WASHINGTON - As pressure for gun control legislation grows after a Feb. 14 school shooting in Florida claimed 17 lives, survivors of the attack are publicly accusing the powerful National Rifle Association of using political donations to block passage of legislation they believe might prevent future mass murders.

"Every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you," shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez said in a speech that called for tougher gun laws, and "called B.S." on "politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this."

National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre shot back during his own Thursday speech at the American Conservative Union's yearly CPAC conference in Washington, accusing political opportunists of exploiting Florida's tragedy for political gain.

The below table used data from PoliticalMoneyLine and the Center for Responsive Politics to tally donations the National Rifle Association's political action committee has made to the campaigns of current Ohio members of Congress.



Member of Congress First Elected NRA $ Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati area 1994 $70,950 Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Columbus area 2010 $27,800 Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton area 2002 $21,995 Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green 2007 $20,650 Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles area 2002 $19,996 Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio 2010 $19,800 Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Wadsworth 2010 $16,400 Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta 2010 $14,400 Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Champaign County 2006 $13,500 Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Holmes County 2010 $10,000 Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge Township 2012 $9,500 Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Cincinnati area 2012 $7,000 Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Miami County 2016 $2,000

"Their goal is to eliminate the Second Amendment and our firearms freedoms so they can eradicate all individual freedoms," LaPierre said, arguing that declaring schools to be "gun-free zones" makes them "wide open targets" for attacks by madmen.

"In every community in America, school districts, PTAs, teachers unions, local law enforcement, moms and dads -- they all must come together to implement the very best strategy to harden their schools, including effective, trained armed security that will absolutely protect every innocent child in this country," LaPierre said.

In a stream of tweets on Thursday morning, President Donald Trump said he'll be "strongly pushing" comprehensive background checks on gun purchasers, with an emphasis on mental health. He also said he'd like to set a minimum age of 21 to buy some guns and end the sale of "bump stocks" that allow guns to quickly fire multiple rounds.

Trump also praised LaPierre and others at the NRA as "great people and great American patriots," and suggested that having "highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive. GREAT DETERRENT!"

....If a potential “sicko shooter” knows that a school has a large number of very weapons talented teachers (and others) who will be instantly shooting, the sicko will NEVER attack that school. Cowards won’t go there...problem solved. Must be offensive, defense alone won’t work! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018

"We're going to take action," Trump promised later in the day at a White House meeting on school safety with state and local officials.

Love it or hate it, the NRA is a big political force in Washington. In addition to donating money directly to candidates' political campaigns, it also makes big independent expenditures to support candidates it likes, and oppose candidates it doesn't like. Its political spending dwarfs those of gun control groups.

Ohio's longest serving Republican member of Congress - Rep. Steve Chabot of the Cincinnati area - has received the most direct campaign money from the group over the years of any Ohioan currently serving in Congress, according to data compiled by PoliticalMoneyLine and the Center for Responsive Politics.

Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, had the most money spent on his behalf - more than $3 million, while the organization has spent the most money - more than $1 million - to try to defeat Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.

The below table compiled from data supplied by the Center for Responsive Politics and PoliticalMoneyLine shows how much money the NRA spent for and against Ohioans currently serving in Congress

Member of Congress NRA $ spent for Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio $3,042,141 Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati area $43,598 Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Columbus area $43,197 Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta $42,206 Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge Township $38,421 Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Wadsworth $29,947 Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green $22,372 Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles area $4,809 Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Champaign County $2,378 Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton area $1,470 NRA $ spent against Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio $1,076,957 Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Holmes County $6,302

The bulk of the organization's money supports Republican candidates, but it has backed several of the state's Democrats over the years, including Niles-area Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan. Last year, as he geared up to make appearances in states that hold early presidential primaries, Ryan repudiated the organization and announced he'd donate the roughly $20,000 it gave him to gun control organizations.

The NRA also channeled money to the campaign of former Democratic Rep. Zack Space of Dover - currently an Ohio Auditor candidate - who was defeated by Republican Rep. Bob Gibbs in 2010. Over the years, the organization gave $17,850 to his campaign, and also spent money to defeat Gibbs, although it subsequently gave money to Gibbs' campaigns.