How to Help Stop the Influence of Gun Money in Politics
President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak today at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Dallas.
Just as soon as he finishes talking about himself, perhaps he’ll thank the NRA for the $30 million they gave to his 2016 presidential campaign.
While this is his fourth consecutive year addressing the NRA, last year Mr. Trump became the first sitting president to do so since President Ronald Reagan in 1983.
The dynamics have changed since last year’s speech. The gun industry has seen dwindling sales, and the NRA has been under fire in the wake of the Parkland, Las Vegas, and other unfathomable mass shootings.
Still, the NRA had a record breaking month of fundraising after the Parkland school shooting, and that cash will soon be turned into campaign contributions in the upcoming midterm elections.
Advocates of gun reform are responding with a renewed focus on the thing that seems to dominate the gun violence debate: all that money.
How to help stop the influence of gun money in politics
#NoRA (short for “No NRA”) is hosting events during this week’s convention in Dallas to focus attention on the influence of NRA money in the American political system.
You can join them in Dallas, follow them on Twitter, and learn more about their work.
No NRA Money hosts a pledge for elected officials and candidates to reject NRA campaign contributions.
Ask your representative to take the pledge.
Guns Down works to shame lawmakers that accept campaign contributions from the gun industry.
They're also putting pressure corporations (like FedEx) to step off of the NRA’s Business Alliance. Learn more abut Guns Down here, and sign their FedEx petition here.
Goodbye Gun Stocks is an easy-to-use website that let you look up whether a stock investment fund is gun-free.
Check yours here. If the fund you're looking at isn't free of gun stocks, the website will point you to alternatives.
Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, works behind the scenes to hold the corporations that profit off Black communities accountable.
Join Color of Change here. Their Stop Murder Insurance campaign (a joint effort with Guns Down) targets insurance companies that offer the NRA’s Carry Guard protection, which is essentially an insurance policy for killers who claim that they acted in self-defense.
Lots more groups are fighting the good fight for gun reform.
Learn more about them here.
