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Michael Bloomberg-led gun control group announces ads, endorsements

Angling to reintroduce gun control into public discourse ahead of November's elections, the group bankrolled by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday announced endorsements in more than 100 state and federal races.

Everytown for Gun Safety - yoking the Bloomberg-funded Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America - is backing candidates who "have shown leadership in the fight to keep our communities safe from gun violence," said John Feinblatt, the group's president. Several on the list, including Sens. Kay Hagan, D-North Carolina, and Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, face tough contests that could decide control of the Senate.

The organization also plans to run television ads in Illinois and Oregon featuring family members of high-profile shootings, and over the next three weeks will take its message on the road with a "Gun Sense Voter" tour. The circuit will include Oregon, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Maine, Maryland, Connecticut and Washington, where Everytown has funneled over $1 million toward pushing a state initiative that would expand background checks for firearm purchases.

"We want gun safety to be an issue that people vote on," Feinblatt told USA Today. Though he reportedly declined to comment on specific dollar amounts the group was tossing into its candidates' coffers, he did say more ads will follow in the weeks ahead.

Bloomberg - who's offered one of the loudest voices rallying for more stringent gun laws since the tragic mass shooting in 2012 at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school - pledged earlier this year to spend $50 million out of his personal bank account in an attempt to compete with the roughly $20 million the National Rifle Association spends annually on political campaigns. Over the summer Everytown conducted an analysis of every candidate running for Congress this fall to offer voters a counterbalance to the NRA's report card system.

Boasting a flank of five million dues-paying members, the NRA indeed looms as one of Washington's most powerful lobbying influences. Still, recent congressional elections suggest its labors aren't indomitable: In 2012, NRA-backed candidates lost in six of the top seven Senate races the organization targeted.

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