By Joseph P Tartaro | Executive Editor
Gillibrand
During her recent presidential candidate CNN town hall program, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York addressed a question on gun control and her personal shift from receiving an A-rating by the National Rifle Association during her time as a member of the House of Representatives to the F-rating she maintains as a senator.
The answer by the turncoat politician was so noteworthy that CNN published a separate “Fact Checker” follow-up.
CNN reporter Holmes Lybrand reported that in her answer, Gillibrand went after the NRA. “Let’s be really clear what the issue is. It’s the NRA, and it’s greed. The NRA is largely funded by the gun manufacturers.”
“Facts First” wrote Lybrand. “Gillibrand is incorrect. The NRA is not ‘largely funded’ by gun makers. “
Then the CNN report continued.
“There are two ways to think of the NRA’s funding: the money it raises for the operating budget of its core organization, and the money its political action committee (PAC) raises.
“Less than 5% of NRA’s operating budget comes from the gun industry including everyone from Bass Pro Shops to Billy’s Gun Shop,” NRA spokesperson Lars Dalseide told CNN. “The money NRA raises for political purposes comes from donations that average less than $50 from every day Americans from all across the country.”
This is not to say that the NRA does not receive money from gun manufacturers, he continued, citing several sources, including the NRA.
“The Violence Policy Center, a pro-gun control organization, claims that from 2005 to 2013 the firearms industry “donated between $19.3 million and $60.2 million.” (This range is extremely wide and broader than “gun manufacturers” as it includes gun retailers as well as manufacturers.) But in 2017 alone, the NRA’s core organization reported $98 million in contributions, a 22% decrease from 2016, according to the Daily Beast.”
“The overwhelming majority of our funding comes from membership dues and donations,” said Dalseide. The NRA currently has 5 million members, whose fee sits at $45 a year (or $75 for two years, $100 for three, and $150 for four).
In 2014, the average donation from the nearly 30,000 donors to the NRA’s PAC (the NRA Political Victory Fund), which donates to candidates, was roughly $35, according to the NRA, CNN reported in a deep dive on NRA funding in 2015. Ninety-percent of those donors “gave less than $200 in a single year.”
The report reviewed federal campaign records of the NRA’s overall revenue in 2013, finding “that much of this money comes from everyday Americans.” This remains accurate in 2019.
“Gillibrand is incorrect to claim that ‘the NRA is largely funded by the gun manufacturers,’ ” Lybrand’s CNN report concluded.
CNN which exhibits a clear bias in favor of gun control is to be commended for at least Fact Checking Gillibrand.
Who is Gillibrand and where does she stand. In March she announced her candidacy for president just ten years after leaving her seat in the US House of Representatives (2007-2009) where she represented the 20th District of New York.
Born in 1966 as Kirsten Rutnick to two attorney parents in New York, she attended UCLA Law School and became an attorney in government and private practice.
As a Member of the House of Representatives representing a mostly rural district, she voted generally pro right to keep and bear arms which earned her the A rating from the NRA.
During her House tenure, Gillibrand was a Blue Dog Democrat noted for voting against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (commonly known as the bank bailout) and for supporting Medicare-for-all.
Following Senator Clinton’s appointment as Secretary of State in 2009, Gov. David Paterson (D) selected Gillibrand to fill the Senate seat that had been vacated by Clinton. Gillibrand won a special election in 2010 to keep the seat, and was subsequently reelected to full terms in 2012 and 2018.
As I recall, she had been screened for the senate seat appointment by leading Democrat politicians, including a visiting Sen. Charles Schumer, the senior senator and senior Democrat from New York State. Given Schumer’s consistent position as a leader of the anti-Second Amendment contingent in Congress, one is inclinded to suspect that her abandonment of her former Second Amendment support was a contingent of her being appointed to the Senate by Paterson.
During her Senate tenure, Gillibrand has shifted to the left on many issues besides gun rights. She has been outspoken on sexual assault in the military and sexual harassment, having criticized President Bill Clinton and Senator Al Franken (both fellow Democrats) for sexual misconduct. She supports paid family leave, a federal jobs guarantee, and the abolition and replacement of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Now she is one of many anti-gun Democrats seeking the presidency in 2020, but hopefully, she will be more truthful, or at least accurate in her public statements between now and the Democratic Presidential nomination,
