Abstract
The purpose of this research is to examine to what extent the National Rifle Association (NRA) has an impact on federal and state policies in the United States of America. The study examined the NRA’s political activities within the last 10 years. The political activities include lobbying methods, campaign spending, maintenance plans, and bills lobbied at legislative, executive, and judicial levels. The NRA was founded over 144 years. The NRA’s mission is to promote public safety, train members of law enforcement agencies, adopt and encourage the shooting sports, and to promote hunter safety. The research results showed that the NRA operates at over $250 million a year, and most of the money is spent on ads, lobbying, and Political Action Committees. The research concluded that the primary source of power for the NRA is its 5 million dedicated members. The NRA’s members are engaged in the political arena and feel passionate about their gun rights. The NRA has also a strong access to policy makers; they have hired former legislators and government officials, since they can use their friendships and personal connections to gain access to policy makers. The NRA is a powerful organization and has influenced the outcome of state, local, and national elections; however, their power has a limit, as they are still abided by the laws.
Highlights
Interest groups are defined as collections of people who share the same self-interest, and work collectively to promote and protect their interest through a political process by influencing the government [1]
The House of Representatives and the Senate are divided into committees and subcommittees, where the new laws are typically started – The NRAILA uses these committees as a pressure point to influence policies
The study results indicated that the political activities, presence, and contributions of the National Rifle Association had a significant impact on the voting patterns by the Senators
Summary
Interest groups are defined as collections of people who share the same self-interest, and work collectively to promote and protect their interest through a political process by influencing the government [1]. Lobbyists’ objective is to find ways to persuade and pressure policy makers into acting on their behalf [1] Interest groups engage both direct and indirect lobbying in order to accomplish their objectives. On the other hand, is an attempt to influence policy makers by depending on an external factor, such as the public. This occurs by influencing the public to affect their opinion with respect to a specific legislation. When lobbyists send an action alert to the public asking them to contact their legislators about a pending bill, this is considered a form of indirect lobbying. Over 15 million dollars off that outside spending amount was lobbied against democrats, and $24,262 was lobbied for democrats; and almost 11 million dollars were lobbied for the republicans, while 92,034 was lobbied against republicans [3]
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