Our friend Bob Spitzer has just published an interesting op-ed in The [‘failing’] New York Times, which not only goes into detail about how the gun issue impacted the outcome of various political races, but also raises the idea that maybe the vaunted invincibility of the NRA is coming to an end. In a careful and well-documented piece, Spitzer shows that the NRA was not only outspent in this election cycle by the gun-safety side, but also saw a number of House seats flip from red to blue in districts where gun-control messaging had previously been a dead end.
I was pleased to review the latest edition of Spitzer’s book, The Politics of Gun Control, and I’m happy to give it a plug here as well. And while he makes it clear that he’s no advocate for Gun-nut Nation, both this book as well as the op-ed piece are balanced efforts to explain both the recent failures as well as previous successes of the NRA. His basic point is that the election returns ‘suggest’ that the NRA may not possess the clout of former years, but this doesn’t mean that the boys in Fairfax are just going to shut up and fade away.
Not only is America’s ‘first civil rights organization’ not about to disappear (pardon the double negatives) but anyone who thinks that the NRA can’t recapture its dominance in the gun debate doesn’t appreciate how or why the organization has been in the forefront for so long.
Looking first at the money: Spitzer says that gun-control groups outspent the NRA by $12 million to $11 million in the mid-terms, largely due to the combined efforts of Gabby and Mike. As of October 26, Open Secrets put the amounts at slightly less than $10 million and $8 million respectively, but either way, gun-safety groups come out ahead.
On the other hand, what counts going forward is the amount spent not just on political campaigns, but on day-to-day lobbying of elected officials. After all, when it comes to gun-control laws, this is where the rubber meets the road. Over the last five years, gun-safety groups have spent a total of $8.6 million on Capitol Hill; lobbying for gun ‘rights’ during the same five-year period adds up to $60 million bucks! Even in 2018, the impoverished NRA has outspent Gun-control Nation’s lobbying efforts by almost ten to one – $10 million to $1.5 mil.
Can our friends at Everytown and the Giffords Law Center begin to match those numbers year after year? I doubt it and my doubt is based on the NRA’s one basic strength which the gun-control groups simply do not share. This has to do with the fact that when all is said and done, at heart the NRA is a membership organization, and they have the care and feeding of their members down pat.
In addition to the NRA, I also belong to the Wilderness and Audubon Societies, along with AARP. Like the NRA, I pay annual dues to these groups, monies which they use for lobbying and donating to political candidates who protect their interests and promote their views. Every year I receive a lovely calendar from Audubon and Wilderness, every month I get a magazine from AARP. That’s it.
I not only receive at least one email from Wayne-o and Chris Cox every day, I also get the monthly magazine and most important, I can meet other gun nuts at frequent NRA dinners and other social events, or attend hundreds of gun shows every weekend where the NRA has a hospitality booth right at the front door.
I’m happy that Gun-control Nation has begun to level the playing-field when it comes to the public debate about guns. But if my gun-control friends want to get the football across the gun-nut goal line, they have to understand it’s not just money that counts. People support the NRA because they like guns. Can the other side advance an argument as compelling as that?
Nov 13, 2018 @ 14:36:55
If only inner city people, primarily blacks and hispanics, were getting shot by other inner city people, the gun control argument would be a dead end. Increasingly, middle class folks in nice neighborhoods have to worry about someone going batshit crazy and shooting up the schools, malls, churches, and synagogues. Hell, that’s how Moms Demand Action got started. Not out of any concern for kids on the south side. There are no “safe spaces” any more. That’s certainly the message that Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber sent me the other night as we exchanged emails on this subject.
My concern about the NRA, an organization I still respect its leadership notwithstanding, is that it has painted itself into a corner of The Organization of No and far right radicalism. I cannot in good faith defend the notion that any idiot who can pass the 4473 exam can walk into The Outdoorsman and walk out with enough firepower to mow down everybody in Temple Beth Shalom before anyone can do something to stop it. I’ll make a deal with the devil. If we can design an affirmative “may issue” system (i.e., one in which the denial of a permit is based on solid, convincing evidence) that is honest, with enough safeguards in it to protect gun owners from rampant anti-gun bias, I’ll support it for buying some classes of firearms that really do elevate the public risk.