LA Times: NRA Supported Democrats Until Democrats Embraced Gun Control

On March 3 the Los Angeles Times pointed out that the NRA supported Democrats until Democrats embraced gun control.

While the overarching thrust of the Times‘ article is to suggest the NRA used to be bipartisan, it actually succeeds in confirming that the Democrats embraced gun control in 1994 and never looked back.

The Times reports that the NRA gave “37% of its congressional campaign donations to Democrats” during the 1992 election cycle. Two years later, the Democrats rammed an “assault weapons” ban through Congress and the NRA adjusted future campaign contributions accordingly:

In the fall of 1994, the Democratic-controlled Congress — with staunch opposition from the NRA — narrowly passed a 10-year federal ban on assault weapons. In the two-year period leading up to the vote on the issue, the NRA increased its contributions to Republicans by about $675,000 while reducing contributions to Democrats by nearly $200,000. It was the group’s largest single-cycle — or two-year — dip in donations to Democrats.

In 2016 the NRA only gave Democrats 1% of congressional campaign donations.

Since 1994 the Democrats have been the party of gun control. Because of this, they have literally been a party at war with the NRA and the Second Amendment. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Joe Manchin (D-WV), former President Barack Obama, 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and others in the party have emerged as mouthpieces for the gun control movement.

On the other hand, the Times describes the Republican Party as “implacably opposed to gun regulations.” But there are exceptions. Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) is pushing to end the sale of AR-15s and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is partnering with Sen. Feinstein to push gun control legislation.

However, even with the exceptions, the differences are stark–one party is pro-gun control while the other is pro-gun rights. And the NRA is giving its money to those fighting to protect the Second Amendment.

AWR Hawkins is an award winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for the Breitbart News.  He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.