Yesterday afternoon, Democrats staged a sit-in on the House floor in an effort to force a vote on gun control, kicking off a protest that, as of this morning, is still going strong.
Passing gun control reform in the House is harder than in the Senate. See how much your representative gets from gun rights groups.
The House sit-in came two days after the Senate failed to pass its own gun control measures — prompted by a Senate filibuster that forced the body to a vote. But even if the House protest had been successful in forcing a vote (Republicans held a vote on unrelated matters and then declared the body was in recess until July 5), it is far from likely any type of gun control legislation would pass.
Like the Senate, the House is too polarized around gun policy for compromise: The National Rifle Association gives 245 representatives an A grade — and 135 senators an F. That leaves 55 representatives somewhere in between, with scores ranging anywhere from a B+ to a D-.
This makes it really tough to see any proposed gun control reform legislation moving through the House. A simple majority for a bill to pass requires only 218 votes, and, as we can see in the chart above, 245 representatives already have an A rating from the NRA.
Which means even if all 55 representatives who aren’t decidedly pro- or anti–gun control joined the 135 representatives with a F rating from the NRA and voted to pass gun control measures, it still wouldn’t be enough votes to achieve the 218 simple majority. The representative math just doesn’t add up in favor of passing gun control legislation in the House.
The only way to gain access to the NRA’s ratings is to become a paying member, so I relied heavily on 2012 work by the New York Times and press releases from the NRA to fill in the gaps. Please email me if you spot any errors.
Here’s what gun rights groups donated to your representative as of 2016
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, in 2016 gun rights groups have contributed more than $1 million to the House of Representatives — a little over $1 million of which was money given to members’ campaigns or leadership PACs from gun rights PACs or individuals in the 2014 election cycle, and $43,727 of which was money spent by gun rights groups on independent expenditures supporting candidates.
Below is an interactive table that shows both the grade your representative received from the NRA and what gun rights groups like the NRA and Gun Owners of America have contributed to your representatives as of June 13, 2016.
