New Gun Group Rivals NRA in Spending and Influence
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Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Move over, NRA. There’s a new big spender in Washington to lobby for the rights of gun owners.
While the National Rifle Association spent an estimated $700,000 during the first quarter of 2013 to keep lawmakers from strengthening existing gun laws, that amount was dwarfed in lobbying efforts by the National Association for Gun Rights, or NAGR, which bills itself as a more conservative version of the NRA.
An analysis by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics says that the NAGR spent close to $1.9 million while hiring its first federal lobbyist to convince mostly Republican lawmakers that the Obama administration’s real agenda involves confiscating firearms from law-abiding gun owners, a charge flatly denied by the White House.
Formed in 2000 as a grassroots organization with a take-no-prisoners style, the NAGR has even gone as far as to target certain GOP lawmakers it feels are not true Second Amendment supporters, including Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor, the second most powerful Republican in the House.
In the meantime, the NAGR has formed a close alliance with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a potential candidate for the GOP 2016 presidential nomination.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio