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In almost all forms of spending — direct campaign contributions, independent expenditures and lobbying — gun rights groups have far outspent gun control groups in recent decades, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. However, spending that advocates gun control has picked up in recent years, fueled by groups backed by former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat who was wounded in a 2011 shooting, and by Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York.
There have been hints in recent days, with the protests after the Parkland shooting and a string of businesses cutting ties with the N.R.A. — as well as a fiery and defensive speech delivered by its leader at a conservative conference — that the group is losing ground. Even some of its key political supporters, like Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, a Republican, and top lawmakers in the state, have proposed measures like raising the age limit for gun purchases to 21.
John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control group backed by Mr. Bloomberg, said he saw signs that the N.R.A.’s influence was in decline, despite a surge in 2017 in federal lobbying spending by the organization. He pointed to its inability last year to get legislation through the Republican Congress that would give legal gun owners the right to carry concealed weapons outside their home states.
“What we are seeing right now is a reversal of fortune,” Mr. Feinblatt said. “The truth is, they are making bad bets. And they are out of sync. Their power is diminishing by the day.”
