Spurred by every mass shooting in the USA, dozens of senators offer their thoughts and prayers while making no effort to talk about actual gun reform, especially when most of these officials are backed by a common organisation – the National Rifle Association (NRA).
The NRA, one of the most influential lobbying groups in American politics, was founded in 1871 as an advocacy group for marksmanship but more recently has turned into a group opposing any type of gun reform in the USA.
Under the pretext of supporting Americans’ second amendment rights (the right to bear arms), the NRA donates millions of dollars to hundreds of congress members, especially those from the Republican party, through a subsidiary called the Political Victory Fund (PVF). Some of the biggest beneficiaries of the PVF include Senators Bill Burr, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, as well as Donald Trump, all of whom have blocked and/or voted against gun reform bills.
The exorbitant amounts of money that the NRA spends on manipulating American politics come from a few primary sources – private donors, owners of gun shops, and perhaps most unsurprisingly – gun companies. Corporations like Smith & Wesson, Beretta, and Sturm, Ruger & Company have donated millions to the NRA in the past and continue to do so, blatantly pushing through legislation that benefits them and not the people.
However, this proportion of support changes shortly every few years – every time a mass shooting occurs, gun owners worry about losing their gun rights and donate more money to the NRA. At the same time, the NRA uses this money to host conferences, like the one that took place only a few days after the Uvalde School Shooting. At this conference, the politicians present seemed to ignore the shooting and continued the same rhetoric that they’ve been saying for years, which hasn’t stopped 38 people from dying due to mass shootings in 2020. Guns go pew-pew, but when will we recognise their impact on society?
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