Dr. John Lott’s newest piece at National Review Online starts this way:
As far as Hillary Clinton is concerned, the NRA gets its way only by intimidating elected officials.
In an interview with Newsweek last week, Clinton claimed that the NRA uses campaign donations and advertising dollars to keep politicians from doing what they know saves lives. In the same interview, her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, blamed the NRA for “using money and influence to cause gridlock in Washington,” lamenting that “too many elected officials are scared to prioritize the safety of our communities over the profits of the gun lobby for fear they’ll lose their jobs.”
But gun-control groups spend much more money than the NRA does. Why aren’t they more successful in buying votes?
Just look at donations to federal candidates during the two years leading up to the 2014 congressional elections, the last full election cycle. Michael Bloomberg, who has a net worth of $48.2 billion, gave $28.6 million to candidates by himself. His organization, Everytown for Gun Safety, which gets virtually all of its money from Bloomberg, gave another $298,000.
By contrast, the NRA gave just $982,000, or 1/30th the amount spent by Bloomberg. While not all of Bloomberg’s campaign donations were driven by gun issues, his spending clearly dwarfs what the NRA could give.
In state and local races around the country, Bloomberg has deployed resources that the NRA could only dream of. In just two Virginia state-senate races in 2015, Bloomberg spent a total of $2.2 million. That is vastly more money than the NRA was able to spend on any race for the U.S. Congress. Bloomberg spent $150,000 alone on the election for Milwaukee sheriff, in an attempt to unseat outspoken gun-control opponent David Clarke — more than the combined amount that Clarke and his opponent spent on their own campaigns. . . .
The rest of the piece is available here.
Nor does it turn out that the NRA spends much money on lobbying.
It is just hard to believe so few people think they are so smart and knowable
that they should be able to determine what is best for all the citizens of the
United States. Sounds somewhat like an Adolf Hitler syndrome to me!