opensecrets.org       pg.2      Gun Rights vs. Gun control

• Two suspects who opened fire in cali social services center on Dec. 2,2015, killing 14 people and injuring 21, once again turned the national spotlight on the debate over gun ownership.
• Outpoured of grief and sympathy that followed, though, the very next day the Senate rejecteda bill.

opensecrets.org     pg.2        A .44 caliber political issue

• The last major piece of gun control legislation to make it into law was the assault weapons ban, which passed in 1994 as part of a larger crime-related bill approved by Congress and signed by then-President Bill Clinton.
• Which applied to the manufacture of 19 specific models of semi-automatic firearms and other guns with similar features, expired in 2004, and repeated attempts to renew it have failed.

openscrets.org   pg.3    Guns and money

• There's no denying that much of the strength of the the leading gun rights organization, the National Rifle Association, comes from its broad and passionate membership base and its mastery of grassroots politics.
• But if lawmakers seem to tiptoe around gun issues, it's likely at least in part because the NRA and other gun rights groups are loaded for bear with a seemingly limitless stash of cash ammunition.

openscrets.org        4      Gun rights and Gun control

• The issue of how to regulate gun ownership and safety has been a political hot potato for years, and one that Congress has dealt with gingerly, in the view of groups favoring tighter firearms regulations.
• In San Bernardino, Calif., police killed the suspects, a married couple, in a shootout hours after they attacked the county’s department of public health and fled.

openscrets.org        5     Gun rights and Gun control

• That's true among the 2016 presidential candidates as well.
•  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, has contrasted herself with Sen.
• Bernie Sanders of Vermont on the issue of gun control during their debates. 
• After 10 people died in a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., Clinton promised she would take executive action as president to expand background checks.