Hidden NRA Bumpstock Strategy?

[Elliotte]

The NRA doesn’t pass legislation. Put the blame where it’s due, on do-nothing, self-serving legislators who talked big but did nothing.

No the NRA doesn't pass legislation. But the NRA does speak to & negotiate with the legislators that are tasked with passing legislation. If the NRA says it's willing to accept some infringements on 2A rights, well the Rs will take that as a signal its ok to give in, no one will fight them on it. If the NRA says No this is too far, it will give many of those legislators a spine.

Politicians will always have constituents calling them on both sides of an issue. When they do they'll just turn to the appropriate national organization or lobbyist to see which way the $$ is saying to go. Most don't care about issues, just getting reelected, getting more money, and getting more power.

 

[rascal]

No the NRA doesn't pass legislation. But the NRA does speak to & negotiate with the legislators that are tasked with passing legislation. If the NRA says it's willing to accept some infringements on 2A rights, well the Rs will take that as a signal its ok to give in, no one will fight them on it. If the NRA says No this is too far, it will give many of those legislators a spine.

Politicians will always have constituents calling them on both sides of an issue. When they do they'll just turn to the appropriate national organization or lobbyist to see which way the $$ is saying to go. Most don't care about issues, just getting reelected, getting more money, and getting more power.

Actually having worked on the Hill and in public policy, the communications goes both ways and frequently groups like the NRA are (correctly) told the legislation is going to happen and that if they can get support for an amendment (like sunset on the Assault rifle bill which was a massive loss to Bloomberg's groups).

I think that Ammoland article is cogent and intellectually honest assessment.

And if only it hadn't been punctuated by multiple high-profile mass shootings (which have NOTHING to do with the HPA's aspirations, of course), and a media environment completely saturated in irrational gun/NRA hate. If the sensibilities driving the HPA were enjoying eroding and only marginal at best following Las Vegas, they were completely swamped by Parkland. Utterly irrational, yes. But reality given our current culture.

This is exactly correct. parkland and its media coverage caused a massive reversal of long term trends

By the way and this is instructive, where the NRA is losing is not the more conservative right, but the middle, centrist GOP and independents.

So the contention they are not being hard core enough is simply false.

Fact is the NRA is being outspent and out funded on every single metric. The gun control lobby tactic of putting $10 million into two separate gun control organizations, whose entire mission and near sole activity, was to deny NRA corporate and affinity funding, worked better than anyone expected.For starters by organizing those two groups as 501(c)3 they were able to do so at half the actual cost since donations to for example, gunsdownamerica (the prime group focusing on defunding the NRA) are charitable and tax deductible. Since gun control gets at least three times as much money they can easily spend $2 on every $1 denied the NRA, and as it turned out they got about $5 denied to the NRA for every $2 they spent which no one on ether side thought would happen.

For the supposed pro 2A groups who seem gleeful at the hobbling of NRA, they should be aware, they are next. The blood is in the water.