When it comes to interests, one of the things that get the most focus in the United States is guns. Since the creation of the Second Amendment (included in the constitution during the Revolutionary Era with intentions of keeping the nation safe from colonist invaders) there has been a lot of debate surrounding the matter of gun ownership and if it should be regulated or not. Founded in 1871, one of the biggest interest groups in the United States, the NRA, has been the number one defender of gun freedom and one of the most firm groups against any kind of government interference in this matter. On the other side and much younger, the 44 year old Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, has been pushing hard to regulate the gun market, to have a more
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As explained in the book We The People: “(…) a 501(c) (4) is a nonprofit group such as an environmental or other public interest group that also engages in advocacy (…) a 501(c) (4) is not required to disclose where it gets its fund or exactly what it does with them. As a result, it has become a common practice for wealthy and corporate donors to route campaign contributions” With over 5 million members and an average revenue of $256 million, it is considered one of the top three most influential groups in Washington. They offer a variety of benefits for joining: a free duffel bag, 24/7 defense of firearm freedoms, NRA magazines, personal and gun insurance, and event invitations. The organization’s success lies mostly in their ability to pass gun laws at state level. As their website ww.nraila.org shows, there have been at least 230 NRA related laws in the past 10 years alone. All of these victories at lawmaking are big steps toward the group’s main goal of loosening gun regulation. Owning guns, however, doesn’t automatically make you a follower of this group. As one article in the Washington Post states: “the NRA claims to have five million dues-paying members (…) that sounds formidable, until one considers that there are approximately fifty million adults who own firearms”. Looking at the facts before mentioned, one could deduce that the NRA’s strategy to attract people is not as effective, considering that their amount of …show more content…
is a 504(c) (4) type organization as well. It includes other 47 national organizations in its structure, from religious to social justice groups and its revenue is around the $500,000 range. Its main objective is to keep guns as regulated as possible and therefore avoid having any firearm related homicides such as mass shootings. The benefits of joining compared to the NRA’s are few, considering there aren’t any material retributions for joining (as opposed to the duffel bag or gun insurance offered by the NRA) which sometimes are more appealing and therefore attract more people. Contributions to the organization - which can be made in somebody’s honor or memory - help sustain the necessary apparatus to continue lobbying for better gun control laws. One of their principal ideological pillars is preserving the democratic values and institutions by showing the dangers behind the NRA’s “insurrectionist ideal” previously mentioned. The main strategy behind this coalition is to have as much petitions signed as possible and create citizen pressure in Congress. So far, however, there hasn’t been much success. As President Obama said in a 2015 BBC interview: “(…) the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws. Even in the face of repeated mass killings” In my opinion, the CSGV’s website offers a lot of information in their “Issues” and
As explained in the book We The People: “(…) a 501(c) (4) is a nonprofit group such as an environmental or other public interest group that also engages in advocacy (…) a 501(c) (4) is not required to disclose where it gets its fund or exactly what it does with them. As a result, it has become a common practice for wealthy and corporate donors to route campaign contributions” With over 5 million members and an average revenue of $256 million, it is considered one of the top three most influential groups in Washington. They offer a variety of benefits for joining: a free duffel bag, 24/7 defense of firearm freedoms, NRA magazines, personal and gun insurance, and event invitations. The organization’s success lies mostly in their ability to pass gun laws at state level. As their website ww.nraila.org shows, there have been at least 230 NRA related laws in the past 10 years alone. All of these victories at lawmaking are big steps toward the group’s main goal of loosening gun regulation. Owning guns, however, doesn’t automatically make you a follower of this group. As one article in the Washington Post states: “the NRA claims to have five million dues-paying members (…) that sounds formidable, until one considers that there are approximately fifty million adults who own firearms”. Looking at the facts before mentioned, one could deduce that the NRA’s strategy to attract people is not as effective, considering that their amount of …show more content…
is a 504(c) (4) type organization as well. It includes other 47 national organizations in its structure, from religious to social justice groups and its revenue is around the $500,000 range. Its main objective is to keep guns as regulated as possible and therefore avoid having any firearm related homicides such as mass shootings. The benefits of joining compared to the NRA’s are few, considering there aren’t any material retributions for joining (as opposed to the duffel bag or gun insurance offered by the NRA) which sometimes are more appealing and therefore attract more people. Contributions to the organization - which can be made in somebody’s honor or memory - help sustain the necessary apparatus to continue lobbying for better gun control laws. One of their principal ideological pillars is preserving the democratic values and institutions by showing the dangers behind the NRA’s “insurrectionist ideal” previously mentioned. The main strategy behind this coalition is to have as much petitions signed as possible and create citizen pressure in Congress. So far, however, there hasn’t been much success. As President Obama said in a 2015 BBC interview: “(…) the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws. Even in the face of repeated mass killings” In my opinion, the CSGV’s website offers a lot of information in their “Issues” and