As Congress grapples with the measures the White House today proposed to combat gun violence--including a ban on assault weapons, strengthing background check laws, and enhancing mental health services--there will be dozens of gun rights lobbyists at the ready, most of them paid by the National Rifle Association. Many have been through Washington's revolving door.
In 2012, gun rights groups hired ten outside lobbying firms to help bolster their reach, according to Influence Explorer. Over all, 42 lobbyists, of whom at least more than half are revolvers, including one former member of Congress, helped spread gun rights' groups message ...
Continue readingNRA fights campaign finance reform, disclosure
On a March morning in 2002, the ink of President George W. Bush's signature on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill hardly had a chance to dry before the attorneys for the National Rifle Association filed the paperwork for a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law.
In fact the NRA's lawyers were so quick on the draw that the group beat the law’s strongest congressional opponent, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to court. Because it filed first, the NRA had earned the naming rights to the high profile case. However, the NRA, which had backed McConnell, himself ...
Continue readingNew anti-gun ads running in areas that have seen mass shootings
As Vice President Joe Biden convenes a meeting of anti-gun groups today, some of them appear to be ginning up an ad campaign to demand greater regulation of firearms following last month's mass shooting of schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn.
Continue readingMost regulations get little attention
Anyone can comment on federal regulations but few -- outside the regulated industries and entities -- do.
Continue readingFeds mull looser regs on armor-piercing bullets as Obama calls for end to gun violence
The federal agency that regulates guns is considering requests for an exemption to the ban on armor-piercing bullets.
Continue readingOn one gun regulation, NRA only group to weigh in
In the world of firearm regulatory efforts, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has the loudest megaphone--and sometimes the only one.
The NRA was the sole organization to comment on a regulation issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in June that lifted a 90-day residency requirement for immigrants living in the U.S. who want to obtain firearms.
On August 30, the NRA/Institute for Legislative Action's office of legislative counsel wrote this letter--available on Sunlight's regulatory search tool in development, Docket Wrench--supporting the agency's decision to lift the requirement, which ...
Continue readingGun lobby active in regulation writing process
In addition to spending heavily on elections and lobbying Congress, the gun lobby is also quite active in the rulemaking process, federal dockets show. The National Rifle Association, other pro-gun groups and their members weighing in frequently on federal regulation covering issues ranging from wildlife to concealed weapons to air travel. Gun control groups and advocates have also participated, although it appears less frequently.
This profile of NRA activity in federal regulations, from the Sunlight's Docket Wrench tool in development, shows efforts concentrated largely on hunting and other regulations administered by the Fish and Wldlife Service (FWS). However the ...
Continue readingNew Senate money man Michael Bennet has had fast rise to power
In appointing Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet as the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee the party will be getting a representative from a crucial western swing state whose 2010 election served as a model for President Barack Obama forging his winning campaign strategy.
Bennet first entered the Senate in 2009 as an appointee after then-Sen. Ken Salazar left Congress to serve as President Obama's secretary of the Interior. Plucked from his job as superintendent of Denver Public Schools, Bennet had never held elected office. But he went on to narrowly win a hotly contested race against GOP challenger ...
Continue readingHappy Thanksgiving! How much did your tax dollars underwrite the feast?
Nearly 400 years ago, at the very first Thanksgiving in the Plymouth Colony, Native Americans and pilgrims dined together on a meal of deer, corn, shellfish, and roasted meat. There was no such thing as crop insurance, sugar price supports, dairy subsidies, conservation easements, food stamps, or any other feature of the massive farm bill governing the nation's food policy, which expired on September 30.
Of course there was no such thing as the U.S. Congress either, which stalled on the farm bill last summer. In this country, food is a political issue, and where there is politics ...
Continue readingTobacco fueled ads helped tobacco foe Waxman win reelection
In a case of particularly odd political bedfellows, in late September the tobacco manufacturer the Liggett Group and several company executives, including the CEO, contributed more than $33,000 to a pop-up super PAC that would go on to help the candidacy of just one candidate: Rep. Henry Waxman, arguably tobacco's biggest foe in Congress.
The super PAC, the Committee for an Effective and Trusted Congressman, was formed in August and bought $100,000 worth of radio ads to support the California Democrat, who made a national reputation for his anti-tobacco crusades, beginning in the 1990s and continuing to ...
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