![]() ![]() In a CNN/SSRS poll released days after the Florida shooting, 70% of people questioned supported stricter gun laws - the largest share since 1993. If that has changed in recent days, it mirrors a shift in the views of voters. “Republicans are so concerned that the NRA will put up money to primary them that the thought of supporting gun control legislation is almost unheard of.” “The NRA is about fear and stifling progress,” Sullivan said. ![]() Not a single Republican supported the legislation.Īfter Tom Sullivan lost a son, Alex, who was killed on his 27th birthday in the Aurora theater shooting, he gained a singular focus: The country needed stricter gun laws and the NRA was in the way. In Colorado, the then-Democratic-controlled Legislature passed bills requiring universal background checks to buy guns, and limits on ammunition magazines. In 2012, after mass shootings at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., various proposals - such as requiring more thorough background checks - lost traction in Congress because of a lack of Republican support.īut soon after, several blue or purple states, including Colorado, California, Connecticut and Maryland, passed some of the strictest gun laws in the country. history have happened since 2007 - the NRA has remained mostly steadfast in its opposition to any gun control legislation. In the weeks since a gunman killed 17 people at a South Florida high school, some Republicans - including, at least briefly, President Trump - have broken ranks with the gun rights group to support modest gun control legislation, such as raising the age limit for buying assault weapons and banning so-called bump stocks, which turn semiautomatic weapons into something close to machine guns.īut despite a surge in mass shootings - seven of the deadliest in modern U.S. LaPierre didn’t explicitly identify “they,” but the message was clear. “The first to go will be the 2nd Amendment.” “If they seize power … our American freedoms could be lost and our country will be changed forever,” he said. ![]() The chief executive of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, seemed to be worried about the former scenario when he spoke last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference. A change in power in Congress, or defections by Republicans, could leave the group on the outside. One question now is whether the NRA’s shift in contribution patterns poses a long-term threat to the group’s power. The NRA did not respond to a request for comment about its political spending. ![]()
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