Why Is the NRA Auctioning Off Guns?

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Why Is the NRA Auctioning Off Guns?

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One of the latest promotions to NRA members is the chance to win a gun. Presumably members of the National Rifle Association already own guns, which makes them good targets for the promotion. However, there have to be reasons beyond this.

The first advantage to the NRA is that the program is not a free giveaway. Members bid against each other for rare guns or ones that are extremely powerful. The yield of the bids goes into the NRA coffers:

All auctions end on the final day of the NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits, Sunday, May 22, at 3:00PM EST. 100% of the winning bid supports the NRA’s efforts to protect our Second Amendment rights, especially critical in this election year.

The gun makers that participate get exposure. These include Remington, Berreta and Browning. The guns are not cheap. The latest bid for a Browning M1919A4 .22LR is $2,525. The latest bid for the Springfield 1888 Trpdr 4570Govt is $5,001.
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The guns can be seen up close at the NRA’s 145th Annual Meeting and Exhibits. The promotions may draw people to the event, although it is already underway

The most important part of the bidding process is that the Fire Arms for Freedom promotion “tethers” members to the organization. Like any other nonprofit, the NRA wants to make sure people stay members for years to come. The Fire Arms for Freedom program meant to protect Second Amendment rights plays to an issue that is core to people who are already part of the NRA, as any business school professor would point out.

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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.

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