Democrats Take Aim at Gun Rights; Will Push Most Aggressive Legislation in Decades

The new measures will be supported by an influx of pro-gun-control lawmakers on their way to Capitol Hill after Tuesday’s midterm elections, however any new measure would face an uphill battle in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Democrats ousted at least 15 House Republicans with “A” National Rifle Association ratings, while the candidates elected to replace them all scored an “F” NRA rating. –WSJ

“This new majority is not going to be afraid of our shadow,” said California Democrat Mike Thompson, a Napa Valley, California legislator and chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. “We know that we’ve been elected to do a job, and we’re going to do it.”

While in the past there were calls for time to mourn victims following mass shootings, this week advocates reacted instead with a call for new legislation.

Susan Orfanos, whose son was killed Thursday after surviving the Las Vegas massacre last year, said in a television interview that she doesn’t “want prayers. I don’t want thoughts. I want gun control, and I hope to God nobody sends me anymore prayers.” -WSJ

Supporters of the Second Amendment say the additional restrictions will go too far. 

“What we do is say, how do we make certain that we protect the Second Amendment and protect our citizens?” said Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn on Fox News. Blackburn’s victorious Senate campaign Tuesday had the backing of $2.5 million in spending by the NRA.

Approximately 61% of voters last week say that America’s gun laws should be stricter – according to an Associated Press poll which surveyed around 90,000 people who voted or stated their intention to vote. Around 13% of Democrats and 8% of all voters said the most important issue affecting their vote was gun control. 

This year’s midterms was the first year in which gun-control advocates outspent the NRA. 

The gun-rights advocacy group spent about $20 million in the 2018 election cycle—much of it on advertising backing the confirmation of Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said.

Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun-control organization backed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and a group founded by former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded in a 2011 shooting, spent a combined $37 million in 2018. -WSJ

“The biggest Second Amendment implication of the election is that the pro-Second Amendment majority in the U.S. Senate will continue to confirm pro-Second Amendment judges to the lower courts all the way to the Supreme Court,” said Baker.

Meanwhile, voters in Washington state approved a ballot referendum which expands the state’s background check requirements, while Florida Democrat Nikki Fried will now be in charge of regulating the state’s concealed weapons permits. 

Perhaps the most prominent gun-control advocate to prevail in Tuesday’s midterms was Democrat Lucy McBath, who scored a victory over GOP Rep. Karen Handel for an Atlanta House seat. McBath became a gun-control advocate after a man in 2012 shot her teenage son, Jordan Davis, for playing his music too loud. 

McBath is now a spokeswoman for Everytown, and served as a 2016 campaign surrogate for Hillary Clinton.

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