Gun control has been a third rail of Democratic campaigns, but a new poll suggests that Democratic candidates should embrace a bolder approach to restrictions on guns, even in general elections.
Up to this point, Democrats have been decidedly defensive on guns. The most famous instances of Democratic candidates using guns in television ads include West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III shooting the so-called cap-and-trade bill, former Georgia Rep. John Barrow talking about his granddaddy’s pistol and Missouri Senate candidate Jason Kander assembling a rifle blindfolded. The ads were meant to reassure voters that Democrats didn’t want to take away their guns.
In the wake of a steady stream of mass shootings, some Democratic candidates are talking more openly about guns, but to base voters in the context of competitive Democratic primares.
In Arizona’s 2nd District, physician Matt Heinz is attacking former 1st District Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick for her past position on guns and past “A”rating from the National Rifle Association. Kirkpatrick responded with an ad that proposed an assault weapons ban and call for universal background checks, with support from former Rep. Ron Barber (a mass shooting survivor).
Other mentions of guns in Democratic primaries have been void of policy specifics.
Pediatrician Kim Schrier in Washington’s 8th District and high-school teacher Tom Niermann in Kansas’ 3rd District brought up the gun issue in recent ads, but fell back to “common sense gun ownership laws” and “common sense gun reform.” Even Lucy McBath, a spokeswoman for Everytown for Gun Safety and the Democratic nominee in Georgia’s 6th District, talked more broadly about “common sense solutions” to fixing Washington in her ads, which only mentioned gun violence in passing even though her 17-year-old son was shot and killed in a car at a gas station.
“We’re trying to redefine what commonsense solutions really means,” said Igor Volsky, director of Guns Down, which he founded in 2016 after the shooting at an Orlando nightclub. “Democrats need to wake up to the reality that the center has shifted on this issue.”
“If they want to meet their voters, stop shooting bills and call for bold action,” he added.
Guns Down and Center for American Progress commissioned a national poll of 1,000 registered voters via an online web panel, conducted June 12-16 by Democratic pollster Margie Omero of GBA Strategies, to test the effectiveness of various messages on the gun issue.
I’m normally reluctant to write about issue polls because they often fail to put into context how voters prioritize that particular issue when they are making an electoral decision. For example, people have opinions on the environment, but it’s not often a top issue when they vote.
But this poll is a little different.
It modeled three different base Democratic messages against a standard conservative message. The first base message talked about the economy, education and health...