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VOTE ON CONSCIENCE
graders and six adults at Sandy
Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that the gun lobby is
again being politically challenged
on this front. And as lawmakers
look to draw lessons from the previous fight, several of those who
lived through it argue that the
political risk, much like the NRA’s
power, has been overstated.
“I think the all-powerful role of
the NRA in ’94 has probably been
exaggerated, or that they’ve cultivated that for their own benefit,”
said Rep. David Price (D-N.C.),
who voted for the 1994 bill.
“That this was the key to taking
over the House, I just don’t remember it that way. There were a
lot of things in the mix.”
Price would lose his election
that year but return to Congress
in the next cycle. The gun lobby’s
influence wasn’t decisive, he said,
but it did make life difficult. As he
recalled, the NRA would “spread
the word about every move we
were making” so that their members were out in full force whenever a public gathering occurred.
“I went to some of the NRA
meetings in Arka