NRA Significantly Hobbled In Recent Years, Facing Political, Financial, and Legal Woes; Everytown Experts, Moms Demand Action Volunteers Available For Interviews
NRA Holding Annual Meeting As Indianapolis Observes Two-Year Mark Of 2021 Mass Shooting At FedEx Facility
INDIANAPOLIS — Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, released the following statements today as the National Rifle Association (NRA) kicked off its annual meeting in Indianapolis. Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund will have mobile billboard trucks circling the convention site highlighting the NRA’s dire financial state and rampant wasteful spending, as well as the need to take action on gun safety. Photos are available here.
“As Republican primary hopefuls descend on Indianapolis to pander to the NRA’s extreme leaders for support, they’ll find an NRA that is past its prime and unable to deliver general election wins,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown For Gun Safety. “While the gun safety movement is stronger than ever, the NRA’s string of defeats in courthouses, statehouses, and Congress is only getting longer. The election results from 2020, 2022, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court race show the NRA’s endorsement has gone from an asset to an albatross.”
“The NRA convention being headlined by a man under indictment for 34 felonies says everything you need to know about the state of the organization,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “As our grassroots army of gun violence prevention volunteers and survivors continues notching victories, NRA members are fleeing the organization like the sinking ship it is. The only question is who will be left on board when the NRA finally capsizes.”
“The NRA has chosen to come to our city on the weekend that best showcases the price of its agenda: one where we remember the eight people killed two years ago in a mass shooting,” said Tricia Owens, a volunteer with the Indiana Chapter of Moms Demand Action and gun violence survivor. “We’re going to continue fighting tooth and nail to pass gun safety laws at every level of government, because Hoosiers are fed up with the thoughts and prayers — and inaction — from the leaders showing up to the NRA convention today.”
“Guns are the number one killer of children and teens, and we’re tired of a guns-everywhere agenda that puts us at risk at our schools, our parks, and our grocery stores,” said Salsabil Qaddoura, a volunteer with Students Demand Action in Indianapolis. “Our generation will define the future and we’re going to leave no place for the NRA or its agenda in it.”
Tomorrow, April 15, is the two-year mark of the mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis in which a shooter killed eight people and wounded several more. This is the first time the NRA has held an annual meeting in Indianapolis since its 2019 meeting which descended into chaos, inflighting, and a revolt over the organization’s leadership and financial mismanagement, culminating in Oliver North’s resignation as President and a vote to remove CEO Wayne LaPierre. Since that chaotic meeting, the NRA has continued to face turmoil:
- Political: The NRA is simply not the political player it once was. In 2016, it was Trump’s biggest outside spender, spending $31.2 million to support his campaign. By 2020, spending for Trump was cut nearly 47%, dropping to $16.6 million in support of the president’s failed re-election campaign. Additionally, the NRA was dealt a major loss last summer when 15 Republican Senators supported federal gun safety legislation over the NRA’s objections, and last fall, Everytown-endorsed candidates beat NRA-endorsed ones in 73% of the races where they faced off.
- Financial: NRA membership continues to fall, with recent reports showing the NRA has lost over one million members since the last time the NRA came to Indianapolis, dropping to a 10-year membership low. NRA revenue from membership dues is down nearly $73 million, or more than 40 percent, since 2018.The drop in membership revenue poses serious threats to the ability of the organization to both provide services to members and spend politically.
- Legal: The NRA continues to face a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General for alleged violations of New York charity law, including improper insider transactions and financial mismanagement. That case is expected to go to trial later this year and could result in LaPierre’s removal from the organization.
The NRA’s annual meeting kicks off just a day after the gun safety movement achieved a major victory in neighboring Michigan, as Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed two critical gun safety bills into law, over the NRA’s opposition, joined by hundreds of Moms Demand Action and Student Demand Action volunteers and gun violence survivors.
Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund has chronicled the revelations from the NRA’s various legal woes at NRAWatch.org. For further information about the state of play for the NRA or to arrange an interview with either an Everytown expert or Indiana Moms Demand Action volunteer, please email [email protected].
