After this year’s
school-shooting massacre in Parkland, the NRA’s Political Victory Fund recorded its highest monthly contribution total in years.
As students marched for gun control after the Parkland shooting, members of the National Rifle Association reached for their checkbooks.
The NRA’s Political Victory Fund recorded its highest monthly contribution total since 2000 after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to an analysis of campaign finance reports.
The NRA’s campaign fund collected $2.4 million in March, the highest total in 18 years when adjusted for inflation. About 80 percent of the contributions were donations of $200 or less.
Will the surge of contributions bring victory to pro-gun candidates in the fall midterm elections? Campaign finance experts say that haul won’t sway elections. The bigger question could be whether younger voters inspired by March for Our Lives demonstrations show up at the polls.
“It’s a good number for them — no question — but in the political ocean of money that we all swim in now it is pretty much a drop in the bucket,” said Robert J. Spitzer, a political scientist at SUNY Cortland who has authored five books on gun control.
The NRA’s greatest strength is viewed as its passionate and engaged five million members, said Sarah Bryner, a research director at the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money in politics.
The NRA’s Political Victory Fund, which provides contributions to NRA-endorsed candidates, is just one component of its political spending. The NRA focuses most of its spending on television advertisements and mailers not directly linked to candidates, rather than making direct contributions to campaign funds.
The NRA spent $54 million during the 2016 election cycle, while gun control interests mustered only about $3 million, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.
The NRA initially halted digital advertising after Parkland. But within four days, it blitzed the internet with ads, increasing its average daily spending from $11,300 before the shooting to $47,300 after the brief pause, according to a Chicago Tribune investigation.
“The NRA sends out messaging to say we are under attack. Your rights are under attack. The antigun people are coming to take away your guns,” Spitzer said. “The fear-based appeal is the most successful way to raise money. When political events go against them, they tend to do better.”
Groups supporting gun restrictions also hauled in cash after Parkland to support marches and other advocacy efforts.
A GoFundMe page for March for Our Lives raised more than $3.5 million to organize demonstrations and assist the families of victims. George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg each reportedly made $500,000 donations.
Everytown USA garnered $750,000 in unsolicited online donations to its nonprofit organization during the 24 hours after Parkland, according to a report from Politico. Donations to that fund help to pressure lawmakers to improve gun laws, educate the public about gun issues and mobilize grassroots supporters, according to the organization’s website.
In some swing districts, the NRA could prove to be a liability for candidates because of a backlash from suburban voters who view the organization as stifling gun reforms, Spitzer said.
It’s the NRA’s membership that politicians fear, said Matt Grossmann, a political scientist at Michigan State University.
“They are viewed as the voice of gun owners in America,” he said. “That is a constituency that votes at high rates, contacts public officials at higher rates.”