Anti-Gun Group Surrounds Indianapolis With $100,000 Ad Campaign As NRA Convention Starts

Everytown for Gun Safety, an anti-gun organization financed by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, is spending $100,000 in advertising around Indianapolis to attack the NRA during the gun-rights group’s annual convention, which starts Friday.

The campaign reportedly includes messaging on digital billboards along I-70 between the Indianapolis airport and the convention center. In addition, a mobile truck billboard will also circle the convention center, the IndyStar will be running full-page ads in its print edition each day of the convention, and digital ads will appear on Facebook, according to the group’s statement.

The creative, called “NRA in Crisis,” pushes findings from a report that claimed to have uncovered shady financial dealings by NRA management. “The NRA is becoming more fringe and more toxic to the Americans it has long claimed to represent.” Everytown has also challenged the NRA’s tax-exempt status in a complaint filed with the IRS mid-April.

“In public, NRA executives push members to support an extreme ‘guns everywhere’ agenda — but in private, their top priority seems to be lining their own pockets,” Everytown president John Feinblatt said in a statement. “The NRA isn’t really a gun rights group anymore.”

The NRA did not immediately return The DCNF’s request for comment.

President Trump is scheduled to deliver the keynote address Friday at the NRA’s Leadership Forum. He is expected to appear along with Vice President Mike Pence. This will be the third year Trump has addressed the convention during his presidency. The NRA reportedly spend $30 million to support Trump’s 2016 campaign.