Dem
47
GOP
53
Regardless of your views on the Second Amendment, the National Rifle Association is not your friend. They are, and have long been, a gun lobby funded primarily by the gun manufacturing industry, and their mission is to do everything possible to keep gun sales brisk. That means the NRA has often adopted positions that are entirely at odds with safe and sensible gun ownership, because the industry fears that any regulation, no matter how commonsense, will reduce gun sales.
This being the case, the demise of the NRA—which has been going on for something like a decade, courtesy of corrupt leaders like Wayne LaPierre—is certainly cause for some schadenfreude. And now, it looks like the organization has entered a death spiral. There's really a triple whammy that is going on. First, the legal bills have been through the roof, as the NRA tries to wrestle with all the corruption. Second, the gun manufacturing industry has been sending its money elsewhere. Third, many of the nation's gun enthusiasts mostly don't see much point in NRA membership anymore, which means revenue from that source is way, way down.
With income down, and operating costs up, the organization has taken the drastic step of liquidating most of its investment portfolio, so as to pay its debts. It had $72 million in stocks and bonds and the like at the end of 2023, and by the end of this year, that will be down to $25 million or so. That's the NRA's rainy day fund, and the day is not far off when there will be a bunch of rainy days, and no fund left to turn to.
There is one person who might be able to right the ship, and that's Donald Trump. He's spoken at various NRA conventions, and he once hugged the organization close. If he tried to rally the base, and told them that anyone who is True MAGA is also an NRA member, that might lead to an injection of capital. But there are two problems here. The first is that Trump doesn't like losers, and the NRA is a loser in bright, red letters right now. The second is that if anyone is going to fleece the rubes, Trump wants it to be Donald Trump and not, well, a bunch of losers.
Maybe the organization should check with Elon Musk, and see if he's interested in writing them a nice, fat check. He is something of a gun nut, after all. But assuming that this (very) white knight does not come riding to the rescue, there's every chance there will be no more NRA by the end of the Musk-Trump administration. (Z)