Their Russian funding dried up because the 3 day special military operation is now on year 3, so those funds had to be diverted eventually.
Sad day in America when the chuds aren’t rushing in to defend democracy against tyrannical government, as was prophesied.
The NRA is very nearly a failed organization at this point.
In regards to recent events there was a time back in the ‘90s where they were pretty willing to get involved in stuff like this. Ol’ WLP himself let fly with phrases like “Jackbooted thugs” and Charlton Heston proudly declared “From my cold dead hands.” The NRA of the '90s was a fiery organization that was increasingly positioning itself as an anti-government force.
Then it stopped. I’ve never seen confirmation as to why but my supposition is that after the “jackbooted thugs” comment that WLP got a tap on the shoulder from the men in black suits and a deal was struck.
If today’s NRA had the spirit it did 30 years ago they’d likely already be in the streets.
They used to donate significantly to Democrats, as well:
https://www.governing.com/archive/tns-nra-campaign-contributions.html
An issue with only having two political parties is that a special interest group can split their donations to both election candidates and win either way. At some point, the NRA forgot that and only funded one side. That left them vulnerable when there was widespread financial fraud in the organization; only one side was willing to come to bat for them.
At some point, the NRA forgot that and only funded one side.
As the article notes after '94 the number of Democrats the NRA could support steadily dwindled. These days the Democrats purity test their candidates to ensure that they fully support Gun Control and there are various Democrat PACs that will oppose Pro-Gun Democrats in the primaries; making it increasingly unlikely for there to be any future Democrats at the federal level that the NRA can support.
The 2nd Amendment is a wedge issue and both sides do their best to take maximum advantage of their position.
That left them vulnerable when there was widespread financial fraud in the organization…
They were vulnerable because they were up to shady shit. No one should have been going to bat for the NRA during their corruption scandal and the fact they had one is entirely the fault of the NRAs Board of Directors. They knew what was happening and ignored it. No amount of political donations to Democrats, or anyone else, should have insulated them from the consequences.
I’d like for all of the Pro 2A groups, not just the NRA, to get back to donating to non-Republican politicians but they kinda don’t exist anymore and I don’t know how to change that.
In the last 48 hours they’ve only posted on their Facebook about how they helped get Trump elected and criticized (insulted) a study that examines “the relationship between community-level firearm violence and dental health”. They seem pretty unconcerned
The NRA never actually gave a shit about any of that. It was always a front for gun lobbyists to stoke fear so people would stockpile more weaponry that they definitely didn’t need while also promoting the American political faction that would be less likely to pass gun control legislation that would harm their bottom line.
Republicans were just useful idiots. They do not care if Trump is an oppressive tyrant as long as he doesn’t even think about the word gun control. If tomorrow the positions on gun control reversed, you’d see a flip-flop so Orwellian it would make you question your concept of objective reality.
The NRA fell flat on their face. If you want a good pro-2a group, try the second amendment foundation. I’ve also heard good things about GoA
Weren’t they shown to be a Russian psyop?
My understanding is that around 2021, a lot of corruption and embezzlement came to light (wow what a surprise). Their long time CEO resigned in disgrace and they lost a lot of members, as well as several court cases. They filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to restructure their organization in Texas, and even Texas said no.
Basically, it was a shitty organization full of shitty people who devdoled to fraud and infighting. It died the way it lived.
Here’s a full list of their fuck-ups for anyone interested: https://giffords.org/stories/nra-in-disarray-what-you-need-to-know-blog/
After reading Wikipedia they are still active if I understand correctly? They are not dead?
They are not dead. They’re just quiet after years of scandals and corruption.
The TLDR version is that the old leadership was corrupted and misappropriating funds for personal uses. There were several lawsuits and the old leadership has been mostly ousted. The new leadership are trying to reform the organization to prevent abuse of the prior administration from returning.
They are still around at a reduced role. Other groups have popped up like GOA (Gun owners of America) and FPC (Firearms Policy Coalition).
What’s Wayne The Peter doing these days anyway? Was he convicted?
They’ve been pretty quiet since it was revealed they’re funded by Russia.
Even the pro gun folks dislike them at this point.
I don’t know about that. When it came out that their executives had been ripping off the NRA members one of my pro-gun friends did mental gymnastics to frame it as something that wasn’t bad.
Aren’t the pro-gun folk pro Russia?
There is the 2A left, and the people who were active in places like weekendgunnit (broadly anti government, with a lot else mixed in) on Reddit that are both very anti Russia, or at least anti Russian imperialism. So pro gun doesn’t always equate to pro conservative.
First time I’ve seen WG mentioned on Lemmy. Broadly anti government with a lot else mixed in is a great description lmao.
Too bad it caught a ban. The community generally did a great job at keeping the racist assholes out.
As strange as it is to say, conservatives dislike open hypocrisy as much as everyone else. They just usually are lead by the hand to a way of thinking that lets them process the open hypocrisy of their leaders in a way that doesn’t feel hypocritical, and most of them completely lack the critical thinking skills to figure it out on their own (because defunding the educational system has been conservative action item #1 for decades and now they can reap the fruits of their labor…).
But the NRA shit with russia was impossible to spin. Seriously, that was such a bad look. Even the true born-red gun nuts I know lost any respect for the NRA when it all came out.
Wow, I tuned out the USA so hard, I missed all of this.
It wasn’t even big news here, so it wouldn’t have been hard to miss if you weren’t following specifically usa political outlets. We like to hide all the juiciest drama behind the most boring court proceedings, because we suck as a country.
or… something like that.
My apologies for linking The Nation, but this was big news. It just happened 6 years ago.
https://apnews.com/article/d8f27546a0da4cafa64bf33ae18de629
https://www.vox.com/2019/4/30/18510946/nra-finances-lapierre-north-accusations-corruption
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/nra-corruption-lawsuit/
American in deep red territory, this is the first I’ve heard of it.
So weird to me that any of them would. I guess Daddy Trump wasn’t vocal enough re: the NRA for them to have their minds made up for them.
Eehng… the fraud was mostly done against other rich conservatives & the NRA members themselves, so there wasn’t much of a way to convince people it was all the fault of liberals. Plus you can’t let everyone get away with it, so just throw the most inept ones under the bus occasionally and chalk it up as an example of conservative self-regulation.
And when it comes to funded propaganda like the NRA the wealthy and powerful don’t need to discredit the organization or go out of their way to do anything other than change their donations to some other propaganda source and let the old one wither away.
The NRA was long the organization with the least wealthy members. It wasn’t money that made them powerful (though they had a lot) it was they could show their average donation was an order of magnitude less than just about anyone else. They had lots of little guys donating money and that scared politicians - money is second to votes and all those little donations meant the NRA had a lot of voters who wouldn’t be swayed by any amount of money.
Yes, the people who want to have guns to prevent government oppression are pro-russia.
Don’t be ignorant.
Because obviously those are the only ones.
The only one, what? That makes no sense.
The only people who support 2A.
Well yeah, there’s plenty of valid reasons to own guns.
The point I’m making is that firearm owners are overwhelmingly against government oppression, and well Russia is… Well that’s kind of Russia’s thing.
Lol they’re not doing a whole hell of a lot right now except supporting it, huh comrade?
Lemmy is fucking wild. It’s literally actual communists calling everyone else communists… Haha
No, I was actually calling the pretend anti-oppession ammosexual fascist dicksuck pro-Russia non-patriots.
Ah yes, ol’ faithful. Everyone I don’t agree with is a fascist!
Look, if you don’t want to have guns, don’t. It’s pretty easy.
You know it would be funny if both the NRA and the SRA were Russian funded
Wayne LaPierre effectively completed the transformation of the NRA from a gun enthusiast/conservationist club into an aggressive Republican/gun rights lobbying arm.
And then it came out that he was using the organization as his own personal piggy bank, after which he resigned.
I think the NRA will be dealing with the consequences of that for a long time. Turns out even people who are dumb enough to think teachers should have to carry guns as a defense against students with guns don’t like the idea of the CEO of the NRA getting rich off their dues.
The foaming at the mouth about “government tyranny” was just a load of bullshit to help rake in the money so Wayne could afford to take more personal trips on the corporate jet.
The foaming at the mouth about “government tyranny” was just a load of bullshit to help rake in the money so Wayne could afford to take more personal trips on the corporate jet.
I have started to apply that to all lobby groups. I’ve been identified as a republican, while the previous owners of my house were democrats (or at least identified that way), so I get their political mail now that the forwarding as expired. I often get mail on the same day from both a left and right group, in it is always “Send us money because [other side] is [something exaggerated to scare supporters into sending money]”. You could use a standard search/replace on the same form documents to write the letters both are sending. It is very amusing.
Meanwhile I have long been voting third party…
Meanwhile I have long been voting third party
In a FPTP system, that’s not the brag you think it is
There will be another election. Third parties don’t need to win to send a message and change things, as the very fact that some positions get some votes means that politicians looking to win try to figure out how to attract some of those voters next time.
If the message is “that circle of people in the back of the crowd are mumbling something”, it doesn’t matter.
More people checking out instead of getting involved means the more easily influenced are all that remain to campaign for.
I’m super glad you get to send a message and change things while people are kidnapped and killed. Thanks for helping.
I suspect for a lot of their members, the goal was achieved. The guns may have been secondary.
I dunno. I’m a Socialist Rifle Association member–I don’t follow trash.
They’re “fighting non-stop”… except they’re fighting for tyranny.
Here in the US, for most, values and political principles are a matter of convenience.
The NRA never cared about tyranny or kids. They only ever cared about not having to wait a day to get their shiny new toy.
