Why Does the NRA Give Away Free Ammo?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 10:26AM EST · Published Apr 22, 10:10AM EDT

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Why Does the NRA Give Away Free Ammo? — © Thinkstock

For NRA members only: a chance to win 2,000 rounds of .22LR Eley ammo. Presumably that’s a good deal for those who have guns that take that caliber of bullet.

While the NRA does not say what the chances are to win the ammo, is it likely because it does not know how many people will enter? Good question. The deadline to enter is 11:59 CMT on May 6.

Eley is a company with ties with the NRA. It will have a display of at the NRA convention during the NRA annual meeting, which will be in Louisville from May 19 to 22. Presumably, the program has advantages for both Eley and the NRA.

What would a business school professor say about the program? One of three or four things.

The program itself is promoted via an NRA email in conjunction with the Sportsman’s Guide, which also promotes the giveaway:

Dear NRA Member,

Sportsman’s Guide has long been a supporter of the NRA and our goal to defend our Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Because you are an NRA Member, they would like to offer you a special discount on select Sportsman’s Guide gear. This offer is ONLY available to NRA members and for a limited time only. For offer details, please click on the coupon above and take advantage of this special offer.

Thank you for your support of NRA. Thank you for your support of our Second Amendment rights.

Sincerely,

Wayne LaPierre
Executive Vice President

LaPierre almost certainly is the most famous advocate in America for the freedom to own and carry guns.
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Reason one is not unlike any other entity that relies on “sweepstakes” to keep people’s allegiance. A special deal, but for members only. This may cement people who are not wildly loyal NRA members from leaving when their subscriptions end.

And the giveaway is part of a huge number of special offers and special prices on from everything from hotel rooms to gun sales. NRA membership has a wide range of benefits.

Another reason may be to draw people to the NRA convention. This not only “glues” members together. It also offers an audience for NRA vendor partners. There will be over 750 at the annual meeting, in a convention hall with over 500,000 square feet.

Harder to quantify is the ability to ride a wave of demand. Gun registrations continue to reach all-time monthly highs, based on FBI data. Free bullets for a growing number of gun owners?

Underpinning all these is a long-successful tactic. The NRA sweepstakes supply of bullets is extremely limited. They are going to run out quickly.

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.