--- title: March For Our Lives: GOP Donor Launches Gun Control Group description: A major Republican donor fed up with congressional inaction has launched a gun control advocacy group. canonical: https://time.com/5212835/march-for-our-lives-republican-donor-gun-control/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-24T12:00:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:03:57.814Z article:section: Politics og:title: A Republican Donor Launched a Gun Control Advocacy Group og:description: It officially kicked off during the March For Our Lives. og:url: https://time.com/5212835/march-for-our-lives-republican-donor-gun-control/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd74d1e25c6f83264/69892ae37cdbacd61cd5c4c1/school-walkout-parkland-shooting-gun-control-florida-stoneman-douglas-0321.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3040 og:image:height: 1710 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-GUNS-SCHOOLS-PROTEST og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Republican Donor Launched a Gun Control Advocacy Group twitter:description: It officially kicked off during the March For Our Lives. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd74d1e25c6f83264/69892ae37cdbacd61cd5c4c1/school-walkout-parkland-shooting-gun-control-florida-stoneman-douglas-0321.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Republican Donor Launches Gun Control Advocacy Group During the March For Our Lives > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=cc0b41f2-15a3-45f5-b86a-4992d4e82943&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: This Is How The NRA Got So Powerful [Watch (HLS stream): This Is How The NRA Got So Powerful](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/M3qXfmOi.m3u8) (4:39)  _Published 2018-03-23. This Is How The NRA Got So Powerful_  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Mar 24, 2018 12:00 PM UTC This Is How The NRA Got So Powerful  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Mar 24, 2018 12:00 PM UTC A major Republican donor fed up with congressional inaction has launched a gun control advocacy group with support from both Republican congressmen and other donors and fundraisers to persuade Congress to pass comprehensive gun control reform. Called Americans for Gun Safety Now, the group is spearheaded by Ambassador Al Hoffman Jr., a Florida estate real developer and GOP donor who served as Ambassador to Portugal under George W. Bush. Hoffman made [headlines](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/17/us/prominent-republican-donor-issues-ultimatum-on-assault-weapons.html) in the aftermath of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida – an area where he has personal and professional ties – when he said he would refrain from donating to politicians who do not back a ban on assault weapons. The group has devised a six-point plan for comprehensive gun legislation, which is outlined in an ad it ran in the Wall Street _Journal_ Saturday, urging Congress to pass it as soon as possible. The plan includes expanding background checks, raising the age limit for all gun purchases to 21, eliminating bump stocks, and limiting high capacity magazines, while explicitly retaining support for Second Amendment rights. “The federal government better pass legislation that is readily available right now …. and get it done now, before November,” Hoffman told _TIME_ in his first interview since launching the group. “If they don’t do this, my guess is that they will lose big in November.” The details of the group were [first reported](http://time.com/5195692/gun-control-parkland-al-hoffman/) by _TIME_ earlier this month, but Hoffman officially launched the group Saturday, to coincide with the March For Our Lives demonstration in Washington D.C., which he is attending. The group has 21 supporters, according to the advertisement that ran in the _Journal_ Saturday, which describes them as “a committed group of people representing a wide variety of stakeholders. They include Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed in the shooting; Republican Congressmen Carlos Curbelo and Brian Mast, who authored a New York _Times_ op-ed last month [supporting](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/opinion/brian-mast-assault-weapons-ban.html) a ban on assault weapons; and Dennis Blair, who served as Director of National Intelligence from 2009 to 2010\. In addition to Hoffman, Other prominent Republican donors who are supporting the initiative include Cathy Bailey, Mel Sembler, and Howard Leach, all of whom, like Hoffman, served as Ambassadors under George W. Bush, as well as billionaire Norman Braman and retired professional golfer Jack Nicklaus. Hoffman said the group has been established as a 501c4 organization, a non-profit group that does not have to disclose its donors. Presumably, this could provide cover for other Republicans who want to contribute to the group but don’t want to disclose that they have done so. In total, those supporting the initiative have donated at least $600,000 alone to Republican candidates and committees in the 2017-2018 election cycle. Hoffman said the next step is using this influence to personally lobby the leaders of Congress, like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, along with Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Rand Paul of Kentucky. “What \[this group\] intends to do is show those who are not on the right side of the movement, that maybe you’re fearful of the money from the NRA, then get on the right side of this movement. But there’s a movement elsewhere that can help. That those who stay on the wrong side of this movement they’re \[going to\] lose their traditional donor money,” Guttenberg said in an interview with _TIME._ He was introduced to Hoffman through a mutual friend a week after his daughter was killed in the Parkland shooting, and the two are attending the March For Our Lives demonstration together in Washington D.C. “He is a man who no one ever would have expected this from which is what I think makes it so powerful,” said Guttenberg. But Hoffman has already said his efforts to get more lawmakers to sign on as supporters of this group were fruitless, a hint at the difficulties he will nearly inevitably encounter in getting Congress to act. “We’re in deep limbo with a number of congressmen and Senators right now, but we’ve got to kick them in the butt and get it going on this. For our own sake,” Hoffman said. “I’m going to encourage anyone whose involved with giving money to any member of the Republican party not to give money to these candidates that will not endorse this plan,” he said. And convincing Congress to pass comprehensive gun safety legislation may seem like a breeze compared to the ultimate objective of the group: implementing a complete ban on assault weapons which is what Hoffman originally said was his red line for supporting candidates and lawmakers following the Parkland shooting. But Hoffman says the group will conduct polling and hold focus groups to gather evidence which he says will hopefully show Congress a majority of Americans support such a ban. Overall, Hoffman does not seem oblivious to the mountainous challenges that lie ahead of this group, despite the influence some of the supporters hold within the Republican party. There are, for instance, numerous other donors who could fill candidate’s campaign coiffures without mandating But he says he still holds out hope something can be done. “I believe we can ultimately \[succeed\] and we will succeed. It’s just going to take a long time,” he said. “But you know, this is my swan song, and I’m going to give it everything I’ve got.” ## Transcript Everyone knows the National Rifle Association super powerful how to get that here's a brief history. And it was founded in 871. A civil war veterans concerned that their fellow yankees have forgotten hash and they started the NRA to fix. The whole idea was to promote rifle practice. Over the next few decades and Harry waited. Gently into politics in the 1930s for instance when gangsters with Tommy guns were all over the news congress debated a bill called the firearms act. Which is widely known as the first Republican controlled now. NRA opposed it lobbying congress to take out any mention pistols and revolvers but they were willing to live with regulations on some machine guns and shot him. So by today's standards pretty let's fast forward to the 1960s. We have civil rights movement urban riots. Students protesting the Vietnam War are rising crime rates and a number of high profile patients from JFK. And knocking him. To many mainstream America there's just this feeling that violence was overtaking us I. So in 1968. When the black Panthers began to carry guns as an act of Civil Disobedience. It was a bridge too far for middle class especially white Americans. Bob makers across the country and liberals and conservatives alike began pushing for gun control the Republican party's national park even supported gun control. On tough on crime grounds and in California governor Ronald Reagan led to gotten on charts. But there reaction must act. Gun owners and especially rural conservatives are ready alienated by rap and cultural shifts began to worry. Was the government coming for their hands. So they began mobilizing. Lobby him and joining me and I. Between 1964 and 1980s and Aaron membership tripled. And 600000. To nearly two million and its coffers exploded with near Dix and an hour is old guard. They still a lot of Danner and shooting clan. It was a weird time in 1977. New and banner it was extremely heartened about opposing all gun control. I am against the kind of gun control that is being talked in the congress of the United States. I see it is only something that would make it difficult for an honest citizen to own a gun but would do nothing at all to impede the criminal in his getting it done. And in 1980 endorse its first presidential campaign. Ronald Reagan. In the 1990s to gun control laws are passed. But they were relatively limited in scope and Celtics back. Since the Brady bill passed 250000. Felons fugitives. And mentally unstable persons have been stopped from purchasing. Handguns. And then in the early 2000 an hour I really began hitting extract from my cold dead. It rolled out its rating system issuing a plus a politician's most in line. And passed. Those favorite song voters take that system seriously. The right grade makes or breaks a politician's career a few years later and two dozen names in one huge Supreme Court case. Finding that the Second Amendment guaranteed private individuals. And not just a well regulated militia. A constitutional right. 2016. And IRAs and 419. Million dollars on political campaigns and more than. Thirty. On Donald Trump alone. There's no bigger fan of the Second Amendment a mean there's no bigger fan of the NRA it also endorsed front earlier than it had endorsed. Any presidential contender ever. I'm officially announcing the NRA's endorsement. Of Donald Trump for president. Okay. Today and I RA is nearly any master at the top of the political power but is also facing green and new talents. Furious. Teenagers. On you in the name of seventeen people you can now. The entire aid to keep their money out of your campaign after mass shooting in Parkland Florida. Young people have been staging walk outs and coat Tass and demanding exactly the kind of control. The NRA has spent the last few years I. And on many of the students can't even vote. In a few years and Aaron may have more to worry about it. 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