Membership is declining at the gun right’s group as it also faces financial difficulties. Critics say the future looks bleak.

    • osarusan
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      81 year ago

      Because they are the gun right. You know, like alt-right, Christian right, gun right.

  • PeleSpirit
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    251 year ago

    It’s not dead yet? I thought it was already almost dead when they moved to texas.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    41 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    From 2003 to 2013, the organization scored 230 legislative victories, according to an Insider tally from the time, including passing six state laws that forbid municipalities from limiting gun rights.

    Since then its membership has declined to 4.3 million, CEO and executive vice president LaPierre revealed in a January board meeting, according to a report by The Trace, a nonprofit covering gun violence.

    Since 2020, it has faced an ongoing lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James, which alleges that its top officials, including LaPierre himself, diverted donations for their personal use, violating numerous state and federal laws, and even the NRA’s own bylaws and policies.

    James alleged that the funds were used for family trips to the Bahamas and private jets, which contributed to a $64 million reduction in the balance sheet in three years, turning a surplus into a deficit.

    “The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” James said at a press conference at the time.

    Forty-five percent of U.S. households owned at least one firearm in 2022, according to research compiled by Statista, the highest figure since 2011—and 8 percentage points higher than in 2013, the year LaPierre said the NRA was on track for “unprecedented” growth.


    The original article contains 1,305 words, the summary contains 217 words. Saved 83%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • @[email protected]
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    471 year ago

    But the damage it has done to the political landscape by pushing right wing agendas, fearmongering of every sort to get people to buy guns, and tying identity to gun ownership will live on far beyond the useful life of the NRA.

    • @[email protected]
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      61 year ago

      The organization may be dead but the propaganda they created lives on in the heart of every gun owner.

  • @[email protected]
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    101 year ago

    The NRA had lost a lot of financial backing because when the main thing you endorse is being used to murder schoolchildren on a borderline industrial scale, of course sponsors and advertisers will want nothing to do with it.

    • @[email protected]
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      91 year ago

      They also got busted for money laundering and being a front for foreign oligarchs to fund US politicians… I’m guessing all those rubles drying up hits the bittom line, too.

  • @[email protected]
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    471 year ago

    Good news: NRA (maybe, hopefully) dying.

    Absolutely horrible news: The void being filled by even more extreme and harmful groups within the same overall ideology, Islamic State style.

    • Flying Squid
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      201 year ago

      A dozen other groups have far less power than one huge lobbying organization.

    • @[email protected]
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      21 year ago

      Yeah the No Compromise podcast is a really good primer for what the NRA is done.

      Scary listen, especially with the new speaker of the house’s religious statements.

  • @[email protected]
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    2051 year ago

    Good. The modern NRA has been the worst thing for guns rights in years. Wayne LaPierre can rot in hell.

    • Flying Squid
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      211 year ago

      They’ve even wormed their way into schools. They have “Eddie the Eagle” that teaches elementary school kids gun safety. With NRA logos all over the place, of course. I was disgusted when my daughter brought the information home.

      Absolutely kids should be taught gun safety. They just shouldn’t get it with a heaping helping of NRA.

      • @[email protected]
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        161 year ago

        Gun safety was one of their original missions and where quite successful at it before they turned into a fear mongering lobbying group.

        • Flying Squid
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          31 year ago

          Someone else needs to do it now. But I’m guessing the NRA gives school systems plenty of money to use their program.

    • Cylusthevirus
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      781 year ago

      It’d be one thing if they were only opposed by people for more gun control, but they aren’t even really good at their core mission. All they do is simp for the GOP, even when doing so runs counter to their stated agenda.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        The NRA is a marketing team for gun manufacturers, and what sells guns is fear of gun bans. The NRA does everything in their power to fuel those fears.

        Pro and anti gun alike hate them. It’s mostly just boomers keeping them going.

        • Maeve
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          71 year ago

          That sudden ray of light is Huey P smiling.

        • @[email protected]
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          1 year ago

          They aren’t a gun rights organization. They aren’t even a manufacturer’s organization. They are Republican shills, first, last, and always.

          I was finally convinced they had abandoned gun owners when they endorsed Mitt Romney in 2012. When a gun rights organization openly endorses the signer of a gun ban, there is something deeply wrong.

            • @[email protected]
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              1 year ago

              That was slightly before my time, but yes, they did endorse Reagan in 1980 and 1984, and Reagan had signed the Mulford Act 13 years earlier. The Mulford act wasn’t a gun ban per se; it prohibited carry of loaded firearms without a permit.

              Reagan went on to support the Brady Bill and the 1994 AWB after his presidency. Reagan also banned carry in national parks. Clinton and 2 Bushes didn’t undo that mistake; Obama fixed it in his first month in office.

              But I digress: the NRA has done far more for the Republican Party than it has done for gun rights.

              • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
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                21 year ago

                the NRA has done far more for the Republican Party than it has done for gun rights

                It’s the same story with evangelical groups like Focus on the Family: They’re just shills for Republicans, and are actively hurting their religion in the process.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 year ago

          Exactly. I belonged to the NRA way back when they were a safety and information organization. They began to sell high priced commemorative hunting guns, then commemorative military guns. Soon they started selling military style guns like the M1 Garand rifle and the M1 carbine. I quit. Their push continued into modern M16s while simultaneously pushing scare articles to convince people of dangers so great that they would need buy military style weapons. The NRA degenerated into a money and greed operation that became the opposite of its origins intent.

    • chaogomu
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      51 year ago

      I’d say it started with Harlan Carter. He was the one who decided that the NRA should be all about the profits of gun manufacturers, and not about safe and sane gun culture.

      • @[email protected]
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        11 year ago

        Gun culture is just a different and insane thing in the US. We have a bit of it in Canada and gun issues in the cities, but guns are highly regulated here, maybe too much in some specific aspects. I’m in favor of less restrictions for historical pieces similar to historical cars where you can apply for that status.

        Where I’m from lots of people have guns but there’s not really a gun culture, they’re basically used for animal defense. Last incident I know of was a deliriously sick coyote getting in to a horse paddock in daylight.

        • @[email protected]
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          31 year ago

          The NRA changed American thinking from “guns are tools that we sometimes need for protection” to “GUNS ARE THE ONLY THING PROTECTING YOUR FAMILY AND YOUR FREEDOM!!!1!!!”.

          They can rot in hell.

          • @[email protected]
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            11 year ago

            You just know there’s so many Americans with guns who can’t wait to kill someone for the right reason in the most violent way, it’s like their fantasy.

            I was listening to an American at a work outing once who got inspected at the Canadian border, and she was ranting about how they thought she had a gun and were checking everywhere. I’m sympathizing cause that sucks, then she’s like “but they never checked my purse where I kept my gun!” and it’s like fuck sakes woman, you certainly made your point…

  • ArugulaZ
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    31 year ago

    I’ve heard this one before. As long as the GOP can keep using them as a wedge issue, they’ll never die. Maybe just mutate into something even worse.