The recent school shooting in Oxford, Michigan that left three students dead and eight others injured has created a variety of complications for the Republican Party. A recent report from NRAWatch details how the organization is “broken and bankrupt” as a result of declining contributions, rampant economic mismanagement within the organization, and legal actions brought by New York State Attorney General Tish James.
In past years, the NRA has relied on a steady stream of mass shootings at schools and other locations, along with associated conspiracy theories about “false-flag operations” and “crisis actors” to scare gun owners into thinking that the Federal Government would soon be sending SWAT teams to their homes to seize their weapons and throw them into internment camps.
The NRA has a record of seeing a bump in contributions after every major mass shooting event. In 2016, the organization saw its revenues skyrocket following the Sandy Hook elementary shooting. In 2018, the organization broke a 15 year fundraising record, following the Parkland high-school shooting. Recently released tapes of a meeting of NRA leaders following the Columbine shooting shows an organization that’s anxious about how to navigate the political landscape, which regards its members as “lunatics” and “fruitcakes”, and which ultimately decided on a hardline stance characterized by their record of conspiracy theory mongering and anti-government rhetoric.
Given the recent decline in contributions, one may initially think that the shooting in Oxford, Michigan should be a lifeline for the NRA, but there are several complications with this case that make it difficult for the GOP to appear too jubilant. Jennifer Crumbley, the shooter’s mother, wrote a bizarre rambling letter praising former President Donald Trump, and during her arraignment along with her husband in a Michigan courtroom, her husband seemed openly contemptuous of the authority of the court, as demonstrated by him chuckling at several points through the proceeding, and laughing out loud when the prosecutor suggested the two may not return to court willingly. Given the NRAs own close ties to Trump, and the key role they played in getting him elected in 2016, open support of the Crumbley family may be regarded as public support of domestic terrorism and contempt for American law enforcement.
If Trump supporters decide to rally behind the Crumbley family the same way they rallied behind Kyle Rittenhouse, it would eliminate all doubt that the modern day GOP has devolved to the point of becoming a terrorist organization. There is simply no way that Republicans can claim they only represent the interests of “law abiding gun owners” if Trump supporters are openly rallying behind a school shooter and his parents who fled law enforcement, an act that would be interpreted by many Americans as advocacy for additional acts of mass murder.