Since the horrific gun-related massacres at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas and Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, some country artists have started to rethink their loyalty to the NRA. These 37, however, have doubled down on their support — and remain recipients of NRA funds.
Country music’s die-hard allegiance to the NRA is starting to get tricky. But as adamant as NRA opponents have grown, some country artists are doubling down on their allegiance to the organization. In fact, many are likely strengthening their pro-gun fanbases in the process.
The list of NRA supporters no longer includes the likes of Caleb Keeter, guitarist for the Josh Abbott Band. Keeter, a longtime gun rights advocate, reversed his position after surviving the Route 91 Harvest massacre last year.
“I’ve been a proponent of the 2nd amendment my entire life. Until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was.”
– Caleb Keeter.
The Route 91 Harvest — a country music festival with a solidly pro-gun audience — was the scene of a the worst massacre in U.S. history involving an active shooter. Yet the event did little to shift thinking amongst country artists on gun control. In fact, almost all of the artists that were publicly sponsored by the NRA immediately before the Las Vegas shooting have remained publicly loyal to the organization.
As part of the NRA’s community outreach efforts, the organization sponsors and supports a significant group of country artists. The demographic match makes sense, and artists need the money. Accordingly, on the NRA website, a total of 37 country artists are publicly listed as NRA advocates.
Since the Vegas massacre, only one name has been removed from that list: Frankie Ballard.
But as quickly as Ballard dropped out, another artist moved in. Accordingly, the Ballard was quickly replaced by another country talent, Drew Baldridge. Which means that since the monstrous events in both Vegas and Florida, the number of country artists publicly campaigning for the gun rights organization has remained the same.
Here are the 37 country artists that publicly endorse the NRA, and receive funding from the group.
The group of artists is proudly listed on the organization’s site, many posing with guns and NRA hats.
- Trace Adkins
- Rodney Atkins
- Frankie Ballard
Drew Baldridge (new) - Lee Brice
- The Swon Brothers
- Craig Campbell
- Luke Combs
- Easton Corbin
- Tyler Farr
- Colt Ford
- Kevin Fowler
- Lucas Hoge
- Angie Johnson
- Aaron Lewis
- LoCash
- Love and Theft
- Montgomery Gentry
- Justin Moore=
- Craig Morgan
- Heidi Newfield
- Jon Pardi
- Eric Paslay
- Michael Ray
- Chase Rice
- Pete Scobell
- Granger Smith
- Big SMO
- Blackberry Smoke
- Tate Stevens
- Sunny Sweeney
- Josh Thompson
- Storme Warren
- Aaron Watson
- Drake White
- Chuck Wicks
- Hank Williams
- Gretchen Wilson
For 200 years Americans have had guns in their homes. Only in the last 30 have mass shootings increased. You can makes guns as illegal as you want, but it’s not going to unconditionally prevent someone from obtaining one. Let alone doing something else to enact their violence. There are more gun deaths in Brazil, where the laws for gun ownership are as severe as you may hope they are here.
But isn’t Brazil one of the shithole countries?
Projecting your racism much? If for 170 years Americans weren’t going through a mass shooting every other week, wouldn’t you want to find the reason why? And no, it’s not race/ethnicity/creed. Most mass shootings in the U.S. are the acts of white males.
But students need to learn how to protect themselves. Obviously they get an F when it comes to being armed.
So you’re saying I think students were armed for 170 years before 1978?
More gun deaths per capita? Brazil has nearly double the population of the US, and a much larger percentage living in poverty. These things matter.
Per Wikipedia, Brazil has a population of about 200,000,000. The U.S. has a population of about 300,000,000
And in the last 12 years since the assault rifle ban expired; the number of deaths attributed to use of assault rifles have skyrocketed. If you don’t think that having such easy and virtually unregulated access to AR 15 like guns and 30 round mags doesn’t significanly contribute to kill ratios….then you’re in denial.
Your 200 year analogy is red herring bullshit.
Semi-automatic weapons have existed for nearly 100 years. Revolvers have existed even longer. Mass shootings did not occur at any rate comparable to post-1970 numbers. The assault rifle is your red herring.
Why aren’t civilians allowed to buy bazookas?
I mean, c’mon. How fun would it be for responsible arms owners to blow shit up on their farms. Buy one and get a free army helmet!
Are you even interested in saving lives? If semi-automatic weapons and revolvers have existed for +100 years without the modern rate of incidence in massacres, you would know legally banning them (which doesn’t remove availability, e.g., guns in Chicago, Brazil, drugs, etc.) won’t make anything better.
100 years ago could you buy a semi automatic weapon at Walmart? Anyway, why does it matter what happened 100 years ago? I’m happy mass murders happened less frequently then, but I’m more concerned with today and the fact that an unbalanced human being can obtain a semi-automatic weapon and shoot up a school. Why does that not bother you?
I honestly don’t understand why it’s such a big deal to make it more difficult to obtain such dangerous weapons. Anyone that is concerned about stricter gun laws stopping them from obtaining guns, are probably the psychos that shouldn’t own guns in the first place because sane, law-abiding gun owners would still keep their second amendment right with stricter gun laws enforced.
I also don’t understand how the the people supporting the NRA haven’t realized that they should be embarrassed. I would be humiliated if I supported an organization that manipulated me with scare tactics to increase their sales. Every time they insist that politicians are “taking away your guns”, their sales go through the roof, and yet, no guns have been taken…
Didn’t you already post this list recently?
Also listing Montgomery Gentry on this list isn’t accurate. Half of that duo isn’t alive anymore. Just come on and research a little before you post stuff online. I know you don’t have much credibility anymore, but you could at least try…
Please stay out of politics. I love this site and what you folks are doing here (I point my students to the website on a regular basis), but the left wing ranting needs to be tamed down.
-Jonathan Belec
Proud NRA Member, and Defender of Natural Rights
It’s so funny. People always tell us what articles we can and can’t write. That’s not ‘industry’ enough, not ‘tech’ ‘enough, too political, etc. Guess it’s a good sign, people are invested in our platform and get emotional about it. Just a funny result though.
I wonder how many country artists take money from groups that lobby for liberal interests like abortion rights, open boarders, etc.? I don’t see you calling them out with politically charged rhetoric. Write what you want, but don’t complain about loosing readership over bias reporting.