THE NRA IS A POWERFUL POLITICAL FORCE — BUT NOT BECAUSE OF ITS MONEY
The NRA donates millions of dollars to Republican lawmakers, who block proposed gun control legislation. The implication of these two facts appears obvious: Politicians are refusing to stem the bloodshed of gun violence because they’re getting legal bribe from lobbyists.
Indeed, this familiar refrain was widely echoed again after the massacre on the Las Vegas strip. And it wasn’t just politicians. Observers pushed this narrative: A columnist with the Los
Angeles Times wrote that “fistfuls of NRA money” explained why America can’t control guns.
But when you talk to experts, they say this account is wrong or often badly oversimplified. The NRA may exert a massive and real influence on Washington, DC, but its campaign contributions can’t possibly be the corrupting agent thwarting action on gun control.
If you wanted to test whether the NRA’s donations really bought blanket opposition to gun control, you’d want to try neutralizing the effect of NRA money on politicians’ campaign coffers. In 2014, former New York City mayor and billionaire media magnate Michael
Bloomberg started "Everytown for Gun Safety." Its goal was as clear as its method: Get gun control passed by erasing Republicans’ financial incentives to stick by the NRA.
Two years later, and the shifting financial landscape hasn’t changed much: America still can’t enact meaningful gun legislation.
That’s not to say Everytown is a failure. Everytown has provided a platform for the cause of gun reform, and it has worked to help craft legislation with some centrist Republicans and local lawmakers. But in terms of breaking Republican senators’ opposition to gun control, the
organization’s just hasn’t made the difference.
The NRA has given Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn about $30,000 over the past decade. But it was a drop in his donations. In 2014 he raised $14 million, including $57,000 from Exxon. The NRA was nowhere near his top 15 biggest donor contributors. Republican
lawmakers could fund their campaigns just fine if the NRA bowed out.
Money does have a real influence on policymaking but it doesn’t change how politicians vote on high-profile issues. Campaign donations are like bringing a nice bottle of wine to an
exclusive dinner party: The wine may help you strike up a conversation you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.
There’s a meaningful argument that Republicans and their voters have come to be pro-gun in part because of the influence of the NRA’s money. But the donations themselves are clearly not the reason Republican lawmakers fear opposing the NRA — the much bigger threat the gun rights group poses is its ability to mobilize and excite huge numbers of voters. The way you rise up in Republican politics is by supporting gun rights issues, because a lot of Republican voters care very deeply about gun rights.
Of course, none of this means that it wouldn’t be good to try to root money out of politics. Doing so wouldn’t lead to the sweeping gun control so many liberals hope.
ADAPTED FROM VOX / BY JEFF STEIN / OCT 5, 2017,