Gun lobby money doesn’t compare

By John Hill, Las Vegas

A recent New York Times editorial noted that the gun industry has “reaped an estimated $1 billion over the past decade from sales of AR-15-style rifles.”

While this sounds impressive, compare it to $205.5 billion in sales of iPhones in 2022 alone. An argument can be made that iPhones and other smartphones, with their associated social media apps, have had a significantly bigger impact on American culture than the AR-15.

The editorial also noted that gun rights groups have donated $50.5 million to politicians from 1989 to 2020, mostly to Republicans. But this pales in comparison to the political contributions from teachers unions of $48 million for the 2021-22 election cycle alone — almost entirely to Democrats.

If groups advocating for their Second Amendment right are to be condemned, public employee unions who work to get friendly negotiators on both sides of the bargaining table should be eliminated