Yet, for most of that period, the gun-control movement was disorganized and ineffective. Today, the landscape is changing. Campaigners have become more effective in pushing for gun-control measures, particularly at the local and state level: in Washington State last year, a referendum to expand background checks got almost sixty per cent of the vote. There are even signs that the N. These shifts, plus the fact that demographics are not in the N.
But, if so, that has yet to show up in the numbers. A Pew survey last December found that a majority of Americans thought protecting gun rights was more important than gun control. Fifteen years before, the same poll found that sixty-six per cent of Americans thought that gun control mattered more. And last year, despite all the new money and the grassroots campaigns, states passed more laws expanding gun rights than restricting them.
The NRA has money that it uses to help its favored candidates get elected. By choosing its battles wisely, the NRA has shown an ability to swing primary elections in favor of pro-gun candidates, Winkler said. That and its use of a relatively small number of highly motivated people to push an agenda that appears out of step with the general population, which, according to recent polling, is in favour of stricter gun laws. The year-old organization claims 5 million active members, although that number is disputed.
But whatever its actual size, that membership is a powerful tool, said Robert Spitzer, professor of crime, law and policy and gun control at the State University of New York at Cortland and the author of five books on guns. There are, however, problems on the horizon for the NRA. For one, the gun control lobby is growing. The issue for gun control advocates is that they have yet to develop as powerful a voice — or as deep contacts in Washington — as the gun lobby.
Even if the gun control groups gave the same amount of money to the same candidates, said Winkler, those candidates would not vote in favor of gun control. The truth is that gun control is not an area where money is leading politics, he said. But putting the money and its current influence aside, the NRA faces existential issues in the years ahead as its opposition grows.
By that measure, the NRA and its allies aren't just winning, they've been dominating for years. In the election cycle so far, gun rights groups, including the NRA, have outspent the competition more than 40 to 1.
Gun control groups? The sheer breadth of campaign support provided by the NRA alone over the years helps explain just how deeply the organization is engrained in the election universe. Among the current members of Congress in both the House and the Senate, have received either direct campaign contributions from the NRA and its affiliates or benefited from independent NRA spending like advertising supporting their campaigns. In fact, the data show that only six current Republican members of Congress have not received NRA contributions.
On the flip side, there are 24 Democratic members who have received support from the NRA. The top Democratic recipient is term Rep. On his website, Bishop says he "promotes the values and morals of Southwest Georgians," which he says include guns. Disparity in lobbying efforts as well.
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