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Tactics: Why Politicians Hate Us

Since our founding, the NYS Firearms Association has taken a very different approach to doing politics than most other organizations. This wasn’t an accident. It was a detailed battle plan to advance gun rights, expose gun-grabbers, and do everything possible to save freedom here in New York State.
We knew from day one that these tactics would come at a cost.

It would be easier to follow the typical script: only attack Democrats, always say nice things about Republicans — no matter what they do to gun bills — and have the GOP’s back at election time. If you play it safe, you won’t pass or stop many bills, but the politicians (and their media allies) will sing your praises.

But the NYS Firearms Association wasn’t founded to make politicians happy. It was founded to fight for gun rights and expose anyone who stood in the way. And the results speak for themselves — as you can see on our Defending Freedom Timeline.

Political Access vs. Political Power

Most political organizations settle for political access — hoping that by kissing up and being “super nice,” they can curry favor (maybe even friendship) with politicians who will, they pray, vote for their bill when it really counts.

That can work — on non-controversial bills. But gun bills are always controversial.

If all your organization can offer is access, politicians will betray you the moment leadership leans on them, the media pressures them, or a big PAC waves a check in their face.

(Of course, the NYS Firearms Association enjoys access to the best legislators in Albany who sponsor our legislation and lead in the fight for gun rights. That’s not what we’re talking about here.)

This kind of betrayal happens every day in session. It’s why people are so jaded about politics. It’s why so many good activists burn out. It’s why Congress has lower approval ratings than the IRS.

Political power is something entirely different. Political power means you can tell a politician to vote the right way — or you can ask your members to replace that politician at election time if he betrays them.

Grassroots Armies vs. Slick Lobbyists

But political power doesn’t show up on its own. It has to be built over time.

That’s why the NYS Firearms Association doesn’t spend every minute in the Capitol. We spend just as much time identifying, educating, and mobilizing gun owners from every corner of New York State — so they can make their voices heard on Second Amendment legislation.
We do this through direct mail, email campaigns, text alerts, digital ads, and live video updates. Combined, these tools give us the ability to hammer on a committee chair, the Speaker, the Senate President, the Governor — or our Congressional delegation.

Politicians hate this. They want to be the only ones talking to the citizens. So when we expose what’s happening in Albany — what they want kept behind closed doors — they lash out and accuse us of being “just fundraisers.”

Of course they say that. It’s the only move they have. They can’t control us because we’re not chasing access.

Building and wielding this grassroots army is how we’ve been able to defeat so many gun control bills in Albany. No organization can stop 100% of Hochul’s agenda, but things would be far worse if NYSFA members weren’t inundating the legislature with grassroots heat!
Slick lobbyists didn’t do that. Attractive lobbyists didn’t do that. Organized, relentless gun owners did that.

Primary Election Programs

For most organizations, if a bill dies, they pack up and wait for next year. They don’t say a word against the Republicans who killed the bill. In fact, they often praise them and blame “the calendar” or “Democrats” or “the media” for their failure.

That’s not how we operate.

The NYS Firearms Association loves getting dirty in the June primaries; running videos, sending texts, doing door-to-door lit drops, launching radio ads, billboards, and direct mail to expose RINO Republicans who betrayed gun owners.
If we don’t do this, the Republicans will have no reason to stop betraying us!
The goal of our primary program is simple: remind politicians that if they vote with the Democrats to restrict our gun rights — they’ll face the heat in their next primary.
Sometimes gun owners throw the RINOs out. Sometimes the RINOs squeak by. Either way, every politician in Albany pays attention, because they know our organization doesn’t play by establishment rules — and they could be next.
This, more than anything else, is how we’ve been able to stop so much gun control in Albany.

General Election Programs

Primaries are vital. But we don’t ignore general elections — and we never have. Just ask Senate Democrats.
National gun groups take money from New Yorkers, then mail out a fake scorecard or a single orange postcard. It’s cute — in a very 1994 kind of way. It’s cheap. And it’s ineffective.

That’s not how we operate.

The NYS Firearms Association has consistently updated our messaging and outreach to match how gun owners get their information. For some, we send a four-page mailer exposing anti-gun Democrats. For others, we run radio and TV ads. Others get text alerts. And others see us through targeted social media ads.
How do we know what works for each individual gun owner? Our IT team tracks engagement and tailors future contact to the method that individual uses the most.

This allows us to reach massive numbers of gun owners in targeted districts during general elections in ways that are relevant and easy for them to share with friends.

Where our primary program exposes RINOs, our general election work exposes gun-grabbing Democrats — especially those in vulnerable districts — making sure they know their anti-gun votes won’t go unanswered.

Staying Power

But none of this matters unless it’s done repeatedly — year after year.

Staying power — the ability to consistently run aggressive legislative and election programs — is what separates the NYS Firearms Association from nearly every other group in Albany.

Most groups buckle under pressure from politicians or the media. Their board or executive director can’t take the heat, so they fold and conform to the political class.

It’s sad when it happens. But it happens all the time.

That’s the final reason the politicians in Albany either love us or hate us. They can’t silence us. They can’t buy us off. They can’t out-message us. And they know we’ve got the staying power to keep this fight going indefinitely.
Thanks to the support of our members, we’ve been fighting for Second Amendment freedom in New York State for almost a decade — and we’re just getting started!