—
When life-long gun advocates, are speaking out against the NRA like this — could it be that the NRA days of “dictating Gun Policy” are numbered?
How Big Is the NRA? Gun Group’s Membership Might Not Be as Powerful as It Says
[...]
“The NRA is a rabid dog. It is a rogue outfit,” Ware said. “Whatever its purposes are, they are not mine. They do not speak for me.”
As the number of children killed due to gun violence increases, poll after poll shows increasing support for stricter gun legislation among the general American public and the country’s estimated 55 million gun owners specifically. A Quinnipiac poll conducted in the days after February's Parkland, Florida, school shooting — arguably a watershed moment in the movement to end gun violence — showed 97 percent of surveyed gun owners support universal background checks for gun purchases.
[...]
A question remains. If gun owners across the country like Ware no longer identify with the organization, and polls show that they increasingly support gun control measures, who is the gun rights group fighting for?
Good Questions. Here’s the disturbing answer …
The NRA is fighting for the ever-increasing Profits for the Gun Manufacturers.
When Americans live in Fear — the Gun Manufacturers of America rake in the Loot.
How the NRA derails gun control debates
The NRA speaks for gun companies. Why should we listen?
[...]
But the NRA is a powerful industry lobbying group, often working on behalf of gun manufacturers. The group gets millions of dollars in direct donations from gun companies every year, and millions more in ad space that gun companies buy in NRA publications. Some gun companies donate a portion of every gun purchase directly to the NRA. The NRA has a “Golden Ring of Freedom” program that acknowledges groups that donate more than $1 million to the organization. “Golden Ring of Freedom” honorees include companies like Beretta and Smith & Wesson, the manufacturer that created the gun used in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
That allegiance to gun manufacturers means that the NRA’s top priority in any debate about gun violence is protecting the product — deflecting attention away from gun sales. And that creates a badly warped view of the gun debate, where commonsense solutions to gun violence are ignored while the public attempts to make sense of the NRA’s distractions.
[...]
Here is one study that tries to break down the “profits-sharing” arrangement between the NRA and GMA (the Gun Manufacturers of America) ...
Violence Policy Center — Sept 2013
[...]
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre stated in a promotional brochure for the program 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.”
Blood Money revealed that since 2005 and up to the study’s publication in April 2011, contributions from gun industry 3 "corporate partners" to the NRA totaled between $14.7 million and $38.9 million (the range is due to the giving levels defined within the NRA donor program).
Today, using the NRA’s same giving range, contributions to the organization from the gun industry total between $19.3 million and $60.2 million . Included in this figure are eight gun industry “corporate partners” who have, in the NRA’s own words, “given gifts of cash totaling $1,000,000 or more . ”[4]
When life-long gun advocates Money-changers are finally speaking out against the NRA and the GMA like this — could it be that their free-for-all days of “dictating Gun Policy” to the “Victims of their Policies” — are finally coming to an end?
by Jacqueline Thomsen , The Hill — Mar 29, 2018
Nearly 150 professional investors and faith groups are demanding that companies linked to the gun industry take action to prevent gun violence, including by cutting ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA).
[...]
Dozens of religious groups and asset management firms signed onto the statement. The organizations oversee $634 billion in investor assets, CNBC reported.
[...]
The groups are asking gun retailers to stop selling assault weapons, and to ban the sale of guns and ammunition to anyone under the age of 21.
Firearm manufacturers are also asked to stop producing assault weapons and to support universal background checks for all gun and ammunition sales.
[...]
There is an stirring undercurrent going here.
The advocates of guns and the advocates of profits, are no longer turning a blind eye, to the life-wrecking havoc, that their devices have foisted on society.
It seems the calls for common sense constraints on these devices of greed, are becoming more common, more vocal … more self-aware.
Investors don’t want the Blood of America’s Kids on their hands. Neither do the the Midwestern ‘plinkers’ who grew up in an era target practice and the occasional Hunting trip.
...
If the NRA is losing their credibility with those “target audiences” — how long will it be before Congress wakes up and smells the ever-dissipating “gun-smoke” too?
After all these years of NRA-inspired neglect — they’ve got some serious Book-balancing to do …
...
So many lives lost, to so much pain … So many families left wrecked.
All for what?
So that so many “Marlboro man” wantabees — can finally feel like a man -- with gun in one hand and a cancer-stick in the other?
Well here’s a simple thought: A real man — doesn’t need guns.
—