NRA Breaks Historic Fundraising Record Following Attacks from the Left
“came from small donors who gave less than $200”
Democrats, the Parkland teen activists, and their many media allies have been unfairly attacking the NRA for almost three months. All of this attention has worked out beautifully – for the NRA.
They’re shattering fundraising records. Alex Daugherty reports at McClatchy:
The NRA just broke a 15-year fundraising record
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.
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.
Most of the donations, $1.9 million of the $2.4 million total, came from small donors who gave less than $200. The NRA doles out money to political campaigns from the victory fund, but most of its spending is on activity that isn’t directly linked with a lawmakers’ campaign where the group is not bound by state and federal campaign finance limits.
Meanwhile, in Hollywood, a group of liberal celebrities is joining David Hogg and other activists to keep the NRA’s windfall going for as long as possible. Melissa Chan reports at Time:
‘The Time Is Now.’ This New Coalition of Celebrities and Activists Just Pledged to Take on the NRA
A new coalition of celebrities and activists, including actor Alyssa Milano and Parkland student David Hogg, announced plans Friday to take on the National Rifle Association and elected officials who accept money from the powerful gun advocacy group.
In an open letter to NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, which was first obtained by TIME, the more than 100 members of the newly formed NoRA Initiative — short for No Rifle Association — pledge to reduce the NRA’s influence in American politics through a series of voter registration drives, nationwide art campaigns, demonstrations and boycotts…
NoRA’s members include Jimmy Kimmel, Amy Schumer, Alec Baldwin, Ashley Judd, Julianne Moore, Patton Oswalt, Constance Wu, W. Kamau Bell, Amber Tamblyn, Debra Messing, Minnie Driver, Tarana Burke, as well as several artists, policy experts and survivors of gun violence. They say their goal is expose public servants who have been stymying gun control legislation after taking money from the NRA. NoRA believes it can use grassroots and digital awareness campaigns to help vote those legislators out of office.
Will Kimmel and his fellow celebrities give up their armed security details?
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Comments
Keep it up, says this lifetime member of the NRA that doesn’t even own a gun.
How about #YOUFIRST.
It sounds like they have put together yet another negative campaign. That might backfire.
Perhaps we should encourage the left to go completely berserk.
Can you imagine the windfall for the NRA if the left begins with “frothing at the mouth” and ends with temper tantrums that would put a two year old to shame!
I am so very glad that most people are reasonable enough to see through the gibberish which the left touts as wisdom.
““frothing at the mouth” and ends with temper tantrums that would put a two year old to shame!”
Sounds like Hillary.
“Meanwhile, in Hollywood, a group of liberal celebrities is joining David Hogg and other activists to keep the NRA’s windfall going for as long as possible.”
Perfect!
One three-year membership. No gun. The NRA is an idea made flesh. You cannot destroy an idea, though you kill the flesh.
I renewed my expired membership
I’ve owned guns since I was in high school, but never joined the NRA because I didn’t think I had a good reason to join. But now I see a good reason.
It pisses off the left. That’s money well spent.
My lovely wife is the newest member of the NRA in our family!
I had let my membership lapse after the 2016 election. Nobody is coming for my guns now, or so I thought. After it was clear Camera Hogg wasn’t going away anytime soon, I reupped with a 2 year membership.
While billionaires like Bloomberg can only (legally) vote once in an election, cubic big bucks can sway a lot of poorly informed and/or emotional types to vote their freedoms away for a temporary sense of safety and security.
The wheels of justice grind slowly, but what is happening to the vehicular death case from Charlottesville and the Fed video of the protesters being funneled into the antifa zelots? Las Vegas is going where? Are there Deep State fingerprints on these cases?
We still have to deal with judges competing to show that they can better identify a prenumbra they their buddies. All to say….keep vigilant.
I’d join the NRA just because BUT fear doing so would mark me as a terrorist here in the UK!!
You could say you mistakenly thought the USA NRA was the British NRA, but you might be branded as colluding with the Russians. Just be sure you disposed of all cutlery, pliers, turnscrews, and anything else with a pointy end before you try. The Land of Hope and Glory has my sympathies.
The Streisand effect on fundraising. We should start thanking her for promoting NRA. I bet low information anti gun types would attack her, it might be pretty funny.
It’s an interesting dynamic. NoRA uses the shadow of a bogeyman it labels “NRA” to raise money. The NRA in turn uses the threat of NoRA (as well as the Brady Bunch, the VPC, the Bloomberg Axis, Moms Against Civil Rights, etc) to raise money. Both are money machines.
Uncharitable people see this as a scam in which groups on both sides can raise money without any need to actually do anything with it, much like the Violence Policy Center. All noise (i.e., profit) and no action (i.e., expense). The NRA can build a nice headquarters in Washington and buy Wayne LaPierre a steady supply of suits, and the NoRA can do something similar.
Of course, all organizations, fake or legit, need to raise money; so the simple fact that fundraising is going on is not itself evidence that there’s any sort of scam involved. Nevertheless, the NRA is sometimes attacked with such a charge.
None of which actually matters much. I said it was an “interesting dynamic”, not a “fatal flaw”. I send in my membership dues every year no matter how they spend them. There’s another NRA thing, the NRA-ILA (Institute for Legislative Action), which needs money too … but I ignore that one. The two may have different tax statuses, which would matter to some donors.
David “Camera” Hogg just wanted to do something to change the status quo. Apparently, since donations to the NRA are at an all-time high, he has succeeded.
Thanks, kid!
Lifetime member here, owning several hand guns, long guns, and assault knives.
I have an assault knife, fork and spoon Henry.
https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2018/04/25/nras-chris-cox-dont-trust-gun-control-groups/
The blueprint was laid out by National Council to Control Handguns (now Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence) Chairman Nelson T. “Pete” Shields in a 1976 interview with The New Yorker. Shields explained, “I’m convinced that we have to have federal legislation to build on. We’re going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily—given the political realities—going to be very modest.”
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Anything they get today is the foundation they will build on tomorrow.
What anti-gun activists want is creeping incrementalism. They know all about frogs and boiling water, so they want to turn it up slowly. They make it a little tougher to buy a gun today, but then you get used to it and when they add something else, it’s not that big of a deal, either. Not for some, anyway.
Seriously, how many people gripe about filling out a Form 4473 when they buy a gun? Not many. We’re used to it. The same with background checks. Most of us are used to it. Which is why they now want universal background checks. It’s a small thing, but it’s another creep on our rights.
I’m awaiting delivery of my new assault spork.