A massacre at a Texas elementary school has once again drawn attention to the powerful gun lobby in the United States, with Democratic officials blaming Republican lawmakers for staying in debt with influential gun interests that, according to its proponents, they have stopped national arms reforms.
Speaking hours after an 18-year-old gunman robbed Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers Tuesday, President Joe Biden asked: “When, in the name of God, will we face the weapons lobby? ”
Former President Barack Obama, who was in charge when a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, said the U.S. “is paralyzed, not by fear, but by an arms lobby and a political policy “. a party that has not been willing to act in any way that will help prevent these tragedies. “
Meanwhile, Democratic Speaker of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, tweeted, “Children are dying and we could do something about it. But the GOP will not resist the gun lobby.”
The Robb Elementary shooting in Texas is a horror.
My heart aches for the families devastated by this tragedy and for the Uvalde community.
The kids are dying and we could do something about it. But the GOP will not resist the gun lobby.
Shameless self-promotion for Ballistic Products and a great bargain on a neat little knife for you.
– Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) May 24, 2022
What is the US ‘arms lobby’?
The so-called gun lobby in the U.S. is a broad term that encompasses efforts to influence state and federal gun policy, generally supporting candidates who have pledged to oppose gun control measures. .
It includes direct contributions to legislators, efforts to independently support elected officials, and campaigns to influence public opinion on gun-related issues. This kind of pressure is often carefully calibrated to navigate U.S. election finance laws.
Various investigations have shown that the main pressure groups against gun control, most notably the National Rifle Association (NRA), have close ties to the multimillion-dollar firearms industry in the United States.
The NRA and similar groups often stand up as civil rights defenders, pointing to the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which establishes “the right of the people to bear and bear arms.”
Meanwhile, arms control groups such as the Giffords organization, founded by former U.S. Congresswoman and victim of armed violence Gabby Giffords, accuse NRA pressure groups of being motivated solely by the goal of “sell more weapons and occupy the results of the arms lobby executives.”
Proponents of arms control have long blamed the power of the lobby for the lack of federal arms control measures approved in the United States in recent years, despite a series of prominent mass shootings and a recent increase in incidents of active shooters.
Gun control advocates also blame pressure groups to help loosen gun restrictions on Republican-dominated state legislatures across the country.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, as well as former U.S. President Donald Trump, will speak later this week at a meeting in Texas hosted by the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. the self-proclaimed “lobby” arm of the organization. .
What influence does the ‘gun lobby’ have?
It is difficult to quantify the influence of the constellation of gun lobby groups, which provide both a political cache and millions of dollars in direct support to candidates from across the country. The NRA, which has struggled financially in recent years, has long maintained a rating system for politicians and ran advertising campaigns in support of its interests.
From 1998 to 2020, pro-arms groups paid $ 171.9 million under pressure to directly affect the legislation, according to OpenSecrets, a non-profit organization that tracks spending on U.S. policy. Since 1998, only the NRA has paid $ 63,857,564 in this category.
Meanwhile, pro-arms groups have paid a whopping $ 155.1 million over a 10-year period from 2010 to 2020 with so-called external spending, according to OpenSecrets. Since 2000, the NRA has paid more than $ 140 million in this spending, which includes all spending that supports, but is not directly coordinated with, a candidate.
As a nation, we must ask ourselves: when, in the name of God, will we face the gun lobby?
When in God’s name will we do what needs to be done?
I’m sick and tired. We have to act.
– President Biden (@POTUS) May 25, 2022
Unlike direct contributions to candidates, there is no limit to external spending for corporations and nonprofits following the 2010 Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v FEC.
In 2016, the NRA spent $ 50 million on external spending in support of Trump and six Republican candidates in the Senate.
The money claimed that one in 20 television commercials aired in October 2016 in the influential state of Pennsylvania was sponsored by the NRA, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity. In North Carolina, one in nine ads was sponsored by the NRA that month, while in Ohio, one in eight ads boosted the group’s interest in guns.
The NRA’s overall spending increased $ 100 million in 2016 from the previous year, with “no politician benefiting more” than Trump, OpenSecrets reported.
Trump has repeatedly promised to support gun rights, in 2017 he told the NRA “Never, never will I let you down.”
According to OpenSecrets, pro-arms organizations have also paid a total of $ 54.4 million in direct contributions to the campaign, a category subject to donation restrictions, from 1990 to 2020. Contributions in recent years have been almost entirely to Republicans.
The top recipients so far in 2022 in the U.S. Congress were Republican Senators Rand Paul and John Kennedy, who each received more than $ 38,000 from pro-gun groups, according to OpenSecrets. U.S. House of Representatives minority whip Steve Scalise received $ 25,610 from pro-gun groups during that period.
In 2018, during his re-election candidacy, Texas Senator Cruz Cruz received $ 311,151 in direct contributions from pro-gun groups.
In 2020, vulnerable Republican Senators Martha McSally, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler received more than $ 516,000, $ 307,000 and $ 298,000 from pro-gun groups, respectively, according to OpenSecrets.
How powerful is the ‘gun control lobby’?
Efforts to legislate gun control at the federal level have advanced shortly after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, but advocates have noted a growing arms control movement that they say could bring about change.
That move was “essentially non-existent” in 2013, when efforts to expand federal background checks required for gun sales failed in the U.S., said Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy. in the New York Times in mid-May.
“It’s all a matter of political power and political muscle, and we’re in the process of building our own,” he told the newspaper.
Meanwhile, the gun control lobby, while still small for gun movements, has grown since 2013, led by groups such as Giffords, Everytown for Gun Safety, backed by Mike Bloomberg, and Sandy Hook. Promise.
Overall annual lobbying spending by gun control advocates rose from $ 250,000 in 2012 to $ 2.2 million in 2013.
In 2021, gun control groups spent $ 2.9 million lobbying.