NSSF recently issued a report on their 2010 election activity with the recently founded NSSF PAC. It’s nothing too exciting – they gave to equal number of Democrats and Republicans in both the House and Senate. But, what I find relevant about the report is that this is a PAC that just started taking donations last April. While it only existed for the last 8 months of the two-year election fundraising cycle, NSSF donations topped what the Brady Campaign PAC raised in the entire cycle. NSSF was also able to contribute nearly as much as the Brady Campaign’s PAC.
Now, I know that the Brady folks have been winding down their PAC. It’s clear if you look at the history that they don’t make raising money for it a priority, and that’s understandable if they are shifting their strategy away from political fundraising. But, they’ve still been around for years and clearly still have some donors who consider it important and worth a donation. NSSF just started and is already putting up comparable numbers.
I find it funny since the line from anti-groups has always been that the gun industry is buying Congress. Heh. The NRA money is from gun owners. Now the gun industry is finally officially coming to the table. And we’re still winning.