Why Is the NRA Giving Away a Jeep and 2 Guns?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 9:33AM EST · Published May 11, 11:20AM EDT

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Why Is the NRA Giving Away a Jeep and 2 Guns? — © courtesy of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is raffling off a Jeep and some guns. Anyone can enter. Anyone. That seems not to make sense. What does the NRA get in return? A business school professor in marketing could give a few ideas.

The Jeep, made by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) is a 2015 Wrangler model. It was customized by famous TV personality Jesse James. A 2015 model likely costs less than a 2016 one, and may have even been bought on clearance. A Wrangler is a relatively inexpensive Jeep model, with a base price of $23,895. The parts for customization can’t be inexpensive. No need to get legal permission from Fiat Chrysler, so no expense there. Whether Jesse James is paid is another question.

The giveaway includes two guns and $20,000 in cash. The two guns were customized by Jesse James as well. However, the guns themselves may be donated for branding purposes. No way to get a discount on the $20,000.

The organization claims the truck is very special:

NRA is giving away a 4WD ultra-rugged 2015 Jeep Wrangler. This OFF-ROAD BEAST boasts a custom-made Kevlar pickup bed, custom fenders, custom cargo rack, Mil-spec wheels.

Most of that may be accessories that can be added by some dealers.
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The part of the giveaway that is not in the NRA’s favor:

The “NRA Truck Raffle Sweepstakes” is open to legal residents of the United States and Washington, D.C., age 21 years or older at time of entry who are licensed drivers. Online entries must be received between 9:00 AM Eastern Time (“ET”) on 10/1/15 and 11:59 pm ET on 9/15/16.

There are laws that prohibit contests from being promoted publicly and then limited to a number of people. The NRA, therefore, cannot restrict the drawing to NRA members.

In the final analysis, the promotion is almost certainly a push to bring in new NRA members and keep current ones happy. The NRA brand gets substantial visibility. New NRA members pay as much as $140 for a five-year membership. Direct marketers would say that new members are hard to come by, particularly for an organization as well known as the NRA.

A free truck and two guns, and $20,000. Cheap if the NRA picks up 500 new members or gets a good number of renewals.

Those are the business school numbers, anyway.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.