Membership is declining at the gun right’s group as it also faces financial difficulties. Critics say the future looks bleak.
I feel like one of the 7 pro gun people on all of Lemmy, I’d like to share some perspective about the NRA being a boogieman. They absolutely are not the boogiman that leftists and anti gunners think they are. They are a ridiculously bloated, corrupt, beuracracy, no different than our federal government. They are all optics. In fact I’d say their only job is to be the boogieman and absorb negative attention, to allow the real gun rights groups to get some work done.
They keep a public list of approved politicians and downgrade anyone who even mentions gun reform. That feels like more than just a bureaucracy; since they’re largely funded by weapons manufacturers, it seems more like an extremely influential lobby. And since what they’re lobbying for is “keep pretending that there’s no way to solve the deadly problem that kills more humans than any other thing you don’t do to yourself and literally every other developed nation has solved,” it seems like their job is to enforce the prioritization of gun manufacturers’ profits over lives.
Hmmm, did the spigot of Russian money flowing into their coffers dry up?
That’s the real answer. “We’re no longer a foreign asset funnelling Russian money to republicans so we’re broke”
Yep if you look at all stuff across the world, the dirty money is drying up. The game is catching up
I guess that whole war with Ukraine thing has some side effects!
The game is catching up
The game
😡
It can’t die fast enough.
If only there were a quick and effective means of killing something.
Sadly, those are only to be used on kindergartners.
If conservatives were susceptible to irony they’d have all been gunned down by now
It’s not dead yet? I thought it was already almost dead when they moved to texas.
They’ve repeatedly attempted to disband and then reform in Texas to avoid New York’s lawsuit against them for all the fraud, misuse of donor funds, and other such law breaking. Judges have repeatedly quashed their attempts, as well as multiple other counter suits and appeals trying to get the case dismissed. Lawsuit is still ongoing. Latest update I could find from NY attorney general’s office was here:
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!
Democrats going after people stealing MY MONEY is COMMUNISM!
Good. The modern NRA has been the worst thing for guns rights in years. Wayne LaPierre can rot in hell.
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.
Eddie the Eagle
There can be only one.
Gun safety was one of their original missions and where quite successful at it before they turned into a fear mongering lobbying group.
Someone else needs to do it now. But I’m guessing the NRA gives school systems plenty of money to use their program.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Did they endorse Reagan, too? He signed a gun ban.
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.
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.
That sudden ray of light is Huey P smiling.
all they do is
simplaunder money to the GOP for the Russians.Fixed it for ya.
JFC, really? I’m not up on the latest NRA lore but that sounds too bad to be true.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44885633.amp
This article is a bit old, after it was written Butina went back to Russia and is now a member of theit legislature.
I keep reading and it keeps getting worse. HOW?
HOW?
well, citizens united mostly, but also because the GOP knows no shame, even dead children and collaborating with the russians.
citizens united. Those justices have decided to be on the infamous side of history.
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.
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.
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.
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…
If ever an organisation needed a bullet…
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Too slowly, unfortunately
Need to replace them with the SRA stat.
🎶 They ain’t gonna jump no more 🎶
Oh shit! I saw the gold and purple and the old white man and misread the title as NBA! How did I not see the guns?!
Also fuck the NRA for fucking ever! I wish we could start prying some guns from some of those cold dead hands already. Die.
Good!
Good, but slowly isn’t good enough.
