the NRA is like the NAACP
Uh, no, it isn't. The NRA is an industry association. The NAACP is a social rights advocacy group. How are they alike? They both are 501(c) organizations.
Uh, no, the NRA is NOT an "industry association". They are an advocacy group for civil rights, made up of individual members, just like the NAACP.
You can keep thinking that....Or you can submit a FOIA request for the NRA's basic Form 990 and Form 990 supporting schedules...
-- Schedule B (Schedule of Contributors),
-- Schedule F (Statement of Activities Outside the U.S.),
-- Schedule G (Supplemental Information Regarding Fundraising) and using those documents, and
-- Schedule O (Supplemental Information to Form 990) ...
...and then analyze it's sources of funding and corporate affiliations (board memberships and executive level positions held) of the organization's donors and board members.
You'll have to submit your own FOIA request for the Schedule B because unlike other non-profits that are proactively forthcoming with that document, the NRA is not. One can obtain, for at least one year,
the NRA's basic 990, but, AFAIK, not the supporting schedules where are found, among other things, the details of who provided how much money to the organization. The available basic 990 does, however, identify the organizations directors and executives. A simple Google cross referencing will reveal by what organizations they are (have been) employed or affiliated with as an active owner (as is the case with owners of S-Corps, partnerships and sole proprietorships).
Unless things have materially changed from earlier in this century, such an analysis will reveal that
- Before even considering donations, 10% of the NRA's revenue comes from advertising purchased by the arms and ammo industry.
- Despite the NRA claiming to have no affiliation with the gun industry, individuals such as Pete R Brownell sit on its Board of Directors. (One can see Brownell's and other gun industry execs names listed as NRA Directors in the NRA's basic 2015 Form 990 to which I above linked.)
- The organizations largest donors provide a material portion of the overall donor contributions (cash and in-kind) and that the largest donors consist overwhelmingly not of private individuals who happen to be rich and have no gun and ammo industry professional affiliation, but from gun and ammo industry firms themselves.
Why can I make the above assertions? Because those are the documented empirical details examiners found and disclosed in
a report published several years, about a lustrum or so, back. So, as I noted, unless the organization's manageme