Quick question to the world: Does anybody know where I could find out who contributes to the Brady Campaign?
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2 ... cycle=2010 The Brady Campaign is listed as a PAC, not an interest group. Their receipts have dropped considerably since the high in 1999-2000 cycle. That year, as Handgun Control Inc, they raised $1.7 million and spent $1.6 million. In the 2009-2010 cycle, they raised $2500 and spent $8600. They list contributors who give $200 or more. A grand total of one ( 1, uno, un, solo) contributer gave enough money to be listed in 2009-2010. In year 2000, they received 320 contributions large enough to be listed.
What a tremendous drop in the last 10 years! What does everyone think this means? Are Americans everywhere waking up to embrace their 2nd amendment rights? Or is it just a reflection of the bad economy? Or, something else?
When I saw those numbers, I thought I must be looking at some offshoot, just the PAC or something. Not the whole organization. But it looks like, yeah, that is the whole thing. Amazing they still get the press coverage and the facetime on TV that they do. What an utter collapse in findraising.
I think it just collapsed as an issue people think about. I am looking at the aggregate numbers for all gun control organizations. OpenSecrets does not have an aggregate of contributions, but it is enlightening to look at the totals spent on lobbying efforts. 2001 $2.1 million 2002 $1.8 million 2003 $1.0 million 2004 $1.4 million 2005 $230,000 2006 $90,000 2007 $208,000 2008 $115,000 2009 $211,000 2010 $180,000 (of which $150,000 was spent by Mayors Against Illegal Guns) So the beginnings of the collapse predate the economic problems.
The Brady campaign began as an effort to do two things. 1) Requiring background checks and waiting periods on firearms purchases, and 2) ban assault weapons. Well, when the NICS system came online, they lost the waiting period. And, the public has seen that over the past couple of decades, the AWB was turned into a joke. All the AWB did was make people remove bayonet lugs, flash suppressors, and pistol grips and sell the exact same gun. It did nothing to keep criminals from getting those guns and only irritated law-abiding collectors who had to buy modified weapons to comply with the AWB. I doubt you can find anyone who bought an AK with a pre-ban bayonet lug for the purposes of affixing a bayonet and running around spearing people. Evening after succeeding in getting the Brady bill and the AWB ban passed through Congress, all the Brady Campaign as shown is that the two landmark pieces of legislation that they championed were both complete failures at preventing gun violence. Even if I was an anti, with that kind of abysmal track record, I wouldn't give them money either.
Lets just say that GCO adds three new memberships a day. (just throwing out a number) 3*$15*365 = $16,425 for 2010. That's not bad at all for a State wide organization. We have certainly had more pro-gun bills passed here in Georgia and been more effective at our mission than the Brady Campaign in a very short time. Speaking of which, I can't wait for the day when we have Constitutional carry in Georgia, no state limitations on carry, and GCO can just sit in a holding pattern waiting to fight gun control bills in our legislature, and they can focus on any civil rights violations due to firearms. That would be sweet. Then who knows after that. Maybe the world.
Out of curiosity, I looked up American Hunters and Shooters Association(the fake NRA created by democrats for the endorsements). It looks like they started functioning in 2006. This allowed them to be established enough for their endorsement of whichever gun grabbing candidate would win their presidential primary. I imagine that conception and procurement of the organization probably took a year or two. That's forward thinking.
mountainpass, I salute you. I knew those numbers looked ridiculously small, but was all I could find at the time. You came up with the real numbers and sent me looking again. Now let me add to what you have. According to the Brady Campaign's IRS form 990 for 2007, they had total income of $4,280,623. So it dropped $900,000 in one year. In 2004, they had total income of $7,450,648. So it has been cut more than 50% in 4 years. (2008 seems to be the most recent year available online.) The Brady Center is a related but separate group. They have had income of about $3,000,000 per year since 2002. I said above I thought the amounts I was looking at was just PAC money, not the whole organization, but that I couldn't find any other reference in OpenSecrets.org. But I went with those numbers and didn't note my doubt. I apologize for the inaccurate information. Not at all what I wanted to do.
If you want to see a REALLY "FOAMING AT THE MOUTH" GUN GRABBER check out Mike Vs' post about "CSGV"s' Josh Horwitz today at this URL: http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/ Lots of news here but not for the faint of heart also, check out WRSA here: http://westernrifleshooters.blogspot.com/ These two sites cover ALOT OF GROUND and worth the read. The info here won't be found at NRA, SAF, GOA ETC. Warning: they are habit forming Happy Trails campers "oldtimer" goes here but smileys not working at the moment