Date post: | 14-Oct-2014 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | ammoland-shooting-sports-news |
View: | 26 times |
Download: | 2 times |
Promote Protect Preserve
National Shooting Sports Foundation®
NSSF Political Action CommitteeYear In Review
2011
NATIONAL SHOOTING
SPORTS FOUNDATION
www.NSSFPAC.oRg
NSSF PAC Year In ReviewThe firearms and ammunition industry is healthy and enjoying robust sales so far in 2012. However, threats to America’s firearms and ammunition industry, your business and our firearms freedoms are always just one election away. The elections this November are critical since the results will directly impact and shape the future of our industry, our hunting and shooting sports heritage and our Second Amendment freedoms.
Groups like Mayor Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) are preparing their next attack on our industry. Just last year, according to Sarah Brady, President Obama told her, “I just want you to know that we are working on it [gun control]. We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.” Leading gun-control advocate U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) recently said, “I have spoken to the president. He is with me on [gun-control], and it’s just going to be when that opportunity comes forward that we’re going to be able to go forward.” Make no mistake, the “opportunity” they are talking about is the 2012 elections.
You can be confident your trade association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®) – the Voice of Industry– will continue to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports in 2012 with as much zeal as it has done for more than 50 years. NSSF is focusing on the upcoming elections to ensure through our #gunvote/Don’t Risk Your Rights campaign that gun owners, hunters and sportsmen know where the candidates running for Congress, the Senate and the White House stand on gun-control and sportsmen issues. And through our NSSF Political Action Committee (NSSF PAC), we will endorse and directly support candidates for Congress, the Senate and the White House who are pro-industry, pro-gun and pro-sportsmen.
2011 LegisLative successes
NSSF’s government relations team took full advantage of the current pro-gun, pro-sportsmen climate in Congress to advance our industry’s federal legislative and regulatory priorities, including:
• Sportsmen’sHeritageActof2012(H.R.4089),asportsmen’s bill package combining legislative priorities–
3 Hunting, Fishing, and Recreational Shooting ProtectionAct(S.838/H.R.1558)
3 Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and OpportunitiesAct(S.2066/H.R.2834)
3RecreationalShootingProtectionAct(H.R.3440)
3PolarBearConservationandFairnessAct(S.1066/H.R.991)
• RecreationalLandSelf-DefenseActof2011(S.1588/H.R.1865)
• TargetPracticeandMarksmanshipTrainingAct(S.1249/H.R.3065)
• ProgressonU.S.ExportControlReformsforSportingArms and Ammunition Products
NssF Pac PoiseD FoR eLectioN DaY
The NSSF PAC – YOUR industry’s PAC – is poised to endorse and directly support candidates for Congress, the Senate and the White House who are pro-industry, pro-gun and pro-sportsmen. The NSSF PAC, the nonpartisan, federal multi-candidate political action committee of the NSSF, is the cornerstone of NSSF’s government relations strategy. It is the muscle that powers NSSF’s political arm and makes NSSF’s government relations efforts possible. Last year, the NSSF PAC was busy growing its ranks to be in a better position to support pro-industry, pro-Second Amendment and pro-sportsmen candidates for federal office – candidates who understand and support our industry and issues.
The NSSF PAC has achieved several important milestones. First, the PAC surpassed the 50-contributor mark to qualify as aFederalElectionCommission-recognized,multi-candidatePAC. Reaching this goal allows the PAC to provide greater financial support to candidates than we previously could. Additionally, the PAC passed its goal of raising more than $50,000 in contributions. The PAC raised three times more in 2011thanitdidtheyearbefore($38,180in2011comparedto $10,600 in 2010). For an entity only two years old, these are monumental achievements that will enable industry to thwart attacks from anti-gun advocates, like the Brady Center. Toputthingsintoperspective,FECrecordsshowtheNSSFPAC has raised more money since its inception than the anti-gunBradyCampaignVoterEducationFundhasraisedoverthe last seven years.
The NSSF PAC also continued its support of federal candidates on both sides of the aisle who have stood up as pro-industry, pro-Second Amendment and pro-sportsmen leaders.
The NSSF PAC does not support candidates based on their political affiliation, but on their record of
promoting, protecting, and preserving the collective interests of the firearms, ammunition, hunting, and shooting sports industry, our hunting and shooting
sports heritage, and firearms freedoms.
SM
NssF Pac eveNt HigHLigHts
• u.s. sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)kickedoff NSSF’s 2011 Washington, D.C., Congressional Fly-In. Sen. Nelson addressed NSSF PAC members and the important role industry and sportsmen play in promoting, protecting and preserving America’s hunting and shooting sports heritage.
• u.s. sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) addressed guests at the NSSF PAC reception at the 2012 SHOT Show in Las Vegas. Sen. Heller’s attendance at the show underscores the continued importance of the firearms and ammunition industry to the U.S. economy.
• TheNSSFPACwelcomed House speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to the NSSF Winter Board of Governors Meetings in February. Speaker Boehner discussed the importance of the upcoming election, calling it “the most important election of our lifetime.” He thanked America’s firearms and ammunition industry for the contribution it makes to the nation’s economy.
2012 outLook
In response to ongoing efforts to ban traditional lead ammunition, NSSF will continue to defend the right of sportsmen to use ammunition of their choice by supporting legislation aimed at protecting this right and through educational campaigns aimed at sportsmen and the public. Furthermore, while industry respects its longstanding cooperative relationship with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,FirearmsandExplosives,itwillcontinuetofightto strike down illegal and arbitrary regulations that harm member businesses.
The biggest event in our sights is, of course, the November elections. It is guaranteed that anti-gun and anti-hunting forces will use the elections as a referendum against the Second Amendment and law-abiding companies that make the exercise of this fundamental right possible.
In a speech to SHOT Show attendees in 2001, during the industry’s darkest days brought about by the tidal wave of frivolous politically-motivated municipal lawsuits, Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY) proclaimed, “In politics you have a choice – take part…or get taken apart.” These words are as true today as they were more than a decade ago.
NSSF’s government relations team will continue to do its part through direct lobbying and grassroots advocacy and with the recent launch of its voter-education website #gunvote (www.nssf.org/gunvote).Theseeffortswillzeroinongettingmore NSSF PAC-endorsed candidates elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. They will also ensure that the next president truly respects our industry and the Second Amendment and will appoint Supreme Court justices who will decide Second Amendment issues based on the law and not their personal opinions. No one understands better than the NSSF PAC the unique legislative and regulatory challenges industry members face. And no one other than the PAC will advance our industry’s interests withmorepassionandcommitmentonElectionDay.
Weneedtocontinuefighting,andonElectionDay,together, we will do just that.
For more information on the NSSF PAC, visit www.nssfpac.org or contact Lawrence G.Keane,NSSFPACTreasurer,at(203)[email protected].
Lawrence g. keaneNssF Pac treasurer
Note: The NSSF PAC made a $500 contribution to former GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty.
2011 NSSF PAC CANdIdATe CoNTRIbuTIoNS
Candidate PartyState - District/
OfficeNSSF PAC
Contribution
Dean Heller R NV $2,500
Patrick Leahy D VT $2,000
Mitch McConnell R KY $2,000
Ben Nelson D NE $4,000
Total u.S. Senate Contributions $10,500
Senate
John Boehner R OH - 08 $3,000
Robert Cornilles R OR - 01 $1,000
Robert Latta R OH - 05 $1,000
Total u.S. House Contributions $5,000houSe
2011-2012NSSF PAC MeMbeRS
Laurie Aronson
Teresa Bartle
William Biss
Marianna Blanco
James Boyce Jr.
Daniel Boyer
Michael Brown
Jeffrey Buchanan
Mitchell Butler
John Cahill
Matthew Chisholm III
Robert Cicero
Leigh Coffin
Dean Coldiron
James Debney
Christopher Dolnack
Joshua Dorsey IV
Don Duhigg
Walker English
James Falkenstine Jr.
Michael Fifer
Michael Flynn
William Fraim
Gary French
Victor Gabriella
Jim Hamby
Steve Hornady
Jason Hornady
Calvin Johnston
Michael Jolly
Lawrence Keane
Joseph Keffer
Ryan Krantz
John Larkin
Richard Lipsey
Walter McLallen IV
Michael Mitchell
Robley Moore
Robert Morrison
Alan Mossberg
Alan Mossberg Jr.
James Murata
Earl Noel Jr.
Kevin O’Donovan
Patrick O’Malley
Douglas Painter
Mario Pasantes
Rick Patterson
William Pickle
Gerald Quinn
Kevin Reid Sr.
John Ridlehuber
David Robertson
Joyce Rubino
Stephen Sanetti
J. Savage
Robert Scott
Nick Seifert
Douglas Sensenig
Thomas Shepherd
Erin Simpson
Shelly Singleton
Richard Smith
Robert Southwick
Diane Sweet
Gary Swenson
Robert Viden
Larry Weishuhn
Kent Williams
Kenneth Wise
Promote Protect Preserve
NATIONAL SHOOTING
SPORTS FOUNDATION
www.nssfpac.org
Promoting, Protecting and Preserving
America’s Hunting and
Shooting Sports Industry,
Your Business
&
Our Firearms Freedoms
DOn’t RISk YOUR RIgHtS! ensure your voice is heard on
election Day.
SM
www.nssf.org/gunvoteRegister to vote and learn where the
candidates stand on hunting, shooting and the second amendment.
11 Mile Hill Road
Newtown, CT 06470-2359
T: 203.426.1320
F: 203.426.1087
www.nssf.org
© 2012 National Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved Item #9104
Promote Protect Preserve