NRA Contributions Swamp Anti-Gun PAC's Fundraising by More Than 150%
So, you think that America’s ready to give up the Second Amendment? Think that we’re ready for gun control?
Well, Americans are voting with their dollars, and that definitely doesn’t seem to be the case.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, the National Rifle Association’s political action committee raised over 150 percent more than the three most visible gun control PACs in April, despite months of boycotts and pressure from the liberal media.
Filings with the Federal Election Commission, the NRA raised $1,852,323.28 in April. This was down from March, which was a record haul for the NRA, but it was still a great deal more than any of the groups trying to undermine the Second Amendment.
Of the gun control groups, Giffords PAC took in $653,510.53. Everytown for Gun Safety PAC, the astroturfed group associated with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, raised $16,552.33 during April. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence Voter Education Fund took in $4,015.00.
The total for the three biggest gun control groups, therefore, was $674,077.86 — $1,178,245.42 short of what the NRA was able to raise.
In other words, the NRA raised almost exactly 175 percent more than these three well-known anti-gun PACs combined.
Perhaps most critically, most of the money that the NRA received came from small donors who gave less than $200 — $1,603,469.65 of it, or 87 percent, to be precise.
It’s probably not surprising that the NRA would see a bump in the amount of money donated to it. After all, in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, we’ve seen one of the most concerted efforts to restrict our Second Amendment rights that we have in many a year.
Florida and Vermont, for example, have passed laws that have made it easier for the state to take firearms from those they deem dangerous without due process. In New York, the state has been outright intimidating banks and insurers who do business with the NRA, fining several of them.
The NRA responded by announcing a drive to add 100,000 members to its ranks in 100 days back in mid-April.
“The NRA’s strength is in our dedicated and politically savvy members,” said NRA media relations manager Jason J. Brown.
“Over the next 100 days we hope to welcome 100,000 new freedom-loving Americans to our ranks. The threat to our Second Amendment has never been greater.”
While the organization doesn’t disclose numbers, it’s estimated that roughly 5 million Americans are members of the NRA.
Perhaps most importantly, the numbers for April show that liberal fervor for new gun control legislation has subsided.
The organizers of the March for Our Lives rally in the wake of the Parkland shooting took in over $3 million in donations, which was given to a dark money advocacy group, the March for Our Lives Action Fund, that wasn’t required to disclose who donated to it and was permitted to use those funds for unlimited lobbying.
In addition to that, $3.3 million was taken in via a GoFundMe campaign that would help both the fund and the families of the victims of the shooting.
That, of course, is a fairly robust number. However, just months later, the largest gun control groups in America are receiving a mere trickle of what the NRA is, most of it in small donations.
America, it seems, is speaking with its dollars.
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