Symbolic but powerful, the National Rifle Association backed Republican Donald Trump for president in May 2016, when its political influence was at its peak, in an effort to signal support for a candidate whose dedication to gun owners was still mostly unknown. In November of that year, the organization spent over $30 million to bolster Trump’s electoral victory.
Trump has been a dependable ally of Second Amendment activists for the past eight years, and he arrives here on Saturday for the NRA’s annual meeting. How much the NRA can aid Trump’s reelection campaign is far less obvious, though.
As we enter the 2024 election season, the future and relevance of the NRA are unknown. In February, a New York jury found the organization and its top officials guilty in a civil corruption case, the latest in a string of scandals involving financial mismanagement that has severely tarnished the image and finances of the most visible gun rights group in the country. Wayne LaPierre, the longstanding CEO of the NRA, resigned among the chaos. This weekend, the group will try to establish new leadership after years of internal strife.
This is a tremendous setback for an organization that, at its height, could rally enough Republican lawmakers to block nearly every effort to limit gun ownership, even during times of national mourning over horrible killings.
“I haven’t heard anything about the NRA since I literally can’t remember when,” said a seasoned Republican strategist, who preferred to remain anonymous so they could comment freely. Years have passed. There has been no word. Nothing at all.
“In my opinion, they are no longer relevant,” the strategist continued.
As for Trump, he has openly supported the troubled group. The Trump campaign recently convened a conference of conservative groups in Mar-a-Lago to formulate a grassroots plan for the upcoming election, according to a source familiar with the matter who spoke with AWN. Among those there were political organizers associated with the National Rifle Association. Although the campaign has remained silent on the subject of the imminent NRA leadership vote, rumors have circulated that two close associates, North Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and Donald Trump Jr., the son of the former president, are being considered for the position.
As he addresses a devoted audience on one of the rare days he is free from his continuing criminal trial in Manhattan, Trump finds himself in a decidedly red state. This comes after another campaign appearance last Saturday in consistently blue New Jersey, which is outside of the battleground area. On the same weekend, Trump will be in Washington, DC, speaking at a Libertarian Party convention.
The former president has continued his campaign’s aggressive attempt to catch up to President Joe Biden’s swelling war chest, and he has also utilized his days off from court as another opportunity to raise money. Outside of court, Trump has been busy hosting and attending fundraisers, including one in Minnesota on Friday and three more this week.
Republican lobbyist Bryan Lanza, who was involved in the 2016 campaign of the former president, stated that the yearly gathering of gun enthusiasts is still an important constituency for fundraising, despite the current turmoil within the NRA and Trump’s restricted campaign prospects.
The majority of Donald Trump’s campaign funds have come from “small-dollar donations,” according to Lanza. The National Rifle Association is a relatively modest-funded group that has grown into a political powerhouse in the US. Their annual convention attracts 20,000, if not 30,000, gun-crazed, money-spending attendees. Even in Wyoming, that sounds like the kind of crowd I’d be happy to address.
When asked for response, the NRA remained silent.
As he runs for reelection, Trump has pledged to continue backing the NRA and its efforts to reverse Biden’s gun policies during the past four years. Trump has been hailed by Biden’s team as “the greatest defender of the Second Amendment to ever occupy the White House.”
In a recent speech to the National Rifle Association, President Trump boasted about how he ignored demands for action on gun safety while in office.
“Nothing happened during my four years,” the former president said at the Pennsylvania event in February. Plus, I was under a lot of strain with matters pertaining to firearms. We took no action. Nobody gave an inch.
In an effort to rally supporters from minority neighborhoods that face gun violence every day and suburban parents who are afraid of another school shooting, the Biden campaign and gun control organizations are quick to point out Trump’s ties to the NRA and his resistance to specific gun limits. According to a Biden insider in the know about the campaign’s strategy, Trump’s stance on guns is going to be a “huge” factor in the next months.
When Donald Trump brags about how he did nothing to reduce gun violence as president, he wins over no new voters. “Simple as that,” stated Nick Suplina, a senior vice president of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting-related organization Everytown for Gun Safety, which was established following the 2012 tragedy.
This “shows that both the organization and the man are a bit desperate for each other,” Suplina said of Trump’s presence at the NRA. Both Trump and the NRA rely on large crowds for their political success.
Throughout his decades in the public eye, Trump has changed his position on gun control, among many other subjects. Trump had previously advocated for a ban on assault rifles, but he changed his mind while running for president.
Following the tragic shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 that claimed the lives of 17 students and staff, Trump seemed to momentarily support a number of measures aimed at limiting sales of firearms, but then reversed course in response to strong pressure from the National Rifle Association.
The unilateral ban on bump stocks by Trump’s administration, which allow rifles to fire hundreds of rounds per minute, did alleviate one anxiety of gun safety groups. An appeal challenging the Trump-era rule was considered orally by the Supreme Court earlier this year.
Aidan Johnston, a lobbyist for the Gun Owners of America, once criticized the NRA for not being aggressive enough in advocating for fewer gun restrictions. “If President Trump regrets that decision, that’s something he should come out and say because gun owners are not going to forget that,” Johnston said.
One of the main points of contention between Biden and Trump about guns in their 2020 campaign was Trump’s relative silence on the matter. The stakes in 2024 are widely acknowledged by both gun rights and gun safety activists.
The vice president was dubbed by Johnston as “possibly the most anti-gun president in American history.” “The strongest gun-sense president in history” is what Suplina called the present head of state.
During his presidency, Biden pushed for more gun control measures, such as the bipartisan 2022 passing of a massive package to increase background checks, the most extensive gun safety law in 30 years. In addition to a number of minor executive actions and the establishment of the White House Office for Gun Violence Prevention, Biden has taken steps to decrease gun violence.
Some of these changes include new rules that manufacturers of “ghost guns” kits must follow in order to sell their products legally; these kits let anyone construct guns that cannot be traced. The AR-15 rifle has been used in numerous tragic mass shootings in the United States, and Biden has pledged to keep working toward a ban on the weapon if reelected.
During his campaign in February, Trump made a bold promise to reverse Biden’s efforts to limit gun ownership “my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day.” Putting a stop to the Biden administration’s plan to outlaw lead ammunition on specific federal lands is a major goal.
According to Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, “Firearm owners, gun manufacturers, and our beautiful 2A community know President Trump is the only one who has and will proudly stand for their Second Amendment rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution – which shall not be infringed.” She made this statement in an interview with AWN.