--- title: Parkland Shooting: Politicians Scrutinized for NRA Donations description: Lawmakers are coming under scrutiny for donations they have received from the National Rifle Association. canonical: https://time.com/5160318/florida-school-shooting-nra-donations/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-15T18:49:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T21:58:54.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's How Much the NRA Has Given to Florida Lawmakers og:description: The donations have been under scrutiny since a shooting og:url: https://time.com/5160318/florida-school-shooting-nra-donations/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c26b51c9b28fb73/698927c9bc6cfc5df93e5093/kristi-gilroy-florida-school-shooting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Florida Town Of Parkland In Mourning, After Shooting At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Kills 17 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How Much the NRA Has Given to Florida Lawmakers twitter:description: The donations have been under scrutiny since a shooting twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c26b51c9b28fb73/698927c9bc6cfc5df93e5093/kristi-gilroy-florida-school-shooting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How Much the NRA Has Given to Florida Lawmakers > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 12, 2023 9:58 PM UTCPublished: Feb 15, 2018 6:49 PM UTC  Kristi Gilroy (R), hugs a young woman at a police check point near the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 people were killed by a gunman yesterday, on February 15, 2018 in Parkland, Florida. Police arrested the suspect after a short manhunt, and have identified him as 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz. Kristi Gilroy (R), hugs a young woman at a police check point near the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 people were killed by a gunman yesterday, on February 15, 2018 in Parkland, Florida. Police arrested the suspect after a short manhunt, and have identified him as 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz. Mark Wilson—Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 12, 2023 9:58 PM UTCPublished: Feb 15, 2018 6:49 PM UTC Florida lawmakers who received donations from the National Rifle Association came under scrutiny after Wednesday’s high school shooting in Parkland. After 17 people were killed when alleged shooter [Nikolas Cruz](http://time.com/5159134/who-is-the-florida-shooter-parkland-nicolas-cruz/?xid=homepage), open fire on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, many social media users highlighted how much money members of Congress have received from the gun rights group. > [](https://twitter.com/bessbell/status/963922484394278912) In the 2016 election cycle, 19 federal election candidates in Florida races received more than $40,000 from the NRA’s Political Victory Fund, the Political Action Committee, [according to the Center for Responsive Politics](https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/recips.php?id=D000000082&type=P&state=FL&sort=A&cycle=2016). Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who ran for both the Presidency and the Senate, raked in the highest donation, receiving $9,900\. As a PAC, the NRA can give up to $10,000 per candidate in an election cycle, $5000 for a primary election and $5000 for a general. Rubio also received an A+ [rating](https://www.nraila.org/articles/20160707/nra-endorses-marco-rubio-for-us-senate) from the NRA. Florida has relatively relaxed gun laws, which could have eased the path for this shooting; no permit is required to purchase a firearm or handgun, according to the NRA, and there is requirement to register these weapons, although a permit is necessary to carry a handgun. In 2016, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave Florida an “F” on the stringency of its gun laws. These laws are drafted by state legislatures—not Congressmen and Senators—and signed by the Governor, in this case Rick Scott. Scott who is strongly considering a Senate run to challenge Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson, is like Rubio, a favorite among the NRA, who noted [in 2014](https://www.nraila.org/articles/20140623/alert-governor-rick-scott-makes-history-signing-5-pro-gun-bills) that he had signed “more pro-gun bills into law — in one term — than any other Governor in Florida history.” Nelson and Scott have contrasting ratings from the NRA: Nelson has an F and Scott has an A+. When asked Wednesday evening about gun control laws following the shooting, Scott said there would be a time for those conversations in the future. He was also somewhat evasive when asked why a teenager was able to have an AR-15 rifle, saying an [investigation](https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/963966822574952449) was underway and it would be hard to determine a response without those facts. _Correction: The original version of this story misstated the amount of money candidates for federal political office from Florida received from the National Rifle Association in 2016\. They received more than $40,000\. They did not receive $834,165, which was the total amount contributed by the NRA to federal candidates during the cycle._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5160318/florida-school-shooting-nra-donations/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5160318/florida-school-shooting-nra-donations/"},"headline":"Here's How Much the NRA Has Given to Florida Lawmakers","datePublished":"2018-02-15T18:49:01.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T21:58:54.000Z","description":"The NRA donated over $800,000 to Florida lawmakers in the 2016 election","url":"https://time.com/5160318/florida-school-shooting-nra-donations/","keywords":["mass shootings","Gun Control","Guns","NRA","school shootings","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c26b51c9b28fb73/698927c9bc6cfc5df93e5093/kristi-gilroy-florida-school-shooting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c26b51c9b28fb73/698927c9bc6cfc5df93e5093/kristi-gilroy-florida-school-shooting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Florida Town Of Parkland In Mourning, After Shooting At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Kills 17","caption":"Florida Town Of Parkland In Mourning, After Shooting At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Kills 17","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5160318/florida-school-shooting-nra-donations/","name":"Here's How Much the NRA Has Given to Florida Lawmakers"}}]}] ```