For years, the National Rifle Association has abetted death and mayhem on America’s streets, empowered by its iron grip on the Republican Party. A new lawsuit alleges an unlawful component of that dark symbiotic relationship. It claims the NRA has circumvented campaign finance laws to illegally funnel tens of millions of dollars in campaign resources to Donald Trump and other Republican politicians, including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.
The suit is from the nonprofit Giffords, named for former Rep. Gabby Giffords, the Arizona Democrat who survived a gunshot to the head during a 2011 attack at a public meeting by a gunman who wounded 19 people and killed six, including a 9-year-old girl.
Those kinds of attacks are rare in most of the advanced world but numbingly common in America, largely for one reason: The NRA, through its stranglehold on elected Republicans in Congress and in state governments, has for decades prevented commonsense gun restrictions that even most gun owners support, like universal background checks and assault weapon bans.
