The NRA-ILA: “You Get What You Pay For”

NRA Everytown USA Anti-gun
The NRA-ILA reports on the latest desperate efforts of anti-gun group Newtown USA. IMG NRA-ILA

U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- Mike Bloomberg and Everytown have claimed that NRA members support their gun control agenda, based on surveys from 2009 and 2012 that were immediately suspect. Bloomberg hired an already-disgraced researcher to conduct the work, and that researcher has continued to show himself to be anything but ethical and impartial. New revelations show the extent to which Frank Luntz will go to mask advocacy as research for his clients and further details the depths that Bloomberg and his gun control organizations will go to push their agenda.

Frank Luntz has been accused by former colleagues, including high-ranking employees at his own firm, of being more interested in delivering favorable data for his clients than accuracy. This appears to be confirmed based on work Luntz did in 2018. While being paid by a candidate for Senate, Luntz selected participants and conducted a focus group on that same Senate race for HBO and VICE News without informing either of his campaign affiliation. The television focus groups turned out quite well for his campaign employer. How…convenient.

Readers may be familiar with Luntz because of the “dial tests” and focus groups he conducts on cable news after debates or major speeches. It’s a gimmick and it’s not scientific. His work for Bloomberg was presented as legitimate research at the time, despite not having access to the NRA membership rolls. NRA noted at the time that Luntz had been reprimanded and censured by two professional polling organizations. He had also previously acknowledged crafting survey questions to ensure that he gets “the right answer. With just a single change of wording, you’ll get a different reaction of how they [respondents] think and feel.”

The right answer for Luntz, it seems, is the answer his employers desire. A former Senior Vice President at the Luntz Research Company told Salon that “Luntz’s claim to deliver objective data is a ‘total shtick and a scam.’” This may be why Bloomberg hired Luntz to run gun control surveys in 2009 and 2012 for Everytown.

Bloomberg’s groups pointed to these as evidence that the NRA was wrong. Doctor Daniel Webster used Luntz’s research to refute the contradictory findings of another survey. Webster is the Bloomberg Professor of American Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy. Luntz got himself interviews by claiming that the NRA wasn’t listening to its members – effectively doing PR work for Bloomberg – while exposing his own ignorance of federal gun law and gun shows.

Luntz’s former VP reported that “Luntz was mainly concerned with results that would yield more ‘compelling’ data for the client, rather than accuracy.” Luntz said in a 2021 PBS Frontline interview that “2016 was the beginning of my insistence on being accurate rather than being partisan.”

Luntz decided to prioritize accuracy years after his work for Mike Bloomberg.

Unlike Luntz, the NRA surveys our actual members. We routinely conduct scientific surveys of our members without predetermined results. The policy positions we adopt are the policy positions backed by our members because we are the operational arm of our members’ opinions. Luntz claimed to find that NRA members broadly supported gun control. Scientific surveys of actual NRA members find overwhelming opposition to the very gun control policies pushed by Bloomberg’s various gun control organizations.

Bloomberg spent tens of millions of dollars on background check bills in Maine and Nevada in 2016. A majority of Maine voters rejected his ballot proposal and his proposal in Nevada passed by less than one percentage point. Consultants and “wordsmiths” can only help organizations like Everytown gloss over so much of their agenda with slick-talking points. Maybe that’s why Everytown campaigned on unrelated issues in 2020 in swing districts.

Luntz helped Bloomberg generate a false narrative that professional anti-gun activists still use.

The NRA has, for 150 years, safeguarded the rights of the American people. We’ve done so in the interests of our members – the people Frank Luntz and Mike Bloomberg wouldn’t know anything about.


About NRA-ILA:

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess, and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org

National Rifle Association Institute For Legislative Action (NRA-ILA)

NRA-ILA
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OSR

Read more: https://www.nraila.org/articles/20210601/you-get-what-you-pay-for#ixzz6wdD5ABwE
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“NRA surveys our actual members. We routinely conduct scientific surveys of our members without predetermined results. The policy positions we adopt are the policy positions backed by our members because we are the operational arm of our members’ opinions.”

This statement is the biggest lie ever told. If the NRA policies were based on what its members opinion is the Board and Lapierre would have been eliminated.

Orion

While the ILA is great at what they do, Lapierre has turned into an embarrassment and needs to go.

JoeUSooner

I am a life member of NRA (joined many years ago, before the current dustup), but all my current financial support is going to GOA – and will continue to do until NRA leadership changes/improves.

Cam

Oh no I’m good with Wayne staying but I would change his job to an unpaid intern with no benefits at all. He could do this till he dies to pay the nra back for all his criminal self enrichment. Reduce him to a gopher for the people who would promote repealing laws and defend real gun rights & who would replace the board and him.

Last edited 2 years ago by Cam
CCSir

So did we, as NRA members, ALSO get what we paid for with Wayne and the BOD? Any article from the NRA discussing how another organization may have mis-spent their money, at this point, has to be an absolute joke. For someone from the NRA to write the title of this article not seeing the glaring hypocrisy should probably consider writing for groups LIKE Everytown, and the Demanding Moms.

Last edited 2 years ago by CCSir
Roland T. Gunner

NRA has supported every major federal gun control legislation ever passed. Until NRA leads the fight to repeal NFA, GCA, and the Hughes Amendment, phok the NRA.

DIYinSTL

I’ve been an NRA member for nearly 50 years and a life member for a dozen. This is the first I have heard that the NRA “surveys” its members. Maybe it’s time the NRA includes a survey with the next Board of Directors vote, including a confidence vote for Wayne. Let’s put the “ex-” in Executive V.P..

JPM

Obviously the title of the article conflicts with the authors’ organization. If you are paying dues to the NRA under LaPierre you are not, and have not since he’s been in charge, been getting what you are paying for. NRA-ILA, you should be aware that if you live in a glass house, you shouldn’t be throwing stones, it makes you look like the hypocrites that you are.

JoeUSooner

He who defines the words… wins the argument.

vepr

“The nra has, for 150 years, safeguarded the rights of the American people. We’ve done so in the interest of our members…”

…until the skunk, li’l wayne La P u , came along , made the nra his personal piggy bank , and started looting the nra with the help of the “board of directers”.

Frank luntz is a weasal , but the nra comlpaining about him is like the fox complaining a weasal has gotten into the henhouse.

The nra-ila has no more credibility than the nra itself.

Knute

In the NRA’s view, they were supporting the rights of Americans when they helped to pass the National Firearms Act in 1934! They also think they were supporting rights when they helped pass the GCA in ’68, and when they wrote the Hughes Amendment in 1985. Problem is, those were/are lies. Taking rights away does not support them! This all took place long before WLP came along. He is just the bottom of a long slide to the bottom of the barrel. Join GOA, or 2nd AF, or any of hundreds of local orgs that DO actually support gun rights,… Read more »

vepr

My 1st paragraph i was quoting the second to last paragraph from the article.

I have known since 1994 the nra are nothing but double dealing skunks when they gave anti-2nd amendment tom ridge a B rating when he ran for gov. Of pa..

Pa. now has de-facto long gun registration thanks directly to tom ridge and the treachery of the nra.