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NRA Donates $50 to Sen. Tammy Duckworth, But Not That NRA

The National Rifle Association did not donate $50 to Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the Illinois lawmaker says.

An employee of the National Restaurant Association, however, did.

The Democrat and combat-wounded Army veteran recently signed gun control legislation that would ban AR-15s and bumpstock mechanisms that can mimic fully-automatic fire. She posted on Twitter late last month clarifying the “NRA” donation.

“It is not true that I received a $50 donation from the NRA,” she wrote. “I received a donation from an employee of the National RESTAURANT Association, not the National Rifle Association.”

The tweet links to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks financial contributions to the campaigns of elected officials.

Sarah Bryner, a spokesperson for Open Secrets, told NBC 5 the “NRA” donation to Duckworth’s campaign was only briefly attributed to the National Rifle Association before it was corrected on the website.

“An individual brought the tweet to our attention a few weeks ago, we verified that the employer of that donor was indeed the National Restaurant Association, and we corrected the record,” Bryner said. “If you follow the link in the Senator's tweet, you will see that she is no longer reported as having received any money that cycle from the National Rights Association, or gun rights interest groups more broadly.”

Mollie O'Dell, vice president of communications for the Chicago-based National Restaurant Association said the confusion isn't as common as one might think.

"No, this confusion does not happen often," she said.

The National Rifle Association, no stranger to scrutiny or controversy, has again taken center stage in the national dialogue after a deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. The NRA, which makes contributions to the campaigns of many lawmakers often decried for not doing enough to prevent gun violence, stood by its rigid defense of the Second Amendment.

“The NRA supports efforts to prevent those who are a danger to themselves or others from getting access to firearms,” the gun rights organization recently said in a statement on its website. “At the same time, we will continue to oppose gun control measures that only serve to punish law-abiding citizens. These are not mutually exclusive or unachievable goals.”

The National Rifle Association did not immediately respond NBC 5’s request for comment on the campaign contribution confusion Wednesday afternoon.

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