By Sam Knight.

Whether it’s a quiet Friday afternoon or the day after a mass shooting, chances are it’s not the appropriate time to talk about gun control. Thanks to the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its massive $200 million-plus war chest, politicians are forced to treat assault rifle ownership like it’s as sacrosanct as the First Amendment.
Unsurprisingly, the manufacturers of those rifles play a massive role in helping the NRA set the terms of the debate. Because of a study carried out last year by the Violence Policy Center, we know that firearm makers – such as GLOCK, Smith & Wesson and Remington – have given the NRA between $14.7 million and $38.9 million since 2005.
But the amount actually given by gunmakers could be a lot more than that. In 2010 alone, IRS filings show that the NRA took in over $71 million in grants, donations, and gifts and made just under $21 million by selling advertising. It wouldn’t be farfetched to assume that gunmakers and sellers were the primary sources of this revenue, which made up around 40 percent of the NRA’s cash flow that year. In 2010, membership fees totaled around $100 million, but also constituted less than half of the organization’s income.
What this means is that…

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