3D Printed Guns

[Walrus]

[Bonefish]

Yeah, I forgot that it's all due to shadowy "big gunz" lobbyists. I mean, we're talking about maybe a quarter of a billion in lobbying over the past 20 years, compared to the trillions of other lobbyists. *rolls eyes*

I mean, over 13% of illegal firearms seized in Oz are fuckin' homemade, and generally submachine guns. I mean, granted, it's nothing like the number of guns that people just never turned in after Port Arthur.

I don't think you guys are understanding just how easy it is to make a gun.

[Mike]

[Bonefish]

[Mike]

Right. In the past, the NRA has been big for a single-issue group, but not a giant. In 2016, they got huge money from somewhere to suddenly be playing in the big leagues. Although even back in 2012, they were still in what?... the top 30 of all lobbying groups? Top 40? 30 million+ is not chump change in this context.

As I was looking around, I found this in the Wikipedia entry for NRA: "In 2016 the NRA raised a record $366 million and spent $412 million for political activities. The NRA also maintains a PAC which is excluded from these figures." That took me by surprise. But the source for that is a Mother Jones article from January that cites the NRA's tax filings, and the other numbers I have (same as yours, it seems) come from Politifact last October. It'd be nice to have something more reliable to confirm or deny that 412. Cuz that's friggin huge. Also, I wonder if they are defining "political spending" differently.

[Phoebe]

Um, I thought we knew now where they got it, but does anyone care?

[Mike]

Right, but Bone was already being dismissive about "the shadow gun lobby", so I thought highlighting the Russia connection and political motivations would be off-topic and antagonistic. It seemed counterproductive at the moment.

[Bonefish]

It's certainly off-topic. I'm not making any apologies for the NRA here: I've been just quietly watching this investigation, wondering where it's gonna go. I take the Russia connection extremely serious. But that's a whole 'nother topic. One I'd definitely enjoy though.

But, the point is that the NRA and other gun lobbies are not even nearly as massive as the shadowy conspiracy they're often described of. To some extent, lobbyists are a necessary evil: if you're a business, you might want to try and ease your business operations. But the NRA really isn't the lobbying arm of the gun industry. There's a few companies with really strong ties(Taurus, Ruger), but from what I understand, there's actually limitations to contributing to the political action fund. There's certainly ways around this: Donating money and equipment to the NRA, who then use it to provide some charity to a local police department in an area where a Republican "law-n-order and GUNZ" candidate is running against anyone left of Mussolini, isn't exactly contributing to a political campaign. But. It has political ramifications and effects. But that's an issue across the board with lobbyists, and one way they get around limitations.

I'm also pretty sure that the individual contributions of "mega donors" like the perennially villainous Koch brothers account for a larger share of NRA funding than direct funding from the "Gun Industry"(ranging from those who manufacture firearms to those who manufacture accessories or ammunition). It's not a shadowy consortium of gun manufacturers who are putting profit ahead of lives. The NRA should be looked at distinct and separate from the gun industry itself.