Wayne LaPierre touted an NRA school safety program after Uvalde. Here's how much the NRA really spent on it.
The NRA devoted less than one percent of its revenue between 2014 and 2019 to a program called School Shield that NRA head Wayne LaPierre touted after Uvalde.
Days after a gunman murdered 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, National Rifle Association CEO Wayne La Pierre highlighted his organization’s efforts to bolster security at schools. He described schoolchildren as “our most treasured and precious resource” who deserve safety and protection.
“That’s why the NRA launched our School Shield program, to help promote and fund the necessary security that every school child needs and deserves,” LaPierre said at the NRA convention in Houston on May 27.
But in reality, the NRA has devoted only a fraction of its budget to protecting schools. The total amount of NRA funds given to schools to improve security since the program began in 2014 is less than $2 million, or .08 percent of the $2.2 billion in revenue the NRA and its associated foundation have raised in the same timeframe, from 2014 to 2019, according to an NBC News review of charitable tax filings and information from the Second Amendment organization.
Demonstrators protest annual NRA meeting in aftermath of Uvalde school massacreMay 27, 202201:44The NRA has not granted any money to schools to increase safety since 2019 due to the pandemic, according to NRA spokesperson Andrew Arulanandam. Since then, the NRA’s website for School Shield grant information has remained dormant, encouraging schools that need funding to submit email addresses for future grant program updates. According to an NRA adjunct instructor, the School Shield office was shut down in March 2020 and all three of its employees were “furloughed.” Grant and training activity has not resumed.
A voicemail left on the 1-800 number for School Shield inquiring about funding opportunities on June 2 was not returned.
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