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The Atlantic has a well-reported piece on how pro-gun political-action committees dramatically increase contributions to their preferred U.S. House candidates in the districts where fatal school shootings occur.
The piece cites a Stanford University study that found such spending did not happen after other incidents of mass gun violence, or after nonfatal school shootings—only after children were killed in schools.
One incident cited in the study was the December 2013 shooting at Arapahoe High School in Centennial. Seventeen-year-old Claire Davis was murdered by a classmate with a shotgun in the incident. Before the shooting, the pro-gun PAC contribution in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District had been $1,000. Afterward, that contribution (supporting then-Congressman and now Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman) soared to $49,470.
The piece says that while public demand for gun violence prevention measures typically dramatically increases after a fatal school shooting, “the pro-gun spending surge means that instead of yielding to constituent pressure, candidates are fortified to resist it and are empowered to reframe their opposition to reform as principled rather than unresponsive.”