NRA Spent Big To Help Senate Judiciary Republicans

[DonViejo]

ERIC LACH JANUARY 30, 2013, 11:18 AM

The National Rifle Association’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, spoke Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun safety. There, he came face to face with a number of Republican Senators who have benefited from his organization’s spending in recent years.

According to Public Campaign, a non-profit supporting campaign finance reform and public campaign finance, the Republicans on the committee have in recent years benefited from at least $700,000 in various forms from the NRA, the NRA’s PAC, or the organization’s employees.

Public Campaign put together its numbers with help from data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics and the Sunlight Foundation’s Influence Explorer. According to the group, since 1998, the NRA’s PAC or NRA employees have given at least $120,000 to Republican members of the committee and their leadership PACs. More recently, since 2008, Republican members of the committee have been aided by over $587,000 in independent expenditures.

The biggest recipient of the NRA’s money is one of the committee’s newest members: freshman Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who got a $344,742 boost in independent expenditures from the NRA during his race against former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona. According to Public Campaign’s figures, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has received $136,639 from the NRA, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, has received $78,526. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is the only Democrat on the committee who has received an NRA donation. Leahy’s Green Mountain PAC has received $7,000.

Read the whole thing here:
http://publicampaign.org/blog/2013/01/29/nra-money-behind-senate-judiciary-committee

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http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/01/senate_judiciary_committee_nra_money.php?ref=fpb

[jimmy the one]

1. Wayno seeks reflected glory

The National Rifle Association’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, spoke Wednesday..

Rather he squealed out his usual pigstink about how guncontrol punishes law abiding citizens & only guns can save them.

He said that in the recent past (paraphrased) - gun accidents have declined to lowest levels in decades -, which is true, but wayne la conman didn't mention that in states with safe storage laws & child access prevention laws the decline has been the greatest & has largely been responsible for the overall decline in gun accidents.
Also, the 4 states with the least guncontrol have four times the gun accident/fatality rate than the 4 states with the most guncontrol (maybe it's top & bottom 5).

.. also to note, during a ten year period while the Washington DC handgun ban & safe storage law was in effect, not one child under the age of 15 was killed by a firearm accident (wisqars website). This was an admirable accomplishment which I'm near certain wasn't replicated in any other large city over 500,000 population (perhaps not even over 250k), and not even in the lesser populated states, which might've had 5 in ten years.
.. tho accidental firearm deaths are rare, the zero figure is for 10 years & something wayno would never, ever, report about, tho he has no qualms about receiving reflected glory from gun control efforts on safe storage.

(in DC your gun needed either a trigger lock on it when not being used, or needed be partially disassembled).