National Rifle Association Receives Millions of Dollars From Gun Industry "Corporate Partners"

[jpak]

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-rifle-association-receives-millions-of-dollars-from-gun-industry-corporate-partners-new-vpc-report-reveals-119765309.html


WASHINGTON, April 13, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Rifle Association (NRA) receives millions of dollars directly from domestic and foreign gun manufacturers and other members of the firearms industry through an organized corporate outreach program according to a new report issued today by the Violence Policy Center (VPC).

The report, "Blood Money: How the Gun Industry Bankrolls the NRA" (http://www.vpc.org/studies/bloodmoney.pdf), reveals that since 2005 contributions from gun industry "corporate partners" to the NRA total between $14.7 million and $38.9 million. Total donations to the NRA from all "corporate partners" -- both gun industry and non-gun industry -- for the same time period total between $19.8 million and $52.6 million. The vast majority of funds -- 74 percent -- contributed to the NRA from "corporate partners" come from members of the firearms industry: companies involved in the manufacture or sale of firearms or shooting-related products.

Despite the NRA's historical claims that it is not financially allied with the gun industry, including the current disclaimer on its website that it "is not affiliated with any firearm or ammunition manufacturers or with any businesses that deal in guns and ammunition," NRA "corporate partners" include many of the world's best known gunmakers as well as such companies as Xe, the new name of the now infamous Blackwater Worldwide -- known for its abuses in the Iraq war -- which alone contributed between $500,000 and $999,999 to the NRA since 2005.

In a recent promotional brochure, NRA Executive Vice (edit: moran) President Wayne LaPierre promises that the "National Rifle Association's newly expanded Corporate Partners Program is an opportunity for corporations to partner with the NRA....This program is geared toward your company's corporate interests."

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So- the NRA get mega-$$$$ from the gun industry and is allowed to "review" taxpayer funded CDC pulic health studies

Convenient fascism indeed

yup

[DonP]

1. Brady Group receives ....?

Wow, that's a lot of money for a very small industry in terms of real size and sales $, I'm impressed!

This is probably part of the Midway USA, Numrich etc. "round up" programs.

Order things for the shooting sports; bipod, ammunition, shooting mat, cheek rest etc. and they ask if you want to "round up" to the next dollar as a contribution. Smart way to build up a financial base. I know Midway was up to about 7 million IIRC last year.

Maybe you gun control people should use this idea too. You can get someone to round up money for the Brady group? I have no idea who it might be, since there is no whining industry in the US of any size.

Oh, wait, that's right none of you do anything but huff and puff online about how everyone agrees with you but they never seem to do anything. No one contributes to Brady and no one organizes or supports gun control beyond giving it lip service. In the meantime the 80 to 100 million of us will continue to buy things and some of us will round up.

I'm sure the politicians will pay no attention to the lobbying and the millions of voters it represents and do exactly what you want them to do instead.

[sharesunited]

8. Or more succinctly, you're part of the problem.

[DonP]

9. Only from your twisted view. Yup, happy my 64 cents now and then can help crush fascist preferences

Pretty good idea. 64 cents here, 32 cents there, even a nickel round up helps support what I believe in, the entire Bill of Rights.

Funny how millions of little, otherwise insignificant individuals contrbuting nickels and dimes can help crush massive privately funded foundations out to dilute the bill of rights.

Equally odd is the fact that for all the huffing and puffing, gun control people continue to do jack shit to actually support their cause. Let's just keep it that way.

[sharesunited]

10. Guns and ammo threaten all your actual (note: not pretend) rights. By killing you.

When you financially support that, you harm yourself and the nation.

[chibajoe]

11. Last time I check, no gun has killed me

nor, for that matter, anybody I know.

:woohoo:

[oneshooter]

14. They tried several times in the last 20yrs. I'm still here.

and quite a few of them ain't!

Oneshooter
Armed and Livin in Texas

[DonP]

12. You are the only one that thinks that way - be happy in your solitude

Unless you have some kind of secret group that agrees with your odd philosophy of turning back the clock 500+ years and making guns and ammo vanish over time? Didn't think so.

On the other hand, there are millions that agree with me, support it with their time, their money\ and their votes, so I have a lot of good company in my pedestrian belief system.

Thankfully there are no groups that I'm aware of, that want to roll back your 1st amendment rights the way you would the 2nd for others. So you, in your solitude, get to keep advocating for something that no one else agrees with or even believes possible.

[Hangingon]

2. Happy to unrec -

Wow! Jumps from NRA contributions to CDC. Just throw stuff out there. What non-gun contributors give to the NRA? Guess I'd have to wade into the VPC to find that info. No,not that interested.

[badtoworse]

6. Thanks, forgot to unrec.

[LAGC]

3. *yawn*

Most of the NRA's muscle still comes from its 4 million grass-roots members' dues. The industry contributions are just icing on the cake.

How many members does VPC claim? Not very many at all, which is probably why their gun control agenda keeps getting pushed back.

[one-eyed fat man]

15. That question has been answered

The VPC has to file with the IRS, where the money comes from is easy to find out. Money from dues paying members has been nothing for years.

One way to judge the an organization's grassroots support is to see how many folks will pony up with cash to fund their views. Because VPC has no public membership revenues, in other words, it has no dues paying members, it gets virtually all its funding from the Joyce Foundation. Philanthropic Research has a web site named GuideStar, which contains tax returns for many non-profit organizations. Returns of the Joyce Foundation show $9,475,883 spent on gun control between 2005 and 2007.

Last year, the VPC took a grant cut of $115K from their sugar daddies at the Joyce Foundation. Assuming no increases or decreases, that would mean Josh Sugarmann and Kristen Rand are now siphoning nearly half of the total grant in just their salaries alone (what a sweet gig).

Last year Brady was reduced to selling their mailing list of "members."

Brady Campaign sells its member list to raise cash

Also note, "As Huffman points out, 50,000 members is far below the 'about half a million members' that Brady president, claimed in a 2004. Maybe the "450,000 members" who "disappeared" quit to protest the selling of their names in violation of Brady's own published privacy policy?

Did Brady misspeak, prevaricate, dissemble or just flat out fucking lie? Again? or still?

[baldguy]

4. This is an open secret.

But guns' rights advocates don't care that they've become corporate stooges.

[friendly_iconoclast]

16. "...guns' rights advocates don't care that they've become corporate stooges."

Seems like you're claiming NRA members are suffering from false consciousness.

No wonder the claim gun control supporters are elitist gets traction- Some of them obviously are...

[badtoworse]

5. Smacks of sour grapes to me

So who funds VPC? Other than a few rich, anti-gun zealots, does anyone send them money? I regularly send checks to the NRA, NRA-ILA and NRA-PVF, as do millions of other supporters of our civil rights. I don't care if the NRA has corporate sponsors because with all the Lautenbergs, Schumers, Bloombergs, Daleys and others who don't respect civil rights, we need all the help we can get.

Does anyone take VPC seriously? Nope.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[onehandle]

13. The GOPNRA is awash with corporate money?

I am shocked! Shocked, I tell you.

[friendly_iconoclast]

17. The chief source of funds for the VPC (the Joyce Foundation) is incorporated, is it not?

Whereas the NRA gets most of its funds from individuals.

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"

[LAGC]

18. And don't forget HCI.

Before the Brady Center changed its name, it was Handgun Control, INCORPORATED.

[friendly_iconoclast]

19. Yes, the Brady Campaign used to be Handgun Control, INCORPORATED

Good one! I had forgotten about that.

I guess some animals are more equal than others....

[intaglio]

20. And this is surprising how?

It is in the same league as a statement that the Pope is Catholic or that bear shit in the woods.

Of course the NRA gets money from gun manufactures, gun manufacturers want to keep selling guns FFS

Instead of pretending shock you should try and find ways to persuade a majority of your fellow Americans to expect reasonable gun controls like the rest od western civilisation.

[oneshooter]

21. Please, what gun controls would you prefer? n/t

[gejohnston]

22. define reasonable?

Do you know what our laws are or the laws of any of these countries are? How long they have been in place or why? Thought so. I think our current federal laws are reasonable. Canada has some reasonable aspects and some that are draconian (you give away a lot of your rights under the Charter), pointless (the long gun registry), or just plain stupid (giving the RCMP the route you take to the range and letting 12 year olds buy ammo.) They balance out with many countries in Europe. On the surface they seem stricter but they balance out. Also all of our most murder ridden cities have stricter gun control than anyplace in Europe, Australia, or New Zealand.

[DonP]

24. Check out all the rights before you decide to give up the 2nd amendment

A lot of the country's that are thrown up here regularly as paragons of "civilization" would make some of our gun controlling bretheren freak out in other areas of civil rights.

Some have no habeas corpus and you can be held by the police for an indefinite period of time prior to trial. Others have no 4th amendment like protections and the police can go into your house whether you are home or not to search if they feel there are "exigent" circumstances. In others probably cause is not even an issue. If the police choose to search you or your vehicle anything found is fair game.

So, before you decide you want to emulate another country's laws, because you've decided they have better gun laws, better check out the complete package, or lack thereof.

[Katya Mullethov]

23. To paraphrase the 20th century Nelsonian philosophers

Ha-haaa .