Will NRA Comments Cause More to Leave ALEC?

By: Jenée Desmond-Harris | Posted: December 21, 2012 at 8:42 PM

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(The Root) -- When the NRA advocated for more guns in schools during a Friday press conference responding to the recent Newtown, Conn., school shootings, ColorOfChange.org's Rashad Robinson called it the organization's "latest attempt to profit from tragedy, death and suffering."

But, he told The Root, the NRA doesn't do its work alone. He linked the gun-rights organization to the American Legislative Exchange Council, which recently lost more than 40 member companies because of its role in crafting voter-suppression laws and anti-immigration laws like Arizona's SB 1070.

Despite that setback, Robinson says, ALEC is still "fueled by major corporations" and "has moved NRA's legislation through statehouses around the country." In an earlier statement, ColorOfChange.org said:

ALEC and the NRA create and push laws that make it easy for people to get high-powered assault weapons like the ones used in Newtown and so many of the tragic mass shootings that have plagued our nation. The NRA still plays a key role in crafting ALEC's model gun-access legislation and these laws destroy families and erode public safety, putting us all in harm's way.

Watch this Democracy Now segment on the two organizations. Could more ALEC departures be on the way?

Read more at Democracy Now.

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