Nssf Pac Year in Review 2012

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


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.

Nssf Pac Year in Review 2012

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