Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) are the first two members of Congress to be targeted for their votes on gun control following the Senate’s failure to pass legislation expanding background checks on firearm sales last week.
A series of radio ads by the group Americans for Responsible Solutions will criticize the two for their votes against stricter gun laws.
Americans for Responsible Solutions is the gun-control organization of former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D., Ariz.) and her husband. Giffords was shot in the head by a deranged gunman in 2011, and she has been an outspoken supporter of stricter gun laws since.
"As Gabby said last week, if we can’t keep our communities safer with the congress we have, we will work to change congress," Pia Carusone, executive director of ARS, said in a press release. "Sen. McConnell and Sen. Ayotte turned their backs on their constituents at home in order to do the bidding in Washington of the corporate gun lobby. We’re going to make sure their constituents know that, effective immediately."
The radio ads say Ayotte and McConnell "ignored the will of the people."
"This was common sense legislation written by a Republican and a Democrat, supported by law enforcement, and it protected Second Amendment rights, but Ayotte voted against it anyway," one woman in the ad says.
The ads urge listeners to call Ayotte and McConnell and invokes the shooting in Newtown, Conn.
"We watched. We listened. We felt it. Newtown. But Sen. McConnell won’t listen to us," a narrator says.
The McConnell campaign said the Senate minority leader is listening to the will of his Kentucky constituents.
"Sen. McConnell commends Gabby Giffords for her courage and perseverance but in Kentucky we have a fundamental disagreement with a gun control agenda," McConnell campaign spokesman Jesse Benton said in an email to the Washington Free Beacon. "President Obama's allies have been attacking Sen. McConnell on this issue for months but his support for Kentuckians' Second Amendment rights will not waver."
Public support for gun control legislation has ebbed since the Newtown shooting. A recent USA Today poll found only 49 percent of those surveyed favor Congress passing a new gun-control law, compared to 45 percent opposed. A NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in early April reported 55 percent backed a stricter gun law, compared to 61 percent in February.
Additionally, a Washington Post/Pew poll found 39 percent of Americans were happy or relieved the gun control legislation failed, while 47 percent were disappointed or angry.
A poll by the left-leaning Public Policy Polling firm showed 44 percent of Granite State voters said they approve of the job Ayotte is doing while 46 percent said they disapprove.
The poll also found 75 percent of New Hampshire voters support requiring background checks for buyers at gun shows.