The Nation - News from Aug. 30, 1985

The National Rifle Assn. contributed $1.6 million to the campaigns of current members of Congress, the bulk of it going to lawmakers who support relaxed gun control laws, Common Cause said. Common Cause, a liberal citizens’ lobby group, said that the $1.6 million included direct contributions to candidates and expenditures on their behalf in the 1984 House elections and in the most recent campaigns of current senators. Common Cause said that, of the $854,600 that went to senators, 97%, or $831,024, was contributed or spent on behalf of the 69 senators who voted against an amendment that would have maintained a prohibition on interstate sales of handguns. The amendment was defeated, 69 to 26.