Upstart Group Pushes Harder Than the N.R.A.

 

SPRINGFIELD, Va. — When word surfaced in February that Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, was plotting with Democrats on a bill to expand background checks for gun buyers, Larry Pratt got really mad. Then, Mr. Pratt, the executive director of Gun Owners of America, got busy, mounting a lobbying blitz that helps explain why a bipartisan Senate deal on background checks remains elusive.

Within days, his staff, working from a nondescript space in a squat office building off the Beltway here — there isn’t even a nameplate on the door — was on the phone with supporters of his organization in Oklahoma. The group’s members were encouraged to inundate Mr. Coburn with e-mails and calls and to otherwise make it exceedingly clear to the senator that an enhanced background check law would not be tolerated.

[readon2 url=”http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/us/politics/gun-owners-of-america-a-lobbying-group-grows-in-influence.html”]Read the rest at the New York Times[/readon2]