Rival weapon groups seek to fill the void of the NRA

As the National Rifle Association flounders, some pro-gun groups are embarking on the opportunity to become the country's most influential gun defense organization.

The groups say they attract new members and collect donations. They hire additional staff to work on advocacy and lobbying at the grassroots level. One even goes so far as to discuss at a conference in September how to fill the void left by the NRA, which has struggled to solve internal problems and accusations of financial mismanagement.

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"Many NRA members do not like internal conflicts, do not like all the lawsuits, do not like the expenses mentioned by the press," said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the gun Second Amendment Foundation. "Many of them – they want to defend the rights of firearms, they will not stop defending these rights, they turn to other places to do so."

Several organizations seeking to overthrow the NRA as the country's leading gunmaker are seen as more aggressive advocates of the Second Amendment and include gun owners of America and the National Association for the Rights of the United States. firearms, as well as the more moderate Second Amendment Foundation. Their decision comes as Congress and President Donald Trump discuss new firearms restrictions after mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, as well as the upcoming presidential election for the removal of gun owners will be a top priority for the Trump campaign.

"As an organization, we do not use $ 200,000 lobbyists in the gucci locker room in Washington DC to grease the palms of weak kneeling politicians so that they vote properly," said Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights. The so-called sumptuous expenses of the director general of the NRA. "Instead, we encourage our members to lobby for us and for them. It is the power of a popular lobby and the NRA that lost it a long time ago. "

The Second Amendment Foundation and its lobby group, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Weapons, saw their donations increase by 20 to 25% between April and July compared to the same period in 2018, partly due to because of controversies surrounding the NRA, Gottlieb said. He would not provide detailed accounts of donations.

Similarly, Gun Owners of America, said he had collected so much money in recent years that it could last five years without additional funds, without providing detailed figures. The National Firearms Association, meanwhile, reported spending more on pro-gun lobbying than the NRA following Sandy Hook's mass shooting in 2012. She boasts 4.5 millions of activists, a little less than about 5 million. members the claims of the NRA.

But going beyond the NRA will not be easy. the The group is still spending more than other gun rights organizations most years in lobbying. And one of his main strengths is his ability to convince members to vote.

"There is no doubt that an RNA somewhat distracted by internal problems is a less effective defender," said Chris Wilson, an experienced GOP investigator. "Various other groups are trying to intensify, but it takes years to create the kind of lists and member relationships that the ANR has. So no one else will be able to mobilize the kind of effort that the ANR would normally have. "

Catherine Mortensen, ANR spokeswoman, said in a statement that "anyone who chooses not to buy gun owners does so at his own risk." NRA members and supporters of the second amendment will be in touch with their elected officials in Washington. "

Rival groups defending firearms rights, however, say the decline in NRA influence has begun recently. Among their grievances, national regulators are open to the red flag laws, which allow authorities to remove firearms from people who pose a threat to themselves and others. (However, the NRA has not passed state-level red flag legislation and has failed to defeat such laws in 17 states and elsewhere).

The decline "all started when the NRA reacted with National Park," said Michael Hammond, Legislative Counsel for Gun Owners of America, referring to the mass shootings that occurred in a Florida high school last year and making 17 dead. "I think recent financial problems would forgive people. But I do not think they forgive what they see as a weakness on issues related to the Second Amendment. "

Hammond added that the group planned to meet the White House this week to combat the development of background checks.

On the other hand, gun control groups also see an opportunity to attack the NRA. At the mid-point, gun control groups overtook NRA spending for the first time. Peter Ambler, executive director of Giffords, said the vacuum of the NRA could help them dominate the conversation.

"Organizations such as Giffords will also take advantage of the vacuum created by the dissolution of the NRA and we will be, in other respects, the primary beneficiaries," Ambler said. "First, we will occupy the political space in terms of influence on the political debate around guns and, second, we will organize a lot of gun owners."

Despite recent turmoil, NRA lobbying continues to be a powerful influence. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the NRA and the NRA's Legislative Action Institute spent about $ 5 million on lobbying in 2018. US gun owners, by contrast, spent 1 , $ 55 million in 2018, $ 1.1 million from the National Firearms Rights Association and $ 284,863 from the Citizens' Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear in Arms, according to court records. lobbying.

The NRA has also invested heavily in Senate races, hoping to bring together pro-gun voters. NRA members, at least in the past, have shown that they are more politically active than non-RNA weapon owners.

A poll conducted in 2017 by Pew Research revealed that Republican gun owners members of the NRA believe that gun laws should be less stringent than non-Republican gun owners. members. NRA members are also much more politically active than gun owners who do not belong to the NRA. The survey found that 46% of gun owners in the NRA had contacted a public official to talk about gun policy, compared with 15% of gun owners. non-NRA weapons.

But even though the ANR has less influence in the 2020 elections, GOP strategists and other gun rights groups say this voter turnout will remain motivated.

"The NRA is obviously working on some issues, but I do not think it means that its members are less committed to the causes of the second amendment," said Alex Conant, former aide to Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla), who became Republican Strategist. . "You can get rid of the organization, but as long as there will be hundreds of millions of Americans who own guns and support the Second Amendment, you're going to have a real political opposition to gun control legislation. "