Special Interest Money: Gun Control

Money definitely plays a HUGE role for special interests groups in gun control; though, in particular the NRA (National Rifle Association), Gun Owners for America, and others that are "pro-gun" use money for substantial influence in the government. In fact, it seems that these pro-gun interest groups have actually contributed over 81 million dollars to presidential and congressional campaigns since 2000. About 46 million of this has been given through independent expenditures (soft money), which means that, this it is not "directly coordinated" with the actual campaign, the amount that these interest can contribute is crazy. In comparison to interest groups in favor of gun control, the "pro-gun" ones have contributed roughly 28 times more money to House and Senate elections (7 million dollars to 245,000)

NRA rolling in cash

The NRA alone has spent about 18.6 million dollars on campaigns just in this last year.

Surprisingly, of the 46 senators who voted to prevent extensions of background checks when purchasing a firearm, 43 of them received help from money, either direct or through independent expenditures since 2000 from these pro-gun interest groups. As said above, money plays a HUGE role for the special interest groups in gun control.

Here is a list of politicians who have $benefited$ from gun interest groups. The first chart shows Republicans who have benefited from "pro-gun" interest groups and the bottom one shows Democrats who have benefited from pro- gun control interest groups. *Chart taken from article used.

Top recipients of direct donations from gun rights groups since 2000*  

                   
                   REPUBLICANS

Rank	Candidate	Money	No. of Races
1	John Thune (R-S.D.)	$137,755	3
2	Dean Heller (R-Nev.)	$85,215	4 (3 House, 1 Senate)
3	Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)	$83,169	4 (2 House, 2 Senate)
4	Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)	$79,950	2
5	Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)	$77,935	6 (5 House, 1 Senate)
6	Ted Cruz (R-Texas)	$69,279	1
7	Richard Burr (R-N.C.)	$67,300	4 (2 House, 2 Senate)
8	David Vitter (R-La.)	$64,561	2
9	Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)	$59,439	1
10	Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)	$55,800	2

                     DEMOCRATS

Rank	Candidate	Money	No. of Races
1	Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)	$21,450	3
2	Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)	$14,250	3
3	Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)	$13,577	3
4	Tom Carper (D-Del.)	$10,500	3
5	Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)	$7,800	7 (6 House, 1 Senate)
6	Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)	$7,700	2
7	Patty Murray (D-Wash.)	$6,500	2
8	Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)	$4,000	5 (3 House, 2 Senate)
9	Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)	$3,500	2
10	Mark Udall, D-Co.	$2,750	5 (4 House, 1 Senate)

Although there is much influence through money with interest groups in gun control, this would not be the best example of an iron triangle, due to the fact that there are very large interest groups for both pro-gun and pro-regulation. But, the best way to explain one would be to have the judicial committee on the top of the triangle, the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosions by on the bottom right, and the various interests groups be on the bottom left.

Citations:

"What the NRA's Millions Do-and Don't-Buy." Mother Jones. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. Link: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/nra-national-rifle-association-money-influence

http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-blog/blogs/bribe-the-senate-hed-2013.jpg

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