Fredreka Schouten

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Voters in four states will decide on proposed gun restrictions next month, as gun-safety proponents, often rebuffed by Congress and state officials, increasingly turn to ballot initiatives to push passage of stricter firearms laws.

Voters in Maine and Nevada will decide whether to expand background checks for gun buyers. In Washington state, where activists passed a background-check measure two years ago, voters will decide whether judges can temporarily stop people who pose threats to themselves or others from possessing guns. And in California, voters will decide on measures that ban high-capacity magazines and require people buying bullets to first undergo background checks.

Gun-safety advocates say the wave of new ballot initiatives — along with intensifying focus on the issue in the presidential race and in a handful of hotly contested U.S. Senate races — mark a dramatic shift from a little more than three years ago when the Senate defeated a compromise plan to ban some semi-automatic weapons and expand background checks.

The 2013 Senate action killed a package of gun laws pushed by President Obama and several Democrats in the aftermath of the December 2012 shooting massacre of 20 young children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

“It’s a political sea change,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said of the growing attention to the issue. For years, "both Democrats and Republicans thought it was the third rail of American politics. It was very hard for us to engage people on this issue, certainly in Washington."

“In many ways, that gave rise to our ballot strategy because while the NRA (National Rifle Association) could have politicians in their pockets, they couldn’t really have the people in their pockets,” he said.

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Feinblatt’s group, affiliated with the billionaire former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, is spending heavily to push its agenda at the state level.

It already had spent nearly $8 million to advance the measures in Nevada, Maine and Washington state and expects to unleash more money into the fight between now and Election Day. It’s not playing an active role in the California measure, which was launched by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat running for governor in 2018.

Another Bloomberg-aligned group, the Independence USA super PAC, has pumped nearly $5.9 million into Pennsylvania to back Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who crafted the Senate’s unsuccessful background-check plan with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat.

One of Bloomberg’s pro-Toomey ads features Erica Smegielski, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, who praises Toomey for crossing “party lines to do the right thing.”

Independent USA’s spending makes it the top outside group working on Toomey’s behalf so far, according to a tally by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political spending.

Shannon Watts of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a group of 3 million activists aligned with Bloomberg, said gun-safety groups are showing lawmakers that “when they stick their necks out, we have their backs.”

In Missouri, meanwhile, Democrat Jason Kander has gained attention for his gun-control stance in his battle to oust Republican Sen. Roy Blunt. In a widely viewed ad, Kander, a former Army National Guard intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan, quickly assembles an AR-15 rifle, while blindfolded, as he discusses his support for both the Second Amendment and background checks.

Jennifer Baker of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action said Bloomberg's forces haven't gained traction with lawmakers "because the majority of Americans are opposed to his gun-control agenda."

"Desperate for a victory, Bloomberg has invested more of his billions in a misinformation campaign designed to impose his gun-control agenda through poorly crafted ballot initiatives that would criminalize common practices of law-abiding gun owners and would not prevent criminals from accessing firearms," Baker said in a statement.

For its part, the NRA is spending heavily to influence federal contests — particularly the presidential race where this week it announced a $6.5 million advertising buy to boost Donald Trump, whom the group endorsed in May.

The new ad campaign features lawyer Kristi McMains, who said the handgun she was carrying in her purse helped her fend off an attacker earlier this year in a parking garage

The ad is airing in the key battlegrounds of Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Ohio and brings to more than $17 million what the NRA is spending on TV ads in the White House contest. The group argues Trump is the candidate best positioned to preserve gun rights by filling the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

NRA officials say they are pushing back against the ballot initiatives in all four states, with their heaviest spending so far in Nevada, a key presidential state and home to a competitive Senate contest that could determine which party controls the chamber.

Nevada’s popular Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval opposes the background-check measure. He previously vetoed a background-check bill passed by the state legislature, dealing a blow to gun-control groups.

The measure on the ballot in Nevada extends criminal background checks to people who buy them through a private seller. It also would require background checks when someone transfers a gun to another person. Several exemptions are built in, such as gifts to immediate family members or sharing rifles while hunting.

Even so, gun-rights groups say the measure is overly broad and could ensnare some law-abiding gun owners, such as someone who lends a gun to a friend.

Eric Herzik, a political scientist at the University of Nevada at Reno, said it’s hard to tell whether the background-check initiative will boost turnout and sway the outcome of either the presidential race or the hard-fought Senate battle to replace retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, the chamber’s top Democrat.

The background check measure is one of several on the ballot in the Silver State next month, including one legalizing small amounts of marijuana for recreational use.

“The joke is that the conservatives will turn out to vote on guns, and the Democrats will vote for pot,” Herzik said,