Lessons from the NRA
You would think these would be tough times for the National Rifle Association. You would think so even here in Florida, where the NRA practically dictates gun legislation, where it easily fends off gun limits and swiftly bullies lawmakers who dare stray.
In fact, polls in the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre that left 17 dead in South Florida said most Americans favored stricter gun laws.
Students are rallying. Voices are saying “enough.” Then come even more headlines of senseless gun violence, if it could get any more improbable and insane, with an AR-15 at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tenn.
But if you figured the NRA’S armor was dinged, its power diminished — at least while the carnage is still fresh, the families mourning, the wounded still trying to recover — you’d be wrong.
The Miami Herald reported that the NRA’S Political Victory Fund raised $2.4 million in March — just weeks after the school shooting in South Florida that has galvanized so many. That number is $1.5 million more than in the same period a year ago.
It’s interesting how those donations are the mirror — or maybe the mirror opposite — of the voices of ordinary people across America demanding sensible regulation on guns.
Interesting also to note that most of the donations came from people who gave less than $200. That’s undeniably a grassroots victory and a testament to how good the NRA is at getting out its ominous message to the masses that they’re coming for your guns — even if they aren’t. No one ever accused the NRA of getting this far without knowing its audience.
And that’s no exaggeration about the bullying. A recent letter from formidable Florida NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer took direct aim at Republicans who dared support recent legislation that raised the gun-buying age to 21, banned bump stocks that make semi-automatics more deadly and called for a three-day waiting period for shotguns and rifles.
For the record, a ban on assault weapons many hoped for did not materialize. But not one of those measures that passed threatens responsible gun ownership. Why should someone be able to buy a firearm before he or she can legally purchase a beer?
So, while lawmakers seemed to wake up to an electorate that won’t accept them doing nothing yet again, the NRA scored big time with its base anyway, as those fundraising numbers attest.
The question now: Will those numbers — and the power behind them — serve to put those legislators back in their place?
News of the NR A’s continued financial prowess can be both disheartening and energizing. It’s a lesson, really, in how every small contribution to a cause — or to a candidate whose beliefs, values and convictions are your own — can have impact. Maybe the NRA can teach us something after all.