In this Dec. 17, 2012 file photo, then New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks a news conference in New York where he and dozens of shooting survivors and victims' relatives called on Congress and President Obama to tighten gun laws and enforcement. The former New York mayor, a billionaire and advocate of firearms regulation, plans to spend $50-million this year setting up a new group that will mix campaign contributions with field operations aimed at pulling gun-control supporters to the polls. The new organization, Everytown for Gun Safety, will focus on women, especially mothers, The New York Times reported on its website, Tuesday April 15, 2014.Seth Wenig/The Associated Press
The National Rifle Association is a gorilla in American politics. It is large, fearsome and relentless. Any legislator who threatens its mission – making guns easier to buy, sell and carry throughout the country – can expect to pay a price at the polls.
Creating a counterweight to the NRA has long been a dream of gun-control advocates. If only, the thinking went, they had the resources and reach to punish or reward politicians the way their opponents did.
Now Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire ex-mayor of New York, says he is going to build just such an organization. He announced Wednesday that he will devote $50-million (U.S.) this year alone to an effort to reduce gun violence under the umbrella of a new group called Everytown for Gun Safety.
Politicians fear the NRA, he noted. "We've got to make them afraid of us," he told The New York Times.
Even with Mr. Bloomberg's millions, the new group faces an uphill task. But for the first time in years, there is now a serious, well-financed campaign underway to counter the sway of the NRA. Mr. Bloomberg will back efforts to help or hinder candidates, conduct lobbying and work to influence policy at the state and federal levels.
For two decades, the NRA has pushed ahead with its agenda and faced relatively little opposition. The last significant piece of gun-control legislation at the federal level was the 1994 assault-weapons ban (President Bill Clinton later blamed such measures for triggering the Republican resurgence in the midterm elections that year). An attempt to pass a federal law instituting stricter background checks for gun purchases failed a year ago, just months after the 2012 massacre in Newtown, Conn.
The dominant role of the NRA and its allies at the state and federal levels doesn't mean that a majority of Americans support its agenda – far from it. One of the oddities of the gun debate in the U.S. is that surveys show large proportions of the population in favour of measures like universal background checks, something the NRA steadfastly opposes.
The deficit, in other words, is not one of public support but of political brawn. And this is exactly the deficit that Mr. Bloomberg says he is going to address. Everytown for Gun Safety plans to boost its membership to 2.5 million. As importantly, it is seeking to amass 1 million signatures ahead of November's mid-term elections where voters pledge to cast their ballots with gun safety as a priority.
That campaign is a bid to narrow the so-called "intensity gap" between gun rights advocates – who often mobilize and vote with single-minded dedication – and proponents of gun control, who tend to see the issue as only one of several influencing their vote.
Closing that gap will be a tall order. The NRA has years of experience in rallying its members to action, a task made far easier by the fact that they share a pastime (shooting) or an interest (firearms) or both. There are magazines and websites and gun ranges which cater to that hobby and foster a sense of community.
By contrast, an embrace of gun control is "a political position, not a lifestyle," said Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California who has written a book about the history of America's battle over gun rights.
Everytown for Gun Safety combines two pre-existing gun-control outfits: Mayors Against Illegal Guns, started in 2006 by Mr. Bloomberg, and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which was founded by Shannon Watts, a mother in Indiana, the day after the mass shooting in Newtown. The latter now has chapters in every state in the country and more than 150,000 members.
Modeled on Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Moms Demand Action is an attempt to close the intensity gap by building on the shared experience of women as parents.
"Our opposition may have had a decade-long head start, but we will win," Ms. Watts said Wednesday in a conference call. "We are going to harness our passion to keep our children safe and turn it into votes."
For advocates like Ms. Watts, a long battle lies ahead – but the battlefield looks very different than it did only months ago.