(RNN) – Donations to the National Rifle Association soared following the shooting at a Florida high school last month and the subsequent wave of gun control activism.
According to Federal Election Commission records, monthly contributions to the NRA more than tripled from January to February.
On Feb. 14, 17 people were killed in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. Students from the school organized a number of demonstrations in the wake of the shooting, culminating with last weekend’s March For Our Lives rallies around the country.
But as the activism focused in particular on the NRA and politicians aligned with it, support for the second amendment advocacy organization surged.
After receiving a little less than $250,000 in January, the NRA pulled in almost $780,000 in February.
While we applaud the Parkland students for exercising their First Amendment right, they don’t speak for their entire generation #DefendTheSecond #2A #NRA https://t.co/nJpvIWw7eT
— NRA (@NRA) March 27, 2018
The campaign finance transparency organization Open Secrets broke it down even more specifically: The group reported the NRA’s political action committee, NRA Political Victory Fund, received $27,100 from 51 donations in the two weeks prior to the shooting.
After Feb. 14, $70,870 came in from 226 donations.
Contribution totals for March are not yet available from the FEC.
Donations to the political action committee are distinct from general donations to the organization at large, though they do get figured into the overall total.
It is a phenomenon that has been seen before.
After the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings in Newtown, CT, in 2013, NRA membership grew by 100,000 in the span of about a month.
And after former President Barack Obama’s election in 2008, gun demand rose 60 percent, according to a study in the Journal of Public Economics.
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