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(courtesy thetrace.org)

“For most of the last three decades, the NRA supported both Republicans and Democrats making bids for seats in federal elections, provided that the candidate paid proper fealty to its positions on gun rights,” our good friends at Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun agitprop arm report. “That era is over. An analysis of the independent election expenditures by the New York Daily News and The Trace reveals that over the three most recent federal election cycles, the NRA’s spending on behalf of Democrats has dwindled to virtually nothing — even as overall election-related spending by the gun group soared to more than $32 million in 2014.” The move reflects . . .

the Democrats’ full-on embrace of gun control, as witnessed by presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s very public support for “gun safety” and her declaration that she will appoint a Supreme Court Justice who’s ready to roll-back the Heller decision (which ruled that the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms trumps local and state law).

The NRA’s common-sense (sic) decision to focus their members’ money on ousting Democrats makes perfect sense. It’s led two-term Arkansas Democratic senator Mark Pryor to declare “the NRA is now a Republican organization.” Perhaps so — but only in the sense that the Democratic Party is now the unabashed, unalloyed party of civilian disarmament.

In any case…result!

During the most recent 2014 cycle, the NRA poured money into 46 congressional races — and got its desired result in 72 percent of them.

NRA success rate (courtesy thetrace.org)

In the 20 races in which the NRA gave the most money in indirect expenditures over the past three election cycles, the group got its desired result 15 times, the analysis by the News and The Trace found. But there are a few notable exceptions, including the 2012 presidential race, during which the NRA spent $9.8 million attacking President Barack Obama and $2.7 million supporting Mitt Romney’s losing run.

Yeah, too bad about that. But the NRA’s gotta do what the NRA’s gotta do: defend and extend Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.

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44 COMMENTS

  1. NRA didn’t leave the Dems, Dems left the NRA — and us.

    I’ve always appreciate this “non-partisan” aspect of the NRA.

    • This.

      Remember, JFK was a NRA life member. He examined the M-16 in the oval office – there are pictures of the event.

      Watching Obama handle a firearm is a cringe-inducing event.

    • Will beat me to it. It would be much easier to support Democrat candidates if the Democrat party platform did not condemn our fundamental right to keep and bear arms.

      • Yep. I’m an independent, but I used to vote mostly for Democrats…not any more. A Democrat will get my vote only when the party as we now know it is dead.

        When Sandy Hook happened, it finally became clear to me that under its caring facade, the Democratic party is deeply hostile to everything I value. I didn’t change all that much, and I don’t think they did, either — except to become more open about their methods.

        • party as we now know it is dead.>/I>

          Your wish is coming true. The schism in the dem party is huge. The Crazy Bernie full on marxists are splitting from the clintonista’s. The socialist progtardness of Hellery (as Wilson, Roosevelts, Kennedy) is too Wall Street and to normal for them.

  2. what the graphs seem to say to me is “the reasons for opposing the D’s are growing faster than the reasons for supporting the R’s” which implies a third party is the way to go

  3. The Democrats, as demonstrated by their two leaders (Clinton and Obama), have come out strongly in favor of “Australian gun laws”. That means universal registration of every gun you own, followed by confiscation of an increasing number of “bad guns” – including your grandad’s Winchester Model 12, your Auto5 Browning, any 1911, any Ruger 10-22, and even Remington 870 pump shotguns. Why would the NRA or any gun owner want to support any Democrat? I am damn glad that none of my NRA-PVF donations go to any member of the Democrap party.

    And don’t tell me that your local Democrats support your right to keep and bear arms – they are members of the Democrat party, and therfore supporting the anti-gun agenda of the party leaders – Clinton and Obama.

  4. during which the NRA spent … $2.7 million supporting Mitt Romney.

    Wait, I thought this was an article about the NRA not supporting democrat gun-control advocates.

  5. Can we get a comparison of Bloomberg’s spending in this election cycle and the last several for fairness?

    Also, screw anyone who’s willing to sell out gun rights as part of a platform in either party. I’m actually voting Democrat for US Senate this election because Mark Kirk is anti 2A and if he loses it will probably force him into retirement so we can get someone new in 6 years. Maybe they will get the message about abandoning part of their platform.

    • Dude you need to research his opponent. I hate kirk but ducksworth is 100 times worse. Dont let her status as a veteran fool you. She is evil like her dear leader hillary.

  6. The NRA isn’t supporting Democrats because there isn’t a Democrat worth supporting.

    The Blue Dog Dems are gone. Some were defeated in elections, some like Kirsten Gillibrand became turncoats, and some were purged by the commies than run the Dem Party. What’s left are the scum of the Earth.

    • “the modern travesty of Thomas Jefferson’s political organization to which you have attached yourself like a barnacle has the effrontery to call its self the Democratic Party. You are a Dem-o-crat, whats the matter with you? Are you wicked?”

      quoted from Steven Spielberg’s movie Lincoln, good watch.

    • Only one small difference of opinion–best I could tell, ALL the Blue Dogs were “turncoats” when push came to shove.

      • That’s one of the problems with pro-gun-rights Dems. When the party tells them to toe the line on an important anti-gun vote, they’ll do it, no matter WHAT they told the voters to get elected. They know if they don’t, and they vote pro-gun, they’ll get no money and a primary opponent from the Dems in the very next election, which will end their ride on the gravy train.

        If they have enough votes to spare, the national party will occasionally allow a Dem to vote pro-gun with their blessing, to make sure they get re-elected next time around.

  7. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

  8. 1. The Democrats have become solidly, monolithically, and rabidly anit gun.
    2. The NRA is finally admitting that no Democrat has ever been reliable pro gun. Fool me 300 times shame on you, fool me 301 times shame on me.

  9. The Democrats have really boxed themselves into a corner. Their national agenda is now all sex, all the time. It’s all about abortion, sexual antics and carrying the agenda of perverts. That might play well in urban areas on the coasts, but it is costing them in the rest of the country.

    In the campaign donations/spending area, the DNC now depends upon fewer, larger donations and “whale” donors, whereas the GOP is able to still get the $200 donations out of Ma and Pa Kettle. Bernie Sanders has been the new variance to that pattern, but it is starting to look like Bernie might run an independent campaign, because the Broom Pilot and her flying monkey squadrons are going to lock Sanders out with back-room maneuvers.

    The DNC asked for this result. They’re just as detached and contemptuous of their voter base as the GOP has been.

    • Independent Sanders campaign?
      Be still, my beating heart. I’d contribute $200 to that today.

      Sanders as the Green Party candidate would do more to hurt Hillary than Perot did to hurt GHWB.

    • Sanders is not an idiot, and he realizes full well that running as independent would mean that he loses and Clinton loses – and he has made it abundantly clear what he thinks about the prospects of a Trump presidency.

      As far as demographics, you’re spot on, but you omit one crucial fact: the majority of the population of this country lives in those urban areas. Which is exactly why it’s harder and harder for Republicans to win majorities with every year. Look at the presidential electoral map this cycle, and see how many states are up for grabs, and where the majority of them lean.

  10. The enemy of my enemy? Which party has gun control in their party platform? And yeah I was annoyed by the BS NRA support for the tepid Mitt. I can maybe trust Repubs but if you get any funding as a dem you are bound to the devil. And Andrew-while I agree with your assessment of rino-Kirk me voting for Tammy is not an option. Just abstain. 6 years is a long-time to possibly give the dems senate control. I see no JFK’s on the horizon…

  11. AS usual, The NRA is nothing but a terror group and propaganda arm of the gun lobby,

    The same NRA gun lobby that provided arms to the Paris attackers.

    The same NRA that continues to funnel illegal guns into foreign countries in some shoddy attempt to prove that gun control “doesn’t work.” when the millions of traced guns that entered foreign countries where found to have been traced to have come from gun shops in this country.

    Why are these whores to the gun lobby think the civilized world should follow suit in their perverse agenda when they’re more guns less crime crap has been through debunked heavily many, many times by various researchers of the united nations and various human rights research groups.

    Mass killings in europe, australia and japan are extremely rare versus that various mass shootings that happen everyday in this country because somehow saving lives is considered “tyrannical.”

    • This is such a ridiculous pile of horseshit I was waiting for the /sarc tag.

      But I guess some people really are this fucking stupid.

    • Just another “subject” with zero testicular fortitude showing fealty to the all powerful state. Long on emotion, short on fact.

    • “Gun lobby”: You keep using those words, but I don’t think you know what they mean.

      Let me enlighten you: I AM THE GUN LOBBY.

      But who am I really, you may ask? Well, okay, I’ll tell you.

      I was born and raised in a small, rural town that was both conservative and highly religious. I’m neither of those things now, but the values of compassion and personal responsibility stuck with me. I’ve worked in jobs ranging from landscaping labor to assembly lines to academia. I have a master’s degree in the humanities and I’m currently on professional staff at a large public research university.

      I bought my first firearm (a .22 rifle) when I was 38 years old, and used it to teach my children the same safety and marksmanship that I learned back in Boy Scouts. My wife and I both have concealed-carry permits. I personally own four guns; my wife owns one; and my teenage son will officially, legally own the .22 rifle we gave him for his 14th birthday when he turns 18 this summer. I’m planning to give my 15-year-old daughter a rifle this summer.

      A couple months ago, after hearing Hillary Clinton say for the nineteenth time how much she loves having the NRA as an enemy, I finally bit the bullet and joined. I’m nobody important, but I definitely do stand against the Clintons; figured I might as well make our relationship official.

      So there’s your gun lobby.

      We may or may not be members of the NRA. We don’t haunt the halls of Congress, but our letters do haunt our elected representatives’ mailboxes. We won’t vote for a candidate that doesn’t respect our civil rights, especially article two in the Bill of Rights. And they know it.

      I’m not unique; the gun lobby comprises millions of people just like me. And our numbers are increasing every day.

    • Oh wow, look who’s back. I actually kind of like it when we get nutcases like this. In addition to being roundly entertaining, their bizarre invective turns off just about every single fence sitter out there. He’s not even talking to the choir. Just his own echo chamber. I say give him all the rope he can handle and let him run interference for us!

      Tom

  12. I don’t want my dues to go to any Demoncrat, nor do I want them to go to any Repugnant Senators who voted to confirm Sotomayor, Kagan, Holder, and Lynch.

  13. The Democrats in the 2012 platform codified their gun control stance:

    “Firearms. We recognize that the individual right to bear arms is an important part of the American tradition, and we will preserve Americans’ Second Amendment right to own and use firearms. We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation. We understand the terrible consequences of gun violence; it serves as a reminder that life is fragile, and our time here is limited and precious. We believe in an honest, open national conversation about firearms. We can focus on effective enforcement of existing laws, especially strengthening our background check system, and we can work together to enact commonsense improvements—like reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole—so that guns do not fall into the hands of those irresponsible, law-breaking few.”. https://www.democrats.org/party-platform

    Expect more in 2016… with such an official stance the NRA can’t support any Democrat, no matter what an individual claims, he or she would be going against the party to speak or vote otherwise.

  14. Reagan really did say it best. I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me.

  15. Good, I’m glad they’re wearing the bias on the sleeve, the official stance of the Democrat party is to promote gun control, just look at their website. Now it’s black and white, and if the Democrats are upset by it then maybe they shouldn’t have politicized guns so much in the first place and left the issue up to the American people and state and local governments to figure out.

    They picked this fight, so they can cry all they want, at the end of the day you don’t accuse, belittle and attempt to deprive the American who has been a good, law-abiding person, who has given you no reason to attack them. We won’t take it and we’re glad to have a lobby representing our interests against the bullies of the left.

  16. It’s a great short term strategy and a bad long term strategy in my opinion. It assured gun rights in the short term, but historically the power between democrats and republicans swings back and forth like a pendulum. The only way to ensure gun rights in the long term is to bring enough democrats into the fold of gun ownership that supporting gun control ceases to be a viable option for democratic platforms. Been doing my best to bring as many democrats into the fold as I can. It’s not as hard as many people think.

    • The chart is misleading until you read and understand the fine print. It is tracking “independent expenditures”, not money given to candidates. This is what most (honest) organizations call “Issue Ads”, where a candidate’s position on an issue is the subject of the ad.

      The Trace and Bloomies Bunch are upset that the NRA is spending money to run ads that support pro-gun positions, and oppose anti-gun positions. What do they expect? Hell, that’s one of the reasons I give the NRA money.

      Let’em whine. Music to my ears.

  17. So, a few 10s of millions of citizens organized around their interest in a traditional, beneficial, and constitutionally practice they enjoy … stop contributing to the party that’s been assaulting their hobby and demonizing them for the last 10 years, and promises to continue to continue. Shocking.

    However, Bloomie and his anti- minions have it backwards, as usual. (This happens when you are wrong, lying, or both.) Wrong twice, actually.

    The NRA isn’t herding its followers to particular positions, NRA members are dragging their membership organization around to representing them, at last.

    Tbe NRA membership has hardly gone fully Republican. Since the Democratic party has gone all in on “No guns for you!”, they have nowhere else to go.

    You want people to stick with you, maybe don’t run at their hobbies, interests, and safety demonizing them the whole time. Just sayin.

  18. Pro Democrats white good nra rating ?? Looks montana Steve Bullock.
    Constitunal carry and campus carry multiple times vetoed and no override.
    Suppressor hunting only after created an state crime and vetoed an 4 to 6 inch blade limit bill 🙁

    And 4 republican rhinos some history about the nra must correct it”s overrating

    – Utah Herbert (Constitunal Carry)
    – Arizona Brewer (Campus Carry and Public Buildings)
    – Florida Miguel Diaz de la Portilla the berlin wall that blocked anythink thats pro liberty
    – Texas Joe Straus
    – Oklahoma Mary Fallin bad history (knife preemption, public buildings, and and and)
    – South Dakota Dennis Daugaard Constitunal Carry
    – Georgia the asshole Nathan Deal vetoe on last day campus carry to make this session override unavabiled

    So don t give a fuck about nra ratings !

    best regards

    • Proofreading is a thing, you know.

      And if you’re going to say something about posting from mobile, you can find keyboard apps with larger keys.

  19. That makes perfect sense. Every blue state has horrible gun laws. if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck it’s probably a duck.

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