Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is about to get some help from the National Rifle Association’s Political Victory Fund, which endorsed him for re-election earlier this month, based in part on his opposition to requiring background checks for all gun sales.

The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal both reported in recent days that the NRA’s political arm is about to buy $100,000 worth of air time in Wichita and Topeka supporting Roberts, who is now in a tight race against independent challenger Greg Orman.

“Roberts has stood up to the Obama-Bloomberg gun control agenda, including their so-called ‘universal’ background check system that would criminalize the private transfer of a firearm between life-long friends and many family members,” the NRA said in its endorsement.

When Roberts first ran for the Senate in 1996, he was a vocal supporter of instant background checks to prevent criminals from buying firearms.

“We need tougher penalties for criminals,” Roberts told the Journal-World during that campaign. “Second, we have the technology for an instant background check of those buying weapons. We need to use that.”

He also gave a similar answer when asked about gun control during a televised debate on public radio and TV, which was later rebroadcast on C-SPAN. (View the clip here.)

Arguably, the question about background checks has changed subtly since the early 1990s, when gun control was a major political issue in the wake of rising gang-related crime in major cities in the United States. Then, background checks were considered the more moderate alternative to other gun-related proposals.

In 1993, then-Rep. Roberts voted for a bill requiring instant background checks for gun sales. That was intended to replace the mandatory five-day waiting period, which had been the law before. A year later, Roberts voted against one of President Bill Clinton’s major initiatives, to ban certain types of assault weapons. The bill passed anyway and was signed into law.

By 1996, as Clinton was facing re-election, the NRA made repeal of the assault weapon ban a top priority. Roberts voted in favor of that bill, although it was a largely symbolic vote because Clinton had vowed to veto it. But in interviews at the time, he said he supported instant background checks.

“We’re very close to the technology, and (Sen.) Bob Dole has urged this, as have others, that you can walk into a gun shop, put your thumb print down and immediately there would be a check and you would deny those firearms of all types to the convicted felon or somebody who shouldn’t have a gun.”

The assault weapon ban remained in place until 2004, when it was allowed to expire. Meanwhile, gun control advocates criticized the law requiring background checks because it only applied to sales by licensed firearms dealers. It does not apply to private sales between individuals, which critics refer to as the “gun show loophole.”

Last year, President Barack Obama proposed extending the requirement for background checks to all gun purchases, including those between private individuals. But the context of that debate is now much different, especially after gun rights advocates won a U.S. Supreme Court decision that said the 2nd amendment right to bear arms is an individual right, not a collective right.

Now, background checks are no longer the moderate alternative to more aggressive gun control. They are the more aggressive form of gun control, compared to the gun rights that advocates have won in court.

But as far back as 1999, according to an article in the Hays Daily News, Roberts suggested expanding background checks to pawn shops and gun shows. That comment was in response to a question about a mass school shooting in Littleton, Colo., a few months earlier.

When asked about Roberts’ earlier positions, his campaign manager Corry Bliss said there has been no change.

“Pat Roberts has been a strong advocate of the second amendment, and has continually received an A rating from the NRA,” Bliss said in an email. “Senator Roberts has always supported an instantaneous background check — to keep guns from felons. His position is clear — and consistent.”

For his part, Orman has said he supports gun rights and owns two handguns himself. But he supports expanding background checks to include private gun sales. A statement on his website reads:

Both times that I bought a handgun, I
was required to go through a mandatory
background check to ensure that I was
a U.S. citizen who hadn’t been
convicted of domestic violence,
subject to a restraining order for
harassing, stalking, or threatening
behavior, incarcerated for longer than
a year, dishonorably discharged from
the military, or determined to be
mentally defective. Over 700,000
people who met the description above
have been prevented from buying
firearms at licensed dealers since the
background check requirements went
into effect.

The idea that those 700,000 people
could simply head to a gun show and
buy a firearm without the same
background scrutiny doesn’t make sense
to me.