A recent video by the NRA featuring the top lobbyists at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative group, is raising more questions about ALEC’s role in the gun control debate than it is answers.
The video, titled “Hands up, don’t shoot: The NRA’s top lobbyist tells its top lobbyists to fix their ‘gun free’ country,” features a clip of NRA’s David Keene, who is the organization’s top gun lobbyist.
Keene explains that ALEC’s mission is to pass gun control legislation that would be passed by states, but that “we’re a small group, we have a very small staff and we have no lobbyists.”
He says that ALEC needs a staff of 400 and that his group’s members are small, but he says they’re trying to get a message out to legislators about gun control, and to “put the focus on the issue.”
ALEC, which was founded in 1989, is one of the most powerful lobby groups in the country.
Its goal is to make the U.S. a “tough, free, and gun-free” country.
It has lobbied heavily for legislation to expand gun rights, and it has sponsored a number of bills that would ban handguns in public places, restrict guns at gun shows, require universal background checks for gun purchases, and ban gun ownership for people convicted of domestic violence.
ALEC has also lobbied heavily to expand the number of people who can vote in state legislative elections.
“There are some states that have adopted this model, and I’m not going to speculate on whether other states are doing it, but I think it’s an effective model,” Keene said.
“We’re trying very hard to get the message out that guns are not the issue.
They’re the cause.
We want to make it easier for you to protect yourself and to get your guns back.”
ALEC is one such organization.
Keenene is also the president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, which he founded in 1996.
The Heritage Foundation is one part of a network of right-wing think tanks that are funded by the billionaire Koch brothers.
The Kochs have also donated more than $1 million to ALEC in the last four years.
In an email to ThinkProgress, Heritage Foundation spokesman Dan Holleran said that the group supports the “common-sense gun-control reforms” ALEC advocates, but does not lobby for legislation.
He added that ALEC has been in existence for 15 years, and the group’s board of directors has never met.
“As such, the group has no relationship with ALEC and its board of officers has no role in any legislation drafted by ALEC,” Hollerant said.
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