The National Rifle Association unsurprisingly endorsed former President Donald Trump on Saturday, delivering Trump his third consecutive presidential endorsement from the key Second Amendment lobbying group, as it faces controversies over rising mass shootings and legal battles over funding misuse.
The National Rifle Association endorsed former President Donald Trump on Saturday.
Speaking at the NRA’s leadership forum in Dallas Saturday afternoon, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee said he will “stand strong for your rights and liberties,” and asking gun owners to vote, claiming “gun owners don’t vote.”
Trump praised the NRA as the “backbone” of the country, claiming the Second Amendment is “under siege” under President Joe Biden.
Trump, who was endorsed by the NRA in 2016 and 2020, has for years expressed support for the gun-rights lobbying group, saying in 2019 the NRA should be “represented and respected,” proclaiming himself as the “biggest Second Amendment person there is” even as he flipped back and forth on calls for stronger background checks, a policy the NRA has routinely opposed.
Trump’s speech on Saturday also comes as the 2024 GOP nominee pledges to roll back Biden-era gun control laws, promising the NRA in February that “no one will lay a finger on your firearms”—Biden, on the other hand, has vowed to continue pursuing a ban on AR-15-style rifles.
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- That’s how many mass shooting deaths the Gun Violence Archive recorded nationwide last year—the most the organization has recorded since it started tracking gun data a decade ago. That tops the 668 killed in mass shootings in 2021 or the 494 in 2020, according to the archive, which tracks mass shootings in which at least four people were killed or injured, not including the shooter. Mass shootings have been slightly on the rise since the pandemic, and have increased from 417 in 2017—when Trump left office—and 429 during the last full year of his presidency. So far this year, the archive has recorded 191 mass shooting deaths and 637 injuries over 158 events.
The NRA, a longtime lobbying group, endorsed Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, spending over $30 million on his 2016 presidential campaign, and took out a major ad attacking Biden ahead of the 2020 election. While the NRA has had a long history of supporting GOP and pro-gun candidates, its endorsement of Trump came at a troubling time for the group, amid a spree of mass shootings in the U.S., including the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, when former head Wayne LaPierre controversially argued "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Democrats in Congress have also pushed heavily for gun violence legislation in recent years. In 2022, Biden signed the Safer Communities Act, enhancing licensing for background checks and closing the so-called “fire sale loophole,” allowing gun sellers to quickly sell firearms to avoid a background check if they lose their federal licensing. That same year, the House passed a major assault weapons ban while still under Democratic control, though the legislation was largely symbolic and failed in the Senate. It now faces long odds in the GOP-controlled House, with heavy opposition from Republican lawmakers who argue it would impose an overbearing burden on Americans who rely on firearms for self-defense. Democrats, meanwhile, have primarily targeted automatic and semiautomatic weapons in a decades-long push for gun control amid a spree of mass shootings. In 2022, the then-Democratic-led House Oversight Committee released a report finding gunmakers’ tripled their revenue from the sale of AR-15-style rifles from 2019 to 2021.
The NRA has also faced legal hurdles in recent months. In February, a New York jury found the group liable over a 26-year scheme to dodge IRS reporting requirements and divert donor funds toward lavish personal vacations, private jets and a yacht. That jury found LaPierre cost the NRA $5.4 million, and ordered him to return $4.4 to the organization—NRA executive Wilson Phillips was ordered to repay the NRA $2 million. LaPierre resigned after over 30 years leading the NRA before the start of that trial.