{"id":1505497,"date":"2022-06-06T14:04:24","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T18:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1505497"},"modified":"2022-06-06T14:05:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T18:05:00","slug":"democrats-go-after-the-gun-lobby-because-calling-gun-owners-terrorists-wont-win-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-go-after-the-gun-lobby-because-calling-gun-owners-terrorists-wont-win-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats Go After The \u2018Gun Lobby\u2019 Because Calling Gun Owners \u2018Terrorists\u2019 Won\u2019t Win Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-go-after-the-gun-lobby-because-calling-gun-owners-terrorists-wont-win-elections%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1505497&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>One of the most transparent acts of cowardice in American politics is promising to \u201cstand up to the NRA\u201d and \u201cgun lobby.\u201d The \u201cgun lobby\u201d played a prominent role in Joe Biden\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/06\/03\/debunking-bidens-tired-gun-rhetoric-and-lies\/\">mendacious gun-control speech<\/a> last week, wherein the president continued to mythologize the power of the NRA, while depicting tens of millions of gun owners as dupes.<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-05-25\/nra-s-political-clout-survives-amid-legal-woes-internal-strife\">says<\/a> \u201cNRA Keeps Its Hold on US Politics, Despite School Shootings and Internal Strife.\u201d The BBC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-35261394\">wonders<\/a>: \u201cUS gun control: What is the NRA and why is it so powerful?\u201d In a Hill piece \u2014 laughably headlined, \u201cNRA contributions underscore grip in GOP\u201d \u2014 we learn that the Second Amendment advocacy group contributed \u201croughly $149,000 to Senate recipients in the 2020 cycle, with nearly all the funds going to Republicans, according to OpenSecrets.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s for a moment set aside the fact that anti-gun rhetoric used in major media and cultural outlets amounts to tens of billions of in-kind contributions to Democrats every year. From the years 2017-2022, Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/members-of-congress\/charles-schumer\/summary?cid=N00001093\">received<\/a> $3,754,646 from investment firms and another $3,038,489 from law firms. Where are the articles about the \u201ciron grip\u201d lawyers and hedge funds have over the majority leader and his party?\u00a0 The \u201cgun lobby\u201d hardly even makes a blip on Mitch McConnell\u2019s fundraising portfolio. McConnell\u2019s political support for gun rights is probably predicated on the fact <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rand.org\/pubs\/tools\/TL354.html\">that nearly<\/a> 55 percent of adults in his state reside in a household with a firearm. (And because gun owners aren\u2019t exactly sharers, you should assume that number is higher.)<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, the NRA, which some Democrats have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-49574445\">branded<\/a> a \u201cdomestic terrorist organization,\u201d spent $54.4 million on outside spending.\u00a0That <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/outsidespending\/detail.php?cycle=2020&#038;cmte=National+Rifle+Assn\">fell<\/a>\u00a0to only $29.3 million during the 2020 election. Gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety <a href=\"https:\/\/www.everytown.org\/press\/everytown-announces-60-million-electoral-program-for-2020\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">spent<\/a>\u00a0$60 million in the 2020 election. To put that in perspective, $14 billion dollars was dropped on the 2020 election, spending <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/news\/2020\/10\/cost-of-2020-election-14billion-update\/\">dominated<\/a> by the Democratic Party. To put it in context, from 2021-2022 George Soros has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/industries\/indus.php?Ind=F\">contributed<\/a> $128,722,563 to left-wing political causes.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021-2022, the finance sector, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/industries\/\">leading spenders<\/a> on elections, gave 52.5 percent of its contributions to Democrats. Lawyers, 70 percent. The tech industry, over 76 percent. The health care sector, 59. Labor, 87.5 percent. Most of these industries spend many times more yearly than the gun lobby spends in a decade. Do these industries, most of whom deal with policy that is more consequential to everyday Americans, not have an \u201ciron grip\u201d on the Democratic Party?<\/p>\n<p>The NRA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/orgs\/national-rifle-assn\/summary?id=d000000082\">lobbying efforts<\/a> in 2020 amounted to $2.2 million. To put it in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/federal-lobbying\/top-spenders\">perspective<\/a>, The National Association of Realtors spent $84 million that year. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent nearly $82 million. Facebook, nearly $20 million. Amazon, nearly $18 million. The NRA is the 1,043rd largest contributor to political races and the 270th biggest spender on lobbying in 2020. Unlike most of these industries, the NRA\u2019s funding comes from <a href=\"https:\/\/money.cnn.com\/news\/cnnmoney-investigates\/nra-funding-donors\/index.html\">small donors<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Because of <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2019\/08\/14\/nra-must-change\/\">mismanagement<\/a> and internal conflict, NRA contributions to political candidates have cratered in recent years:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"400\" data-id=\"273513\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/NRA1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-273513\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/NRA1.jpg 683w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/NRA1-300x176.jpg 300w\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"row justify-content-center g-0 mt-10\"><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/orgs\/national-rifle-assn\/summary?id=d000000082\">OpenSecrets<\/a><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"400\" data-id=\"273514\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/NRA2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-273514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/NRA2.jpg 683w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/NRA2-300x176.jpg 300w\" \/><\/figure><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/orgs\/national-rifle-assn\/summary?id=d000000082\">OpenSecrets<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Has anyone detected a corresponding drop in support for gun rights in Congress?<\/p>\n<p>The NRA is an expedient punching bag for politicians and activists unwilling to condemn gun owners themselves.\u00a0But its power is derived from its members, not cooked up from the ether or propped up by a sugar daddy. (Of course, even if NRA had its own George Soros, its cause, lobbying to defend the Second Amendment, would be worthwhile.) <\/p>\n<p>The NRA, which runs an array of programs to cultivate responsible gun owners (it does more for gun safety, in fact, than any anti-gun advocacy group), is only influential because it represents \u2014 either through direct membership or through ideological kinship \u2014 a lot of American voters. If the NRA disappeared tomorrow, another advocacy group would simply emerge to take its place, and it would probably be more purist in its defense of the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books\u2014the most recent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eurotrash-America-Reject-Failed-Continent\/dp\/0063066017\/\">Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent<\/a>. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post, and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidharsanyi\/\">@davidharsanyi<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most transparent acts of cowardice in American politics is promising to \u201cstand up to the NRA\u201d and \u201cgun lobby.\u201d The \u201cgun lobby\u201d played a prominent role in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1505497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1505497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1505497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1505497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1505497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}