This is kind of just a rant/confessional post. Im not sure if anyone is interested or if I’ll be absolutely flamed (which I deserve- my journey left has been embarrassingly recent). For the last 3 years I was first a summer intern and then a full time employee at NRA ILA working under the lobbyists, mostly bc my dad is involved and got me in. Once I realized my dad wasn’t right about everything and stopped trying to make him happy I had a big political shift to the left. Working here and running in the DC young republican circles while secretly protesting also really radicalized me. I still believe in gun rights but obviously the NRA is a deeply corrupt right wing organization that licks cops boots and should in no way be considered a non profit. I don’t really know why I’m typing this, except that I’ve felt like such a spineless fraud working here and it feels good to finally be able to say fuck Wayne LaPierre, albeit anonymously, without fear of recourse. I have absolutely no plan for the future now and my family is pissed at me but I don’t care. Still working on understanding my experiences on the inside but if anyone’s interested I’m happy to answer questions.

    • Burnbabylon [she/her]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Off the top of my head here’s some topics:

      1. Focus on state and local over federal lobbying
      2. Propaganda styles? (Just have a lot of random info about the strategies for writing/graphics that are most effective on the base)
      3. Concentration of power by LaPierre
      4. Youth outreach (mostly a failure)
      5. How the NRA “grading” process of candidates works
      6. Sooo much internal politics and strife in the past year
          • Burnbabylon [she/her]
            ·
            4 years ago
            1. Off the top of my head: Always red and black (strength or something I don’t remember); repeat key phrases constantly (good guy with gun,protect you and your loved ones, turn otherwise law abiding citizens into criminals, sportsmen/outdoorsmen etc); never say gun control advocate always use anti-gun/anti-2A extremist or something, for hit pieces find a video of the person speaking and go through frame by frame to find the worst pic and then fuck with the lvls to make them look evil, use stock photos of women with guns
            3. Most fundraising is appeals to existing members to give more not recruiting new members. Idk the data but I’m guessing we pull more money that way? Membership age avg is very old so most PR is targeted towards boomers aka Fox News style and that only rlly appeals to a small demographic of Charlie Kirk type kids. They obviously cant be edgy enough to get the 4chan Trump psycho kids and don’t really even understand what that demographic is. Also conservatives are generally just bad at looking cool even though they rlly want to.
            4. Here’s the process- compile all candidate’s contact info; send them a questionnaire aka “CQ” asking their stance on different issues (background checks, mag limits etc); Record responses+voting record+scour social media for anything gun related; lobbyists Grade (A-F, ?, or AQ) based on info, Endorse only good candidates with a shot at winning, get all approved by exec, release grades on nrapvf.org before election and email members in district (sometimes will do postcards etc too in important races); Decide who (if anyone) should get a direct campaign contribution check, after the election record success rate of endorsed candidates/money spent (this is also used to evaluate lobbyists performance and helps determine bonuses)