NRA and its Strong Lobbying

           The NRA is made up of around 4 million supporters. With that amount of supporters, the organization has no issues with raising a lot of money in a very short amount of time. The NRA knows that gun rights are extremely important to their supporters, especially in the South, so when there are any threats or attempts to jeopardize those rights, motive is handed to the NRA to rally their supporters and lobby against any Bills or laws trying to be passed. For example, the NRA spent $1.5 million in May and June of 1999, all of that going to mailing to members nation wide and extensive media buying of ads on conservative talk shows. All this was spending was intended to get their supporters aware of what was going on and to rally people to stand up for gun rights.

            
          When it comes to the techniques of lobbying, the NRA has some great speakers and leaders. The President of the NRA is David Keene and the executive Vice President is Wayne LaPierre. Both of these men are advocates for the right to keep and bare arms, with LaPierre being the CEO of pro-gun lobbying. They understand that there is always people trying to fight to created laws and pass Bills to hinder everything they believe and fight for. They have the backing of most Republican Senators and representatives. The NRA likes to boil issues down to pro gun and anti gun and they always take the side of pro gun. The pattern shows that they are under the most heat and have to fight the hardest in the wake of a mass shooting, such as the Columbine and Sandy Hook shooting. It is in these sad times that the NRA is the focal point for criticism and that puts pressure on the NRA and it’s lobbyists to put up a good fight to fight any proposals on gun control. The most recent issue that LaPierre and Keene had to lobby against was background checks before purchasing a gun, generated of course because of the Sandy Hook shooting.