The National Rifle Association consistently ranks among the most powerful lobbying groups in the U.S., spending millions on political contributions and advertising campaigns each year to influence lawmakers on gun policy. But money and marketing are not the group's only weapons. More than 5 million members reportedly pay dues to the NRA, and that kind of manpower is especially formidable on Capitol Hill as well as within state legislatures.

Van Hollen has felt the ire of the NRA firsthand. In 2000, he helped to pass the nation's first law requiring built-in trigger locks for guns purchased in Maryland, a measure designed to prevent accidental gun shootings. To NRA lobbyist Greg Costam, however, this requirement was nothing more than "a de facto gun ban" and "very dangerous," he told The Washington Post. The NRA tried to derail the bill by launching phone and television campaigns, mobilizing members in a last-ditch effort to persuade legislators to oppose the gun safety law.

"The NRA fought us tooth and nail — they lost, we beat them — but it was the first clear example that the NRA would mislead its members and take every measure to block even these common sense measures to prevent kids from dying in accidental shooting deaths," Van Hollen told ATTN:.

In the weeks after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, a national debate about gun safety ensued, and reform advocates hoped the momentum would push lawmakers to advance gun reform measures. Yet the push for new policies — including a popular push to close the gun show loophole, which 91 percent of Americans supported — was rejected.

http://www.attn.com/stories/6517/how-nra-misleads-their-members-rep-chris-van-hollen