Leading gun control group misses 2020 spending target... by more than half

At the beginning of the year, Michael Bloomberg’s gun-grabbing group, Everytown for Gun Safety, pledged to spend $60 million in 2020 to ensure their agenda was front and center for the Democrats during this election cycle. They recently filed their third-quarter financial report and the reality of the group’s activities is falling significantly short of their expectations. And by significantly short, I mean well below half. They’ve spent a bit more than $25 million for the entire year thus far and they have less than $5 million cash-on-hand. Their large media buys have all but evaporated and substantive financial support from the public has tanked. (Free Beacon)

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The nation’s top gun-control group is falling far short of its 2020 election spending pledge with less than two weeks to go before Nov. 3.

Despite promising to spend $60 million in 2020, Everytown for Gun Safety—founded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg and backed primarily by wealthy donors—has spent less than $26 million, according to Federal Election Commission records. Even with the cash on hand reported by the group in its latest filing, it will only be able to spend less than half of its goal without a massive cash injection before the election.

The latest filing for Everytown’s super PAC, which has done nearly all of the group’s political spending in 2020, shows the group had just over $4.6 million remaining in the bank on Oct. 15.

You can get a feel for the tepid support the group is receiving by looking through their September financial report, typically one of the biggest fundraising months of a presidential election year. They barely cleared a million dollars in contributions. More than 80% of that amount came from two types of sources. Much of the money came from a comparative handful of wealthy liberal donors contributing figures in the thousands. The other major chunk came from the liberal fundraising group ACTBLUE, though it was bizarrely broken up into hundreds of small-dollar checks.

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The reason for the cratering of public support for Bloomberg’s gun-grabbing operation should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention. Any talk of making it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to legally purchase firearms isn’t going to sell very well at a time when gun sales are setting records all across the country. That’s even true in the very-blue state of California, where first-time gun buyers are keeping the shelves empty in most shops. And many of them are frustrated at the delays, costs, and regulatory hurdles they are encountering because of the gun control laws already in place.

The most common reasons many of those first-time buyers cited in a recent survey included lawlessness in the streets, worries over prisoner release programs and concerns that gun shops may be shut down if the Democrats retake the White House and the Senate. That makes any sort of gun-control message in the Democratic platform problematic to say the least. And you’ll notice that you haven’t heard a peep about that subject during the debates, despite the fact that we’re still seeing mass shootings in our larger cities this year, primarily driven by gang violence.

Taking all of these factors into consideration, is it any wonder that Everytown’s donations are tanking? You may have also noticed that the attacks on the NRA by high-profile Democrats have definitely tapered off as well. The Democrats may be devious when it comes to abridging your Second Amendment rights, but they’re not stupid. They know that this particular message will not go over well this year, even with many of their typical supporters. So they’re staying quiet for the most part and donors are sending their dollars elsewhere.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 21, 2024
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