The National Rifle Association is not a partisan organization. Its candidate rankings and endorsements are based not upon party affiliations but upon candidates’ records and statements concerning gun owners’ rights. The reason it may seem partisan is that so many Democrats nationwide have been so strongly in favor of gun control. The fact is that the NRA has endorsed and ranked highly many Democrats in its history.

This can be seen in the 2016 Kentucky state legislative races. According to the insert in the November 2016 issue of the NRA’s magazine America’s 1st Freedom, in 2016 the National Rifle Association gave an A rating to 57 Democrat candidates for the Kentucky state legislature, of whom they endorsed 43. By way of comparison, there were only three B, four C, five D, and two F rated Democrat candidates. (There were 14 Democrats whom the NRA rated with a question mark due to insufficient data.) On the Republican side, there were 85 A rated candidates (of whom they endorsed 52), four B, one C, one D, and zero F rated candidates. (There were 13 Republicans whom the NRA rated with a question mark due to insufficient data.) The Republican Party was overall better for gun owners, but not lopsidedly so. Gun owners enjoyed strong bipartisan support.  In fact, much of Kentucky’s legislation that is friendly to gun owners was passed when Democrats controlled the state legislature.