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In September 2026, Guns Down America analyzed campaign contributions from leading companies, trade associations and interest groups associated with the firearms industry. This report is based on Federal Elections Commissions data on political contributions made in the 2026 election cycle through the end of July.
READ ONIn September 2026, Guns Down America analyzed campaign contributions from leading companies, trade associations and interest groups associated with the firearms industry.
This report is based on Federal Election Commission data on political contributions made in the 2026 election cycle through the end of July (the most recent processed data available). It covers contributions from the following entities:
Corporate PACs
Trade Association/Interest Group PACs
The National Shooting Sports Foundation remained the industry’s top overall funder, but the National Rifle Association significantly closed the gap between the two organizations compared to our previous report. Year-to-date, the NRA has given $864,650 compared to the NSSF’s $914,857.
This comes as a surprise, as the NRA has been in hot water for some time. In 2024, the NRA “liquidated nearly $17 million worth of stocks and fixed-income assets from its investment portfolio and transferred the money to its operating account.” The organization’s membership and member contributions continue to decline, leading to a “13.6 percent drop in overall revenue” in 2025. It’s not just in financial disarray – In early 2026, the NRA sued the NRA Foundation, its own fundraising arm.
Interestingly, the NRA’s big spending on campaign contributions this year aligns with Guns Down America’s own findings about their lobbying budget. In 2025, their quarterly lobbying costs averaged $467,500, while this year they’ve averaged $530,000 across the last two quarters. Where is the money coming from?
NSSF continued to take members of Congress shooting this spring and summer. As of the end of July, the group had spent nearly $30,000 in in-kind donations at shooting ranges, most of it at Prince George's Trap & Skeet Center just outside of Washington, DC.
Rep. Mike Ezell, a Republican from Mississippi, was a new beneficiary of an NSSF outing to Prince George’s range, compared to our April 2026 report.
House races are responsible for the majority of gun industry campaign contributions this year, but we can see that spending on Senate races increased at a far more rapid clip over the spring and summer months.
Gun industry groups put $435,456 into Senate-focused campaigns and political action committees as of July 31, a more than 81% increase over their spending on Senate races at the end of February. House races, by contrast, claimed approximately $1.4 million in industry donations, but that was only a 35% increase over what industry groups spent as of our previous report.
Taser-maker Axon retained its status as the rare bipartisan spender this cycle, although it donated more than twice as much to Republicans between March and July of this year, compared to a virtually even split between the two parties we found in our earlier report.
Axon also made its first donation to a Democratic leadership PAC: $2,500 to SECURE PAC, sponsored by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee. As noted in our previous report, the committee has jurisdiction over issues important to Axon and its members have been a top target of the company’s campaign contributions.
Industry giving has topped $2 million for the cycle, and the NRA has nearly matched the overall contributions from NSSF. Total contributions from the industry groups we analyzed rose to nearly $2.1 million up from just over $1.5 million in the first edition of this report earlier this year, an increase of more than $560,000 in just over five months.
Gun industry players continued to donate almost exclusively to Republicans, with the notable exception of Taser-maker Axon, which gave $10,000 to Democrats and $21,500 to Republicans. The NSSF, NRA, NAGR, Sig Sauer, and Olin were entirely one-sided in their giving.
There has been a proportional increase in spending on Senate campaigns. Compared to the last report, where about 16% of total spending went to the Senate, senate spending make up about 34% of contributions by chamber from March to July.
Year-to-date, about one third of total donations were made directly to campaign committees, with the rest primarily distributed among party organizations, joint fundraising committees and leadership PACs.
In our last edition of this report, Axon contributed an almost 50/50 split of $34,500 and $34,000 between Republicans and Democrats respectively. This time around, they’ve deviated, contributing more than double the amount to Republicans as Democrats – $21,500 vs. $10,000.
Compared to our last report, in which Axon donations made it to 19 unique states, they focused their efforts this time around on only 15. Tennessee, Wyoming, North Carolina, and West Virginia were new additions.
Notably, Axon made its first-ever contributions to Senate races this year, donating to incumbent Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, as well as to Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman, who is running for Senate this year. All four are Republicans.
In addition to reporting the money they give directly to political organizations, corporate PACs are required to disclose their “in-kind” expenses that benefit a candidate for office, typically by hosting fundraisers on their behalf.
NSSF has reported almost $30,000 donations to gun ranges during this election cycle. Most of the expenses have gone to Prince George's Trap & Skeet Center in Glenn Dale, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC.
In addition to giving directly to campaigns, corporate PACs also have access to several other types of committees through which they can demonstrate their support for lawmakers or political candidates.
The most common among these are Leadership PACs, which members of Congress can use to donate to political allies or pay for certain travel and entertainment expenses, and Joint Fundraising Committees, which can raise larger sums of money to be divided among campaigns, parties and other groups.
Gun industry groups have given $163,000 to Joint Fundraising Committees this cycle. Between Olin, the NRA, and the NSSF, $83,000 of that total Joint Fundraising Committee spending went to the Johnson Leadership Fund, controlled by House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.
Republican Leadership PACs and one unauthorized PAC received nearly $100,000 from the gun industry this cycle.
John Thune’s “Heartland Values PAC” received donations from both the NRA and NSSF, for a total of $15,000. Jim Jordan’s “Buckeye Liberty Political Action Committee” also received the support of multiple donors, a total of $7,500 from the NSSF and Axon. Ryan Zinke also received significant support across his “Seal PAC Supporting Electing American Leaders PAC” and “Commander Zinke Leadership Fund,” with the NSSF and Sig Sauer contributing a combined $7,500.
To see insights from Edition 1 of this report, which covers January-February of 2026, click below.
