“I went through many worse things in my life to think that a couple of the comments or reviews, they can change my mind,” he said.
The same goes for Brady Phenicie, 52, who owns information technology company Phenicie Business Management in Healdsburg, California. He’s received calls from people upset over his affiliation and threatening to withhold business.
“I answer to myself,” Phenicie said. “My reason for joining is saying, ‘Hey, thank you for checking my rights, because I really feel like they’re going away.”’
The exodus at the national level marks a turning point for the NRA.
Dreamed up in 1871 by a pair of Union Army veterans, it largely promoted shooting sports and safety until the late 1960s and the rise of law-and-order politics. Today, the group has become a major player in accelerating political polarization. In the 2016 elections, the NRA gave 99 percent of its contributions to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In 1990, the GOP received just 65 percent.
Last Stand
As part of its turn rightward, the NRA has developed its own media profile led by spokeswoman Dana Loesch, who stars in videos that present an ominous view of an America engulfed in a barely contained conflict that threatens to explode into violence.
“They were a moderate group,” said Scott Melzer, a sociology professor at Michigan’s Albion College and the author of a book on gun politics. “I would characterize them as part of the mainstream American life.”
“Today’s NRA appeals primarily, almost solely, to diehard guns-rights enthusiasts.”
It was company that the Music Center, a Los Angeles organization that hosts ballet and classical-music concerts, was surprised to find out it kept. Howard Sherman, its chief operating officer, said few knew the center was a Business Alliance member until an attendee called.
“We had been signed up for the Business Alliance many, many years ago," Sherman said. “We would never take a political stand in that way.”