Gun-rights groups far outspend opponents in Congressional races
WASHINGTON – Gun-rights groups spent twice as much money as gun-control advocates to elect their friends and defeat their enemies in the last congressional campaigns, according to federal campaign reports.
The margin came even though gun-control supporters were aided by tens of millions from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. That helped gun-control groups to boost their spending in federal races by 84 times from levels two years earlier, according to data compiled by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The disparity points to a stranglehold that Democrats such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren say the National Rifle Association has over a Republican-controlled Congress. That influence, gun-control groups contend, led to President Barack Obama’s executive order last week tightening background checks on gun sales.
Unable to get gun-control measures through Congress, Obama had no choice but to act alone, said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
Gun-rights groups “have made many lawmakers beholden to them just through fear and threats,” Watts said in an interview.
But Second-Amendment advocates scoffed at the notion that money has blocked gun-control legislation.
“What Sen. Warren doesn’t understand is that the NRA doesn’t have a stranglehold over anybody. The American people support gun-rights over gun-control. That’s why Congress hasn’t chosen to pass more gun-control laws,” said NRA spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen.
An October poll by CNN/ORC International found 52 percent of Americans oppose stricter gun control, Mortensen noted, versus 46 percent who support more laws.
A poll in July by the Pew Research Center, however, found 85 percent support for requiring background checks in private gun sales and at gun shows.
Sen. James Lanford, R-Oklahoma, a top recipient of money from gun-rights groups in 2014 and an NRA member, said in a statement that he isn’t coerced by the group.
“The NRA doesn’t try to force people to vote with them, instead they support candidates that are already committed to the Second-Amendment rights of all law-abiding citizens,” he said.
Two years ago, gun-control groups including Everytown for Gun Safety, of which Moms Demand Action is a member, gave $423,750 to pro-gun control candidates.
The brunt of gun-control money in that year’s races did not come in direct contributions to candidates, but in the $13.8 million spent by groups themselves to influence elections.
The Independence USA PAC, funded with $17 million in money from Bloomberg, spent $5.6 million in that year’s elections.
Americans for Responsible Solutions, founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, the victim of a 2011 shooting, spent $8.2 million. That included $1.8 million spent on an unsuccessful bid to defeat Rep. Martha McSally, R-Arizona.
Gun-rights groups, however, gave three times as much to candidates. The National Rifle Association alone spent $31 million.
Of $1.4 million in direct contributions to candidates by gun-rights groups, top recipients included Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who received $65,225. A Cornyn aide said the senator favors dealing with gun violence by improving mental health services instead of strengthening gun restrictions.
The top recipient of money from gun-control groups, in comparison, was Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, who got $2,500. That would not have put him in the NRA’s Top 20 recipients.
Gun-rights groups also devoted $27 million to outside ads backing or targeting candidates – twice as much as the gun control groups spent.
The disparity seems to be shaping up for the 2016 elections, as well. While full figures for last year won’t be available until later this month, thus far gun-rights groups have given $806,409 to candidates, compared to $300 by gun-control groups.
Watts said the disparity exists in part because the country’s leading gun-rights group, the NRA, can raise more money from its 5 million members. At 145 years old, it is more established.
She said her group, Moms Demand Action, has grown to 3.5 million members since it was started in 2012 after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which killed 20 children and six teachers.
Watts predicted her group will catch up with the aging NRA in the next few years.
A 2014 Pew study found 40 percent of people over age 50 own firearms. In comparison, about one-third of those 30- to 49-year-olds own guns, and about one-quarter of those from ages 18 to 29 do.
But Mortensen said demographics are on the NRA’s side, especially among women. She cited a survey of firearms retailers by the National Shooting Sports Foundation that found women to be fastest growing segment of gun-buyers.
Aside from the NRA’s larger membership, the spending advantage by gun-rights groups at the federal level may reflect a strategic decision by gun-control groups to focus on statehouses, said Watts.
After the Senate rejected a 2013 background-check bill, she said, “we realized how intractable Congress is, not only on guns but a lot of issues.”
Gun-control groups have won background-check requirements in six states since the Newtown shootings, she said.
Tallies on how much gun-rights and gun-control groups spend on state elections were unavailable. But Mortenson said gun-control groups have been outspent at times.
She cited two Virginia legislative elections last year in which Everytown for Gun Safety spent $2.3 million on behalf of two candidates, one of whom won.
The NRA spent $135,000 in the races, according to state records.
Compared to the money that Bloomberg is spending nationally and locally, Mortensen said of the NRA, “We’re the small potatoes.”
Kery Murakami is the Washington, D.C., reporter for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at kmurakami@cnhi.com