Comments by "Allison James" (@allisonjames2923) on "NowThis Impact" channel.

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  7. “The National Rifle Association has spent millions of dollars lobbying Texas state lawmakers as they chipped away at gun restrictions. In the last five years, the NRA has shelled out more than $2 million to lobby the Texas Legislature — more than double what it spent in any other state, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics. The biggest change came last year when lawmakers eliminated the need for a license and training to carry a handgun in public. At a signing ceremony, NRA leader Wayne LaPierre sat alongside Gov. Greg Abbott as the only nonelected official at the table. “In this increasingly dangerous world, people want to be able to protect themselves, and thank God Texas is leading the way for the country,” LaPierre said. Lawmakers say the NRA’s real political power is not its money, but its membership. The group grades lawmakers on their gun votes and then promotes those rankings to its roughly 400,000 members across Texas. “Those people vote and they vote all the time,” said Jerry Patterson, a former lawmaker who authored the state’s original concealed handgun law. “When you have a list of people who have joined an organization solely because of its advocacy for gun rights, they’re motivated, plain and simple.” Voters pay especially close attention in GOP primaries. Those races are usually the most hard-fought in Texas, where Democrats have been locked out of statewide power for nearly 30 years. While the NRA may be the biggest, other pro-gun groups are active in the state too, including Texas State Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America, which bills itself as “the only no compromise gun lobby.”” From: NRA spends more money lobbying Texas legislators than in any other state by Allie Morris, 27 May 2022
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