As the debate over President Barack Obama's proposed gun legislation heats up on Capitol Hill, gun control advocates have a potential ace in the hole: Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., the victim of a horrific incident of gun violence that interrupted a once-promising political career, is about to become eligible to lobby.
For Giffords, tomorrow marks the end of the official one-year "cooling off" period that former House members face when they leave office before they can lobby their former colleagues, according to Sunlight's post-employment lobbying tracker. Should she wish, she will be permitted to register as a ...
Continue readingNRA gives more than $2 million to support politicians in Texas, New Mexico
During the past two decades, the National Rifle Association has contributed more than $2 million to support politicians in New Mexico and Texas, where the nation's latest outbreaks of gun violence occurred this week.
Both are among the majority of states that provide broad protections for gunowners privacy, according to information compiled by the Sunlight Foundation.
MORE: For data on the gun debate, see the Sunlight Foundation's resource page.
Data pulled from Influence Explorer, a Sunlight Foundation database that tabulates federal campaign contributions from the Center for Responsive Politics and state contributions from the National Institute of Money ...
Continue readingMajority of states prohibit access to gun records
(Updated 1/19 7:25 a.m.)
Following a New York newspaper's controversial decision to publish the names and address of local gun owners, state legislators are moving to make such information private, even as a Sunlight Foundation analysis shows that in a majority of states, the data are already off the public record.
Forty states plus the District of Columbia do not make data available about who owns a gun or has received a state permit to carry a gun, according to Sunlight's examination of state gun laws. There are ten states that do make data available ...
Continue readingWho are the gun lobbyists?
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 readingOn eve of big legislative battle, is gun lobby targeting kids?
If, as the old newsroom truism holds, it takes three to make a trend, then the National Rifle Association's much talked-about video, which juxtaposes a mention of President Barack Obama's daughters against a backdrop of menacing images of high-powered guns and people toting them, appears to be the latest manifestation of a bizarre new way that the gun lobby is choosing to engage its critics: by targeting their children.
School-age progeny of America's first families have generally been verboten topics in press coverage or political debate because of their age, vulnerability and the fact that -- unlike their ...
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 readingInfluence profile: NRA spokesman Asa Hutchinson
Asa Hutchinson, the former Republican congressman who will be the face of the National Rifle Association's response to last week's schoolhouse massacre, received more than $30,000 in contributions from the gun lobby during more than a decade of running for state and federal office, data downloaded from Sunlight's Influence Explorer shows.
The largest single donation, $4,950, came in February, 1997, just after Hutchinson entered the House. He served three terms before resigning in 2001 to become director of the Drug Enforcement Agency under then-President George W. Bush. Later, Hutchinson became a top-ranking official in the ...
Continue readingFive House members who got the most NRA money
As voices rise for more restrictions on the sale of assault weapons in the wake of the Newtown tragedy, the biggest looming obstacle may be the House, where the NRA has given generously to members of the GOP majority.
Continue readingNRA’s allegiances reach deep into Congress
Just over half (51 percent) of the members of the new Congress that convenes next month have received funding from the National Rifle Association’s political action committee at some point in their political careers, an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation finds. And 47 percent received money from the NRA in the most recent race in which they ran.
The numbers give insight into the depth and breadth of support that the nation’s most powerful gun lobby commands. They also highlight the primary obstacle to quick action on gun control in response to last week’s massacre in Newton, Conn. – deep and long-lasting allegiances to the National Rifle Association.
Gun Control and Gun Rights: Legislation, Policy and Influence
The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary has brought gun policy back to the forefront of our national conversation. As a nonpartisan, nonprofit Sunlight takes no stance on the issue, but we have put together a collection of resources looking at the legislation, policy and influence around gun rights and gun control, plus the groups and lawmakers involved. The Gun Lobby Sunlight Foundation Senior Fellow Lee Drutman reviews the political influence of the National Rifle Association and the leading gun control group, the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence. Read his full analysis in this blog post. Lee notes that when it comes to the debate on gun policy, Congress is pretty much only hearing from one side. The NRA spends 66 times what the Brady Campaign spends on lobbying, and 4,143 times what the Brady Campaign spends on campaign contributions. Since 2011, the NRA spent at least $24.28 million: $16.83 million through its political action committee, plus $7.45 million through its affiliated Institute for Legislative Action. According to Influence Explorer records, the Brady Campaign spent $5,800 this election cycle and reported $60,000 in lobbying costs.
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