NRA unloads 217G to N.Y. pols to nix bullet bill

CASH CACHE ALBANY — The National Rifle Association has taken aim at New York, doling out more campaign donations in the Empire State over the last nine years than in any other in state in the nation.

The prime target: defeating Mayor Bloomberg’s push for microstamping of bullet casings, which backers say would be an effective crimefighting tool.

Since 2003, the NRA has reported giving New York legislators and political committees $217,400 — the organization’s largest outlay over that period. Arizona candidates received the second-highest cash infusion: $196,317.

Almost half of the donations in New York came in 2010, after the legislative defeat of a microstamping bill, which would have required bullet casings to carry unique markings, campaign records show. Senate Democrats, then in the majority, tried to move the bill, but couldn’t muster the necessary 32 votes.

The NRA then splashed $92,500 to the state Senate Republican Campaign Committee weeks before the 2010 elections, when the GOP won back control of the chamber after two years on the outside.

Republican Sens. Joseph Robach of Rochester and Thomas Libous of Binghamton drew the most in individual NRA donations in the state since 2003 — $10,050 and $10,000, respectively.

In addition, the National Shooting Sports Foundation — the firearms industry trade association — pumped another $103,500 into the state, including $80,000 to the Senate Re- The late Charlton Heston famously holds up musket in 2000. Actor was face of the NRA, which has filled N.Y. pols’ coffers. Photo by AP publican Campaign Committee in 2010.

Democrats point to the gun lobby’s donations to the GOP as a big reason the Senate has continued to refuse to pass the microstamping bill — even as crimes committed by perpetrators armed with illegal guns are plaguing law enforcement efforts in the city.

“They are very organized,” microstamping Senate bill sponsor Jose Peralta (D-queens) said of the NRA. “Their concern is if microstamping becomes law in New York, it will become a domino effect nationally.”

But opponents of microstamping note that Bloomberg — who sees the NRA as Public En- emy No. 1 in the fight to keep illegal guns off city streets — is the single largest donor to the Senate GOP. Detractors say microstamping would be unreliable, easily tampered with by crooks — and very costly.

The NRA and the National Shooting Sports Foundation — whose officials refused to comment for this story — have also spent a combined $159,000 in lobbying in New York since 2009. A spokesman for Republican senators, Scott Reif, said they receive donations from a broad spectrum. “At the end of the day, every issue is decided on the merits,” he said.