Bridget Bennett / AP
Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire and former mayor of New York, while meeting with supporters of stricter gun control in Las Vegas, Sept. 16, 2018. Two groups that are focused on gun control, Giffords and Everytown for Gun Safety, spent at least $37 million at the state and federal level in the midterm elections, compared with at least $20 million by the National Rifle Association.
By Danny Hakim and Rachel Shorey, New York Times News Service
Sunday, Nov. 18, 2018 | 2 a.m.
Amid a numbing succession of mass shootings, gun control groups outspent the National Rifle Association in the midterm election cycle, federal filings and additional reporting indicate, upending the usual order in the partisan battle over gun use.
Two groups that are focused on gun control, Giffords and Everytown for Gun Safety, spent at least $37 million at the state and federal level in the midterms, compared with at least $20 million by the NRA. The figures are incomplete, because some of the spending done by such groups is not required to be disclosed, but all sides agreed that the NRA was outspent, stemming a trend of financial dominance for the NRA going back years.
Despite being outspent in one election cycle, the NRA remains a potent force in American politics. Much of the organization’s impact comes in its ability to mobilize millions of members, and it continues to wield a prodigious fundraising and lobbying machine, and a hold on the Republican Party that will make any advancements of gun control a challenge.
But the NRA has also arguably gained its most formidable counterweight since its emergence as a modern political force in the
