grossly outspent by Hagen. In fact, though, only $2.5 million of the NRA’s money has been pro-Tillis. The rest has been anti-Hagen, which presumably every candidate, including Brannon, benefits from.

      Ultimately, Brannon just didn’t have what it takes to win. That’s not the NRA’s fault. Tillis is overall the stronger candidate with the better chance at winnin statewide.

      Right now, electoral victory is more important than ideological purity.

  3. Isn’t this one of the main reasons we give to the nra if we can get hickenlooper that will be a big victory both for Colorado and a psychological one to pols that are considering anti gun bills

    • I agree. If Hickenlooper can be ousted, it, in and of itself, would be a pretty good win.
      Psychologically, it’s huge!

        • Mark Udall is behind in the opinion polls right now, Hickenlooper too I think. I am not aware of the polling as relates to the reps for the CO state assembly and senate, but it would serve them right to see that change to Repub control also. THAT would be like a grand slam!

  4. We’ll be lucky if enough embittered upstaters vote Astorino in, and Cuomo out.
    NRA has been facebook-banning my fellow NY shooters for asking them to
    throw some support behind our guy…

    • $ go where there is some reasonable chance of success. Is NY City not going to re-elect that libtard POS Cuomo?

      • Supposedly if you do the math – take enough angry upstaters, enough Westchester and five-borough party-line RINO voters and add them up, they stand a decent change of throwing Cuomo out.

      • It feels like the NRA abandoned NY a while ago. Where were they when we had the pre-SAFE AWB? Where are they now? Upstate hates Cuomo. Look at the democratic primary; he’s vulnerable. Even if Cuomo wins, making it so he does it without an outright majority is a small victory that sends a message. I think Hawkins (the Green candidate) was around 9% in a recent poll, which is super high, and those votes are pretty much just coming from people who would have voted for democrats.

  5. WA voters are getting bombarded by pro 594 ads right now. I hope the NRA and SAF get in the game soon or the battle will be lost.

    • 594 looks like it will pass. 591 looks a bit iffy.
      Since 591 prohibits everything 594 implements, if both pass, the courts or legislature will likely have to sort things out. We have a pretty solid recent history of pro-liberty decisions from both branches, so I’m fairly hopeful.

  6. Hickenlooper out of CO would be a major win for us Coloradans! He scrambled to meet with the Sheriffs early this year, and blame everyone else including his staff, for presenting him the Hi Cap Mag ban and it’s correlation to lowering crime as real and factual statistics. It’s on youtube, if you want to spend 30 minutes listening to a blundering idiot backpedal on his politics, in hopes of gaining votes from Sheriffs, who think he’s a blundering idiot. Also on YouTube is the CO representative who thinks that once you use a high cap mag, it’s gone forever, unusable from there on, which is why a high cap mag ban will eventually lead to lower crime and less high cap mags, if you want an idea of the idiots they have in CO passing gun legislature.

    I haven’t seen the NRA ads running, though I keep seeing the Anti-Udall ads. Any ideas on what channel they’re running on? Sportsman channel?

    If you’re a resident of The Centennial State, you should definitely join Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. They have a chart on their website listing all the politicians who are pro-gun, that they support, and also list the people that we need to get out of office, with Hickenlooper being number one on that list. They also track all gun-related bills moving through the State House. With elections coming up in November in a state I’m fairly new to , it’s nice to have a roadmap to help you contribute to ousting some gun grabbers!

    Colorado is definitely much more turbulent when it comes to existing and pending restrictive gun legislation than my home state of Louisiana.

    • Sending Hickenlooper back to the brewery would be a win for everyone in the inter-mountain west. I’m rooting for you guys.

      • @John M, and we thank you. If you can spare a buck or two for Bob Beauprez’ campaign and/or Cory Gardner’s campaign, we would dig it the most.

      • Thanks for the support! I will be lined up at the crack of dawn on election day in hopes of making Colorado a better state for 2nd Amendment supporters and get more common sense legislators elected who don’t arbitrarily pass reactive legislation just to appear proactive.

        • As a Native born Coloradan, it is amazing to see how different this state is now from when I grew up. We have literally millions of Californians and mindless leftists from back east who have moved here and have decided to turn Colorado into another one of the cess pools from which they came. My vote will be staunchly against the “progressives” and hopefully Colorado can turn back to it’s western heritage. If we keep turning into another California I am going to move to Wyoming.

        • To true El Mac, the leftists have infected every western state as far as I can tell. Wyoming, Idaho and Montana look like the best of whats left. Of course moving up there also means you have to deal with things that are somewhat less in Colorado such as the Wyoming wind and other assorted issues of living at a higher latitude.

  8. I live in NY, Wheres the N.R.A.? We have the NY rifle and pistol assoc run by Tom King, he does a great job and is a thoughtful person…..but wheres the N.R.A.?

    • They are certainly not fighting in The Workers’ Paradise, Maryland ™ where the actual grass roots are working hard to free the slaves once again.

    • Thanks Taylor.

      That low number for NRA videos surprises me too. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Google/Youtube somehow curated that in opposition. What? You think the Seattle I- 594 supporting tech-titans, Gates, Balmer, Hannauer, dont talk to the Evil Twins and Fakebook King down there in ever so ultra-liberal San Fran?

      COD boys, and AR builders- and other all around tech geeks- here is how you fight back:
      I read an interesting article the other day, that most, if not 50% of traffic analysis is “dark net” – it DOESNT come from Fakebook, TwitNitWits, or Moms Demand Starbucks Safety – its from emails to friends, or direct typing, or searches.

      So send the links, like TaylorTX has done, to your circle of friends- and ask them to pass it along, even if they dont completely agree with the gun part- its pro-freedom, and anti-information totalitarian control.
      Its your way to end-run the propaganda practices by the Progtards who dont play by the same rules and laws as we do.

      • “Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Google/Youtube somehow curated that in opposition. ”

        Highly, highly, HIGHLY unlikely.

  10. I appreciate the support, but the low information voters of the west coast of Washington are going to sweep 594 through. I’m still voting no, don’t get me wrong, but I will probably end up moving to a different state…

    In other news, I’m glad we are getting some “No to 594” signs out there. There are tons of yes on 594 and yes on 591 signs, but some people don’t make the connection between the two (not that signs are everything, but again, the west coast of Washington is chock full of low information voters).

  11. Not one Washington voter, except the People of the gun, are going to sit and watch a 7:10 ad. TV channels will change in a heartbeat. I agree that it is effective but only if it gets watched. I don’t think that it will. Plus I am deeply disturbed to hear that the NRA is FB banning NYSRPA members for asking for help in NY. Is the NRA absent in NYS altogether with the ads for Astorino or calling for the repeal of the (un)SAFE act? That’s appalling and I speak as a Benefactor member.

    • Have to agree, I already watched the 30-second spot (thought it was great), not so the 7-minute.

  12. I’m probably going to cancel my NRA membership, the NRA is basically the lobbying arm of the republican party and is spending millions to elect republicans over pro gun democrats, but only has 100,000 for us in Washington? screw ’em. SAF Is where my money goes from now on.

    • The NRA routinely endorses Dems here in Texas; frankly, if they are headed for Congress I think it is a mistake. When the chips are down they will toe the party line. Which is anti-gun. Just ask Bart Stupak how serious Dems are about bucking the party orthodoxy when it really counts.

      • Erik, you are so wrong, you come across as a troll. I’m giving you the benefit of doubt you are not, just ignorant, and thats ok too- you can fix that with some reading.

        The NRA IS a political lobbying group- they have people on payroll working the state houses in each of 50 states. I cant defend a decision in one state or another, but if you dont appreciate the power of the NRA, you simply havent been paying attention. I know because I was like you, I just gave my $35 because my favorite outdoor range required it, and I didnt mind contributing to a good cause, but I didnt know all they did until I started looking into it. If you REALLY want to be amazed-

        Read “The Rise of the Anti-Media” a scholarly study done for academics published in hard-copy for $90 to sell to universities, etc- now available on Kindle for $9.99.

        http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Anti-Media–Forming-Americas-Concealed-ebook/dp/B00FX758S4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413321534&sr=1-1&keywords=rise+of+the+anti+media

        It documents how the concealed carry movement won that right, state-by-state, in some cases county-by-county, by patient, diligent, passionate grass roots groups, and use of then non-traditional media, emails, internet, with “horizontal integration” (ie gun groups working together, states, NRA, SAF, GOA, etc rather than pissing on one another) to beat the top-down gun grabbers and StateRunMedia enablers.

        Sound familiar to current history? Yeah, like IDENTICAL. Yet, here some of us are in circular-firing-squads, b1tching about this or that detail, when right now, we 2A rights advocates are in the biggest fight of all, and need to pull together…. save the knife fighting for the caliber wars…

        Rise of the Anti Media also has the detailed history of the NRA, which is fascinating, starting as a government subsidized civilian effort to train better riflemen, after it was understood to be so poor, post- Civil War.

        If you go by what anonymous commenters say about the NRA, or one decision they made, you wont appreciate how much good is done, overall. I am not shilling for them- I just did not realize the immensity of the contribution until I read more. And the same is true of SAF. Dig deeper and let me know what you think, then.

    • Nah, they’ve endorsed as many as 60 Dems in election years, even though it’s a bad idea because most Dems vote party line once in office.

      Plus, there just aren’t that many pro-gun Dems anymore, at least not as many as there used to be, before Dems became the snob party, and started looking down their noses on their rural/working man constituents. Look at the party platforms too.

      —one who was raised in the TX Democrat party

  13. I’m a GOA man myself. Wayne killed me with his blame movies and video game speech. The NRA plays too much politics for me. I’m about the constitution and freedom for everyone. I’m glad they’re doing what they are, but they don’t represent me personally.

    • There’s plenty to disagree with the NRA about, I expect, but to complain that a political-advocacy group “plays too much politics” strikes me as kind of odd…

      • What I meant was too much give and take. In my opinion I don’t think they take the “shall not be infringed” part as seriously as I do. Not to mention they always annoyed me with how much they supported Joe Manchin.

        • @ Bear the Grizzly, important to note, that support for Manwannabe was before he sucked the Bllomturd teat.

    • Bear, what is that old Franklin quote? If we don’t stand together we shall surely hang separately?” While the NRA has some issues, what major player at Washington D.C. does not? They still represent (and fight for) 90% of what we believe in. Politics is messy and to turn the back on a good organization because they are not ideologically pure is myopic at best and dangerous to the republic (and our liberty) at worst.

  15. Second vid is powerful. Send to all your friends, and post link on Fakebook MDA pages.

    These are the “security moms” voters, the biggest and most likely female vote bloc, that Obama has lost with Ebola/CDC/immigration and ISIS here in the US news lately.

    There is a reason MDA and Everytown are so quiet- they know they lost the battle, but are only ONE Tactic for Bloomie and the rest of the big money on the left- Soros CAP, et all- they are going underground, and spending HEAVILY in key races, via their non-profits, and the many networked collaborations to hide the money trail,

    AND, I would expect to see a LOT of dirty politics in the key Senate and Governor races nationwide- just like POTUS in 2012.

    If you stand on the sidelines for ideological purity, you will be part of the same group of voters who stayed home then, and were enough to overcome the get out the dead vote fraud done by the GoogleGeeks and local pols, then- like the 110% of registered voters who voted 100% Dem in Philly…

    We can argue about conservative/teaparty/independent/RINO differences AFTER we secure the Senate.
    Remember, we are just ONE SCOTUS judge heartbeat lost, from a reversal on 2A rights…from now to 2016.

    and remember all the federal judges below SCOTUS are appointed and decided at the SENATE on a 51% nuclear option majority,

    thanks to Dirty Harry Reid, and thats on purpose- how do you think the DC court was packed, just in time for Palmer appeal? ( and ObamaCare challenge),

    Vote. Get all your friends and neighbors out to vote. Walk your block, district, wheel Grandma to the polling booth in the wheel chair. This will be the turning point, Gents.

  16. NRA has basically done nothing for its Washington members to fight 594, so frankly I have no clue what this article is talking about.

    What has NRA done? AT MOST they have printed off NO ON 594 signs and stickers for people to use. No advertisements on TV, no radio ads that I have heard of.

    Nothing. WA NRA members should be outraged at the lack of support from the NRA in fighting what could become one of the most oppressive and onerous gun control laws in the country if 594 passes.

    • Agreed, and i’ve been out every weekend putting those flyers on doors and signs on the street. The NRA has been conspicuously absent from this fight, and it reeks of an unwillingness to work with the SAF. That being said, the flyers and signs are from the NRA, and I will keep passing them out as long as they keep handing them to me. I wish more people were out helping me, but I guess football is more important?

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