WASHINGTON - While gun-control advocates have urged Congress to toughen weapons laws in the year since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, they have generally not backed up their words with campaign cash.
After the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting in which a man killed 20 first-graders and six adults at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn., President Barack Obama pledged to work to create laws making it harder to get guns, and grass-roots groups led by families touched by gun violence urged lawmakers to act.
But gun-control advocates lost legislative battles on Capitol Hill, and they’re losing on the fundraising front as well.
Campaign finance data released last week by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that tracks money and elections, show that for nearly 20 years, gun-control supporters have consistently lagged behind pro-gun activists in campaign spending.
In Arkansas, gun-control groups have donated directly to a congressional candidate only twice in the past 24 years, and neither donation was made within the past decade, according to the data.
The $2,000 donated by the gun-control groups in that time frame is dwarfed by the $631,665 that went to Arkansas candidates from pro-gun groups.
Nationally since 1989, gun-rights organizations have consistently outspent groups that want more weapons regulations.
On average, pro-gun groups spent $398,958 per state in the past 24 years. Groups seeking to limit gun access spent an average of $31,952 per state, according to the Sunlight Foundation.
Seven states had no gun-control donations going to their federal candidates, the Sunlight Foundation data show. Those states are Alaska, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The Sunlight Foundation compiled nationwide data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics and the Federal Election Commission on donations since 1989 to candidates from both sides of the gun debate. The data show only direct contributions to campaigns, not money spent for or against policy provisions, such as advertisements urging support for a particular piece of legislation.
The foundation’s findings, released Tuesday, are online at sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/12/10/exploregun-influence-state-by-state.
About 83 percent of donations to Arkansas candidates, $522,149, came from the National Rifle Association. A spokesman for the association did not return phone calls Friday seeking comment.
Spokesmen for the gun-control-regulations group Mayors Against Illegal Guns - led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and families of people who died at Sandy Hook - did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
The five Arkansas politicians who have received the most funding from gun groups since 1989 are: former U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson ($122,577), former U.S. Rep. Jay Dickey ($90,131), U.S. Sen. John Boozman ($87,608), U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin ($70,040) and former U.S. Rep. Mike Ross ($58,354). All are Republicans except Ross, who is running for governor.
Boozman said he wasn’t surprised to hear that groups opposing new gun regulations gave so much money to him and other Arkansas candidates.
“They don’t contribute to your campaign to change your mind. They contribute because you have a particular belief,” he said. “My stance has been very, very clear on guns since the day I was elected.”
Boozman, an NRA member, said he believes that current laws should be enforced and that the country needs to address mental-health issues.
Griffin, an NRA member, said he wasn’t surprised that gun-control groups haven’t spent much in Arkansas, because hunting and gun ownership is so popular in the state.
“Why would a more liberal group waste their money in a very conservative state?” he said. “It’s a part of our culture. You want to set up a group on the other side in Arkansas, you are not going to get many takers.”
The state has 2,949,131 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In Arkansas, 163,646 people have licenses to carry concealed weapons, according to state police. More than 245,052 Arkansans have hunting licenses, according to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Donations from pro-gun groups have become more frequent in the past few elections.
So far in the 2014 race, U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton has received $6,950 for his Senate bid, the most from pro-gun groups so far. U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor and U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford have received $2,000 each. U.S. Rep. Steve Womack and Griffin both received $1,000.
Groups and people who identified themselves specifically as gun advocates donated 56 times during the 2012 campaign. Griffin received $11,750. Cotton received $3,698 from groups like Safari Club International and Gun Owners of America. Pryor received $1,000 from Safari Club International.
In 2012, the NRA gave an A ranking to Arkansas’ four U.S. House members and Boozman, all Republicans. Pryor, a Democrat, received a C-minus. The group hasn’t ranked lawmakers for 2013 and has not endorsed any Arkansas candidate for the2014 election.
The gun-control advocates that donated to U.S. candidates in Arkansas since 1989 were: The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which gave $1,000 to Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder, and Handgun Control Inc., which gave $1,000 to Democratic Rep. Beryl Anthony Jr.
Arkansas State University political science professor Barbara Warner said groups aren’t allowed to give money in exchange for votes.
She said campaign cash doesn’t typically change lawmakers’ minds, but it gets their attention.
“You’re expressing your free speech, your preferences, and you’re hoping that it gives you access,” she said. Still, “you have to think that money has an effect,” she said. “We’d be naive to think it doesn’t, but how much and what can you prove?”
Warner said groups that want to restrict gun access may choose to spend their money on ads or in other places.
“You know your odds,” she said. “You have to make a determination of where your campaign dollars might be more effective.”
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 12/15/2013