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Key to passing possible new gun safety legislation is acknowledging the impediments to gun reform. The roadblocks that have allowed for mass shootings to continue, while elected officials have offered little more than thoughts and prayers. The gun industrial complex has disproportionately more money and influence than victims of gun violence, pouring $170 million into political activities since the Columbine massacre in 1999.
"A parade of special interests and guns manufacturers have showered lawmakers with more than a hundred million dollars in campaign cash, politicizing any conversation around gun reform and blocking progress,” noted Karen Goll, executive director of Moonlight Foundation. "Children across the country are scared to go to school because members of Congress are scared to turn down donations.”
An analysis conducted by Moonlight Foundation found the following points to better understand the gun lobby’s influence on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The data was gathered from Federal Election Commission Data, which can also be found in the data sheets linked below.
The Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have received about $140,650 in direct campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association (NRA), while the Democrats on the committee have received only received $1,000, according to a review of campaign finance records.
Since the Columbine high school massacre in 1999, the National Rifle Association has spent about $170 million on federal political campaigns through direct campaign contributions to lawmakers and their PACs and through donations through the NRA’s Super PAC. These numbers include presidential campaigns This averages to about $7.7 million on political campaigning a year.
Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) has received more than $24,000 from the NRA Political PAC, nearly 20 percent of the NRA’s contributions to members of the Committee, averaging nearly a donation for every year he has been in Congress. Seven Republican members of the Committee have also received a contributions from the NRA nearly every year they’ve been in office.