Ayotte

Since the troubling Senate rejection of the highly
popular bill to expand gun purchase background checks, the NRA is actually
facing some high-powered opposition as two pro-gun control groups have taken to the airwaves to keep
the issue alive.
The well-funded organizations engaged in this gun battle are NYC Mayor
Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Gabby Giffords-backed
Americans for Responsible Solutions. On the pro-gun side are the NRA and
another conservative group, the American Future Fund.
In the middle of this shootout is Republican Sen. Kelly
Ayotte of New Hampshire who is scrambling to repair the political damage caused
by her vote against the Manchin-Toomey amendment that would close the gun show
loophole.
Here’s how Politico summed up the situation:
“There was a time when a failed gun bill might have
quietly slipped off the stage. But the dynamics have shifted, since the NRA is
no longer the only group in the gun debate with money, power and some signs of
staying power. On Wednesday morning, the NRA announced a $25,000 television
week-long television ad buy to support (Ayotte) … who’s been under attack by
gun control groups on the airwaves and in town halls for her vote on the Senate
bill.”
The American Future Fund, which typically focuses on economic issues, not gun rights, is kicking in $250,000 for TV
ads that proclaim the rookie senator showed the “courage and independence to
stand up and do what’s right for New Hampshire.”
According to Politico’s Alexander Burns, the ads are
running on New Hampshire broadcast television on WMUR, and on cable in the
Boston media market. They will expand onto broadcast television in Boston next
week.
Ayotte’s Senate vote was cast in defiance of the 89
percent of Granite State voters who supported the bill. As a result, her
approval/disapproval ratings in the polls dropped 15 percent and she has been
confronted at town halls by angry relatives of gun violence victims.
Ayotte, trying to wiggle her way out of this mess, wrote
an Op-Ed opinion piece with this headline:  ‘I
Voted to Improve Background Checks.’ The former state attorney general
explained her support for a much weaker bill that some Republicans latched onto
as an alternative to Manchin-Toomey, which would require background checks for
firearms sales at gun shows and on the Internet – two areas where 6.6 million
weapons are sold annually. “We shouldn’t be expanding a flawed (background
check) system,” Ayotte wrote. 
Good luck with that sales pitch. 
Bloomberg’s mayors group points out the obvious:  “Since 1998 the FBI has rejected more than a
million would-be sales, and when state-level rejections are factored in, the
number of denials is closer to 2 million — usually because the would-be
buyers are convicted felons, or fugitives from justice, or mentally ill, among
other reasons,” according to the New
York Times.