The nation's largest gun-control political action committees raised just over $1.4 million in March, about 60 percent of the amount raised by the National Rifle Association's PAC.
The PACs for the Brady Campaign, Everytown for Gun Safety, and Giffords all brought in money from donors in March with varying degrees of success. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence Voter Education Fund raised $4,015 for the first quarter, according to a filing with the Federal Election Committee. In March, the Everytown For Gun Safety Action Fund, Inc. raised $13,580. And the Giffords PAC outpaced its ideological counterparts by raising $1,386,892.64 that month.
That amounts to $1,404,487.64 between the three groups. The NRA's Political Victory Fund raised $2,353,095.31—about 40 percent more than the combined total of the gun-control groups. The NRA PAC's total represents a record amount for the group.
The March numbers represent a retreat for the gun-control groups, which raised $2,172,968.67 in February. The opposite is true for the NRA PAC, which improved upon its February total of $779,063, itself a three-fold-increase over January.
The gun groups fundraising trends come in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and the subsequent push for new gun-control legislation. The March for Our Lives, a newly formed 501(c)(4) "social welfare" organization that doesn't have to disclose its donors in the same way PACs do, organized a protest in the nation's capital that called for new gun bans and other forms of gun control. States like Florida, Vermont, and Maryland—all with Republican governors—have passed new gun-control laws as well.
The gun-control groups did not spend much money compared with what they brought in during March. Giffords spent $46,5951.23 and Everytown spent $846.90 in March, and Brady only spent $468.76 in the first quarter. Similarly, the NRA's PAC only spent $105,130.06 in March.
The Political Action Committees are only part of each group's organizations. All four groups also have 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations.