More lying about the NRA

"According to published statements,[1] the NRA's total income for 2011 was $218,983,530, with total expenditures of $231,071,589. In 2010, the organization reported an income of $227.8 million with roughly $115 million in revenue generated from fundraising, sales, advertising and royalties, with the remainder originating from membership dues.[85] Corporate sponsors include a variety of companies such as outdoors supply, sporting goods companies, and firearm manufacturers.[85][86] Since 2005, the organization has received at least $14.8 million from more than 50 firearms-related firms[85] In 2008, Beretta exceeded $2 million in donations to the NRA, and in 2012, Smith & Wesson reached $1 million.[87] According to an April 2012 press release, Sturm, Ruger & Company raised $1.25 million through a program in which it donated $1 to the ILA for each gun it sold from May 2011 to May 2012.[87]"  Wikipedia article on NRA

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If the heavily footneted Wiki is to be believed:Wikipedia article on NRA

NRA in 2010 raised $ 227.8 million

In the five year period since 2005 NRA has received $14.8 million from "firerams related firms." This would amount to something just under $3 million/year.  This data is based on NRA filings with the federal government as a tax exrmpt organization.  If they have lied they should be prosecuted.

The lying corporate media  are pushing the line that NRA is an organization that represents manufacturers of firearms.

If the manufacturers are getting that much influence for contributing this little to NRA, then I am outraged.  NRA should take more money from them and stop pestering me for contributions.

Comments

[Edward Amame]

I used to think that the NRA had basically become a lobbying arm of the gun industry. I was probably wrong. The NRA may get a little something extra from gun manufacturers these days, but it is still clearly the lobbying arm of American gun owners. And a pretty effective one at that.

But it has also become, post-Citizens United, the lobbying arm of the GOP. Last year the NRA made critical connections with big GOP donors and conservative advocacy groups who donated a lot of money to the NRA which spent millions to run undisclosed attack ads against Dem candidates. NRA policy is donor info will not be disclosed.

Also last year, the NRA "strongly opposed" legislation that would have required groups like it that run outside political ads to disclose the donors funding those ads. Justice Kennedy’s explicitly wrote in the Citizen's United majority opinion that such disclosure would be absolutely essential.

[turcopolier]

Edward Amame

The only reason NRA sides with the GOP (the stupid party)is that the vast majority of Democrats are so anti-gun. pl

[kao_hsien_chih]

One pretty disturbing finding of the polls about Americans' attitudes towards guns.

Anti-gun people like to talk about how 80-90% of Americans support some measure of background checks according to polls. The very same polls also show that about 50% of the respondents also expect that the background checks would be used to take away guns from gun owners. I assume the latter figure includes the 10-15% who are opposed to background checks--who oppose it for that very reason. So, apparently about 50% of the background check supporters (i.e. a lot of the "liberal") are really supporting background checks only as the pretext and the means to eventually take away people's rights.

And you wonder why gun owners don't trust the gun control advocates.

[optimax]

This article came out about the police investigation into the motives of the Aurora, COL theater killer John Holmes. They found the prescription medications Clonazepam and the generic version of Zoloft in his apartment. They are for panic attacks, anxiety, depression and other mental imbalances.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-james-holmes-documents-20130405,0,6067279.story

Our local paper, the Oregonian, had a story about some of the newly revealed police findings but left out the part about the prescription drugs. The papers obfuscation of the relevant factors to be considered into the motives of the Batman shooter protect the images of the pharmaceutical companies and furthers the governments efforts at gun control. Government and corporate control of the media is one sign of a fascist government. At the moment not all media are willing, or forced, to promote government and corporate agendas but the largest media conglomerates are.

[robt willmann]

On the C-Span 1 television channel today, 7 April, the Afterwords program will have as a guest Larry Pratt, executive director of the organization Gun Owners of America. It will air at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, 9:00 a.m. Central Time, and again at 6:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 p.m. Central Time. It can also be seen on the C-Span Internet website here--

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/311939-1

At the start, Pratt is asked how Gun Owners of America (GOA) is different from the NRA, and replies that the NRA was organized after the war between the states by northern officers to try to improve the poor marksmanship of northern soldiers, and that GOA was formed much later to oppose federal gun control legislation.

Gun Owners of America must be doing something right, because the New York Times newspaper on 4 April runs a piece actually put on the editorial page which calls GOA a "fanatically active faction" which has been doing "tremendous damage" and displays "twisted radicalism".

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/opinion/the-damage-wrought-by-the-gun-lobby.html?_r=3&

The NY Times claims that GOA has been instrumental [so far] in preventing a "deal" in the U.S. Senate on gun control.

If I remember correctly, back during the Bill Clinton administration when a gun control bill was moving through congress, GOA worked hard in Utah to put the fear of God into Senator Orrin Hatch during Utah's unusual procedure through which the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate is chosen, and was effective in opposing some legislation back then.

[turcopolier]

R. Willman

I guess I will have to join.

"calls GOA a "fanatically active faction" which has been doing "tremendous damage" and displays "twisted radicalism."

$20/year. pl