A sign for the National Shooting Sports Foundation at SHOT Show 2022
A sign for the National Shooting Sports Foundation at SHOT Show 2022 / Stephen Gutowski

Analysis: Charting the Industry’s Gun Policy Lobbying Rise [Member Exclusive]

Early in the second Trump Administration, the forces at work shaping American gun policy haven’t changed much, but one group has replaced an old staple at the top of the pack.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearms industry’s trade association, has emerged as the dominant gun lobbying force. Aided in part by a boost in its own output as well as the diminishment of the country’s former top-dog, the National Rifle Association (NRA), the NSSF is currently spending more on federal lobbying than all of the other gun groups (on either side of the issue) combined.

First quarter Lobbying Disclosure Act filings show the group has already spent $1,850,000 attempting to influence the recently minted federal Republican trifecta. By contrast, the NRA, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) spent $626,904 put together over the same period. Meanwhile, the major gun-control groups—Everytown, Giffords, and Brady—collectively spent just $400,000.

The early numbers tell a story of substantial disparities in both enthusiasm and capacity between the major gun groups.

The first quarter of an inaugural year covers a good deal of the President’s first 100 days in office, a time generally marked by an administration and Congress aggressively pushing to establish their preferred policy agenda before external forces have as much sway over the business of the day. President Trump ran for re-election on promises to gun-rights advocates to enact a series of pro-gun reforms. Though the major gun-control groups outspent gun-rights groups leading up to the election, Trump’s victory, and that of enough like-minded lawmakers in both chambers of Congress to secure Republican majorities, chilled the influence of groups like Everytown and Giffords.

The gap in spending on the gun-rights side is a different story. Groups like FPC and the CCRKBA have never had much of a federal lobbying presence, at least not to the degree of groups like the NRA and NSSF. The disclosures for other significant players like Gun Owners of America and the National Association for Gun Rights, which typically report spending hundreds of thousands in lobbying per quarter, haven’t been made public yet.

So, data for the gun-rights groups is incomplete.

What is clear, though, is how much the NSSF has supplanted the NRA as the gun-rights movement’s top lobbying presence. One needs only go back to the last time Republicans swept into federal power to see how much their roles have reversed.

After being an early endorser of Trump and spending tens of millions to help get him elected in 2016, the NRA was quick to try to wield its influence on the first-term President and the previous Republican Congress. The NRA reported spending $2.2 million on federal lobbying in the first quarter of 2017, while the NSSF spent $870,000.

However, following its strong showing at the beginning of Trump’s first term, the NRA’s lobbying presence began to diminish–at least in terms of dollars spent. The NSSF, meanwhile, ramped up its lobbying spend.

Over that time, the NRA has seen both its financial and political capital wane amidst years of public turmoil over financial malfeasance by its former leadership and a series of costly and high-profile legal battles stemming from it. That has allowed the NSSF to cement itself, at least for the time being, as the biggest political gun force in Washington, DC.

What comes from this newfound clout for the NSSF remains to be seen. The Trump administration has been slow to roll out concrete gun policy changes thus far. But the plans and reviews it has announced, which NSSF reported lobbying on, could eventually bear fruit.

Its influence appeared to pay off early on in the administration when the Commerce Department suddenly froze all firearm export licensing, only to later reverse course after meeting with the NSSF. However, it does not appear to be enough to ward off other, non-gun-specific policies that stand to damage the industry, such as the Trump administration’s tariff policy.

Future quarterly reports and ongoing policy fights will ultimately tell the influence tale. What is clear now, though, is the NSSF has surpassed the NRA–and everyone else–as the biggest spender inside the halls of Capitol Hill.

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Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019

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Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019

Comments From Reload Members

3 Responses

  1. NSSF lobbying will probably be mostly positive for gun rights, but it’s important to remember that firearm rights don’t always align with the interests of firearms business. In the ’50s and ’60s, SAAMI, the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute, responded to competition from military surplus importers by lobbying for restrictions on the milsurp supply. This culminated in a DoD ban on selling US milsurp domestically and the addition of the milsurp import ban to the 1968 Gun Control Act.
    If gun rights advocates don’t want similar things to happen in the future, they’d better step up their own lobbying.

    1. Yes, this is definitely a valid point. Trade associations and grassroots membership organizations may have overlapping interests, but they are fundamentally different political actors.

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