The National Rifle Association goes to great lengths (and spends a huge sum of money) to defend the right to bear arms. It is opposed to virtually every form of gun regulation, including restrictions on owning assault weapons, retention of databases of gun purchases, background checks on purchasers at gun shows and changes in the registration of firearms.
The NRA’s influence is felt not only through campaign contributions, but through millions of dollars in off-the-books spending on issue ads. Lobbying expenditures for the National Rifle Association regularly exceed $1.5 million, as the organization’s lobbyists frequently try to exert their influence over government agencies including members of Congress, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
Profile for 2014 Election Cycle
CONTRIBUTIONS
$974,152
ranks 239 of 12,337LOBBYING
$3,360,000 (2014)
$3,410,000 (2013)
ranks 149 of 2,871 in 2014OUTSIDE SPENDING
$27,024,618
ranks 10 of 138
RTFA for lots of links to details of the how and where these pricks get their money and spend their money.
Thanks, Papa Tom
Eideard 
NRA Family: “Hansel and Gretel (Have Guns)” https://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2016/3/17/hansel-and-gretel-have-guns/ See also “The history of the AR-15, the weapon that had a hand in the United States’ worst mass shooting.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/06/13/the-history-of-the-ar-15-the-weapon-that-had-a-hand-in-americas-worst-mass-shooting/
“What happens after a mass shooting? Americans buy more guns.” http://www.vox.com/2016/6/15/11936494/after-mass-shooting-americans-buy-more-guns when the market opened Monday morning after the worst mass shooting in American history, gun stocks surged by more than 8 percent. After-all: “The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.” (John D. Rockefeller)
“Depth Of Russian Politician’s Cultivation Of NRA Ties Revealed” (NPR 3/1/18) https://www.npr.org/2018/03/01/590076949/depth-of-russian-politicians-cultivation-of-nra-ties-revealed “…These revelations come amid news that the FBI is investigating whether Torshin, the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, illegally funneled money to the National Rifle Association to assist the Trump campaign in 2016, McClatchy reported in January.”
Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation is pursuing allegations that Torshin has links to Russian organized crime, and laundered money from the Russian government to the NRA to benefit Trump’s campaign http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article195231139.html Torshin is also a paid lifetime member of the NRA.
See also “Operative Offered Trump Campaign ‘Kremlin Connection’ Using N.R.A. Ties” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/03/us/politics/trump-putin-russia-nra-campaign.html
and “Kushner failed to disclose outreach from Putin ally to Trump campaign” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kushner-failed-disclose-outreach-putin-ally-trump-campaign-n822021 …after which: “Torshin was seated with the candidate’s son, Donald Trump Jr., during a private dinner on the sidelines of a May 2016 NRA event during the convention in Louisville, according to an account Torshin gave to Bloomberg. Congressional investigators have no clear explanation for how that came to be, according to sources familiar with the matter.”