The gun control fight has started. Could turmoil at the NRA be a game-changer?

After each mass shooting in America, the nation relives a near-scripted clash: calls for stricter gun laws, pushback from pro-gun activists led by the National Rifle Association, and an ultimate impasse.

But this time — following seven days that left at least 35 people dead in shootings in Gilroy, California; El Paso, Texas; and Dayton, Ohio — one side of that power struggle appears to have shifted.

The NRA is busy managing another crisis: Its own.

For months the organization has weathered a series of public spectacles stemming from both infighting and outside scrutiny. Most recently, in the middle of last week’s mass shootings, three members of the NRA board resigned, citing concerns over irresponsible spending by the organization’s leaders.

The NRA’s opponents see the chaos as a vulnerability, something not lost on supporters who have grown frustrated with the national organization.

“Those of us who are plugged into this, who are living it, are wondering why this is happening and why it seemingly isn't being fixed,” said Mark Walters, an NRA member and host of the syndicated Armed American Radio. “[Especially] at a time it is so important that we have a strong National Rifle Association coming into 2020, in particular on the heels of this mess with California, El Paso, and Dayton.”

A spokesman for the NRA did not respond to a request to interview Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre, instead providing a statement that touted “a string of recent victories” under the NRA’s new political team.

“With many in the media writing the obituary of the NRA, we are scoring big wins in the legislative, legal, and public policy arenas,” Andrew Arulanandam wrote.

The NRA’s opponents see them as putting on a good face.

“I've never seen them weaker,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a national advocacy group. “I think that they have been very much sidelined.”

As proof, he pointed to the fact that gun control groups outspent gun rights groups in the 2018 midterm elections. The gun control lobby spent about $12.1 million to the gun rights’ $10 million ($8.2 million of that coming from the NRA), according to numbers compiled by Open Secrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks lobbying and election spending.

And that, he said, was all “before the five-alarm fire.”

The turmoil in the NRA has been unfolding for months.

The group began the year by downplaying its relationship with Maria Butina, a Russian agent later convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison for trying to infiltrate political organizations on behalf of the Kremlin. Butina had become cozy with the group, including helping to host a delegation of NRA insiders in Moscow in 2015. McClatchy has reported that the Justice Department is investigating whether one of her associates, former Russian official and NRA member Alexander Torshin, illegally moved Russian money through the group to back President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Then in April, the organization’s president, Oliver North, was forced out after raising concerns about the group’s finances and amid allegations that he had attempted to engineer the removal of LaPierre. LaPierre, who accused North of extortion, is now facing increased pressure to resign, including from deep-pocketed donors concerned about the ongoing strife, the New York Times has reported. The palace intrigue continued in June when the group ousted its longtime top lobbyist, Chris Cox, saying he also engineered the attempted coup against LaPierre.

The New York Attorney General's Office also is investigating the organization’s tax-exempt status. And the District of Columbia attorney general has another probe into the organization and its charitable foundation.

Even with public pressure from the recent mass shootings, many watching the debate are skeptical that the NRA’s troubles will dramatically move the needle on gun control legislation. Congress has failed to pass broad reform for decades. And Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has thus far ignored Democrats’ calls for a special vote over the summer recess to consider gun measures.

Some Republican lawmakers have signaled a willingness to consider “red-flag” legislation that would allow law enforcement, family members and other concerned individuals to ask a judge to confiscate guns from those who may be a danger to themselves or others. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C., this week said he planned to introduce a bill that would create a federal grant program to encourage states to pass such laws.

Trump in remarks at the White House on Sunday backed the idea of red-flag laws, while blaming violent video games and mental illness as causes of mass shootings. On Wednesday, the president said he is also considering tougher background checks for gun buyers, calling such checks “important.”

The NRA praised the president’s Sunday call to address “the root causes” of violence and said the organization believes anyone “adjudicated as a danger to themselves or others should not have access to firearms.”

Lawmakers considering new gun measures know that how they vote will influence whether the NRA endorses them — one of the most powerful tools at the organization's disposal, said Adam Winkler, a professor at the UCLA School of Law and author of "Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America."

“The threat is always there and I think that is enough to sway a lot of lawmakers,” he said. “But we’ll have to see how it plays out. I think the NRA is going through remarkable internal strife right now.”

Harry L. Wilson, a political scientist at Roanoke University who focuses on gun control,said he doubts the NRA’s troubles will have much impact on the current legislative debate. In the short term, he said, there’s “nothing the NRA honestly needs to do.”

“The sides are pretty firmly dug in, I think, legislatively,” he said. “Most elected officials are representing districts that are pretty firmly Democrat or pretty firmly Republican and they're not going to change their positions because there's no incentive for them to change their positions.”

The majority of NRA members, also, won’t be swayed by the national strife, according to Jerry Henry, executive director of gun-rights group Georgia Carry.

“A lot of people belong to organizations just to say they belong to them. ... That’s what the majority of basically what all NRA members are,” said Henry, who has been a member for more than five decades. “They just follow it because they know that it can help them. They know it’s not going to hurt them, and they know they can get hurt without organizations like the NRA.”

Wilson said the impact of the NRA’s infighting could be more dramatic down the line if the problems persist and discourage donations. He said while it’s impossible to know how much money the organization has lost due to the crisis, “it has to be having an impact on fundraising.” Walters, the radio show host, said the same, noting that many of his callers have vowed to not donate to the NRA until LaPierre resigns, something Walters has publicly called for.

Some former NRA supporters appear to be taking their money elsewhere. Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, said he’s seen at least a 20 percent increase in donations and memberships since April, likely a combination of those disenfranchised by the NRA and those motivated by seeing “20 plus Democratic candidates for president out there attacking gun rights every single day.”

“They play into each other,” he said. “One, the Democratic candidates screaming for gun control creates the threat. And two, people can't necessarily count on the NRA to be there to solve all the problems for them.”

Gottlieb said his organization is trying to “fill up some of the gaps” created by the NRA’s turmoil, not just legislatively but looking ahead to the 2020 general election.

Activists in battleground states are watching the national organization’s strife closely.

Shira Goodman, executive director of the nonprofit CeaseFire PA, said she hopes the “the lawsuits, the turmoil, the internal dissension, the attempted coups” will damage the NRA’s brand. Over time, she said, that could weaken the group’s own support and strengthen the other side by motivating those who had viewed the NRA as unbeatable. “Having a belief that you will ultimately prevail is critical,” she said.

She and others stressed, though, that the NRA still has its biggest asset: single-issue, pro-gun voters it can mobilize in an election.

“Those people will take the NRA voting guide to the polls,” Goodman said. “And that is not going to disappear overnight.”

Reporters Mark Nichols, Kevin Crowe and Richard Wolf contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: El Paso and Dayton shootings: Will weaker NRA open door to gun control