We are repeatedly told by gun control advocates and their like-minded media voices that the reason gun control legislation rarely passes because so many lawmakers accept contributions from the National Rifle Association’s affiliated PACs, and/or are supported by the group’s super PAC.
The irony is that this argument continues, even though the NRA is probably at its lowest point in at least a decade, and perhaps much longer. The organization’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, rarely if ever does interviews anymore, because he knows he’ll be asked about the NRA paying for expensive suits and other ujnjustifiable expenses for a nonprofit, and claims of self-dealing that include alleged acceptance of lavish gifts from contractors. Revenues are down and membership is down, while the legal bills are reaching exorbitant levels. New York state attorney general Letitia James is attempting to dissolve the organization, and a federal bankruptcy court rejected the NRA’s attempt to file for bankruptcy.
But all of this is happening while Americans are purchasing many more guns than ever before. at least 5.4 million people purchased a firearm for the first time in 2021, and in 2020, more than 21 million background checks were conducted for the sale of a firearm then, with an estimated 8.4 million buying a firearm for the first time. The NRA’s board of directors should ask why NRA membership is not growing if many more Americans are becoming gun owners — almost 14 million in two years!
If the only thing preventing the passage of gun control laws is the NRA, then the organization’s hampered status for the past few years should have provided a much better opportunity for gun control advocates at the federal level, and in not-so-red states.
And yet, gun control groups lament that they’re losing ground. Last year, Iowa enacted a law allowing people to buy and carry handguns without a permit, and Texas, Arkansas, Montana, Tennessee, and Utah. Earlier this year, Alabama and Ohio enacted permitless carry.
There have been a few minor expansions of restrictions — Virginia banned guns near polling places, Oregon passed a law banning guns from the state capitol grounds and now requires that firearms be secured with a trigger or cable lock, in a locked container or gun room, and Washington banned firearms from demonstrations or the state capitol. But by and large, at the state level, gun control advocates feel like it is one step forward, two steps back, and the numbers verify their sense of pessimism. UCLA professor Christopher Poliquin writes, “our research found that mass shootings do not regularly cause lawmakers to tighten gun restrictions. In fact, we found the opposite. Republican state legislatures pass significantly more gun laws that loosen restrictions on firearms after mass shootings.”
As a political organization, the NRA’s election-related expenditures just aren’t in the top tier anymore. Keep in mind, the NRA has two organizations it can use to support candidates. The first is the non-super PAC, the National Rifle Association of America Political Victory Fund -which is a membership committee, which means only NRA members can donate to it and they cannot donate more than $5,000; and donate only $5,000 to an individual candidate’s campaign.
The other is a superPAC, the similarly-named National Rifle Association Victory Fund, which can accept donations from anyone, cannot donate directly to campaigns or coordinate with them but can create its own independent messaging in support or opposition to a candidate.
Among the SuperPACs, the NRA Victory Fund is still midlevel at most. In the 2020 cycle, the Republican-backing Senate Leadership Fund spent the most of any SuperPAC, spending $293 million. The Democrat-backing Senate Majority PAC spent the second most, at $250 million. The National Rifle Association Victory Fund SuperPAC ranked 24th, and spent $29.3 million – less than Emily’s List ($38 million), the League of Conservation Voters ($42 million) the Lincoln Project ($49.6 million). Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund, an organization that specifically supports pro-gun-control candidates, spent a bit more than $21 million in the 2020 cycle.
So far in the 2022 cycle, Club for Growth Action is the SuperPAC with the highest level of outside expenditures, with 35.5 million. The National Rifle Association Victory Fund SuperPAC has raised $5.2 million and not spent anything on federal elections yet in this cycle.
The National Rifle Association Political Victory PAC spent about $22 million in the 2020 cycle. It did not rank in the top 20 PACs, whether you’re measuring by the total amount donated to candidates, total amount raised, or total amount spent.
So far in the 2022 cycle, National Rifle Association Political Victory PAC has raised $13.5 million and spent a bit more than $871,000.
Gun control advocates demonize and scapegoat the NRA’s donations because they represent a convenient target. (If money could guarantee an election victory, Mike Bloomberg would be president right now.) In the end, lawmakers do not really fear losing the NRA’s donations; they fear irking the NRA’s membership and getting voted out of office.