What happened to the NRA?
by digby
National Rifle Association (NRA) employees are reportedly “freaking out” over budget cuts after the gun rights group ended free coffee for workers.
Sources at the NRA confirmed to The Trace that the end of free coffee is just one of the budget cuts the organization is making after revenue from membership declined by $35 million in the last year.
“The whole building was freaking out,” one former employee told The Trace.
The report notes:
Perhaps the most vivid evidence of belt-tightening at the NRA was its drastically reduced spending on the 2018 midterm elections. The group shelled out just under $10 million on House and Senate candidates this cycle — less than half of what it spent on congressional races in 2014 and 2016.
According to one former staffer, the NRA is “draining money from general operations to push over to [lobbying operations]” because “[t]hey want the money to be able to push the agenda.”
The NRA is also said to be losing money due to litigation over its Carry Guard insurance program in New York, where stiff regulations have caused the advocacy group to lose millions.
They blew a ton of money on the 2016 race. But I have to wonder if any of this is true. While it’ true that membership does tend to decline under GOP leadership since the fools always love to rush out a buy more toys and spend money on bullshit like NRA fund drives when a Democrat is in the White House. But I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that much of their income was largely derived from foreign sources for a while and it’all drieded up under scrutiny.
In any case, this couldn’t happen to a more noxious bunch of people.
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