Election Results A Major Victory For Common Sense Gun Laws

Nov 5, 2008

Washington, DC – The election of Barack Obama as President and Joe Biden as Vice President along with significant wins in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives and key state legislative chambers, have significantly improved the political environment for progress on gun violence prevention issues in the years ahead.

The results also constitute a massive defeat for the leadership of the National Rifle Association, which said it spent more than $10 million to tell voters that President-Elect Obama would be “the most anti-gun President in American history.”  According to Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign, “the NRA bosses went ‘all in’ and lost big.  They spent millions on their campaign to ‘defeat Obama’ and failed.”

The gun lobby’s single-issue voters failed to deliver.  The NRA spent heavily on TV and radio advertising in states that landed decisively in the Democratic column, including Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Mexico, Florida, Nevada, Wisconsin, Minnesota and others. It spent more than $1 million on Senate races, with the largest amounts going towards losing races in North Carolina and Colorado.

“When it comes to common sense gun policies, our candidates won, the NRA’s candidates lost, and efforts to use the gun issue as a wedge issue flopped,” Helmke said.  “We know of no candidate anywhere, at any level, for any office, who lost a race because of support for common sense gun measures.”  

“This is a good day for people who want to reduce gun violence in America,” said Sarah Brady, Chair of the Brady Campaign.  “It’s a bad day for extremists who are stuck in the rhetoric of the past.”

The Brady Campaign issued a strong endorsement for the Obama-Biden ticket in early October.  President-Elect Obama consistently supported sensible gun laws in the U.S. Senate and in the Illinois State Senate. Vice President-Elect Biden not only has supported, but also has been a leader for strong gun laws throughout his career in the U.S. Senate.  

In races for the U.S. Senate, at least four seats previously filled by opponents of common sense gun laws went to candidates who take more reasonable positions.  Where the Brady Campaign endorsed in U.S. Senate races against candidates either endorsed or “A” rated by the NRA, seven out of seven Brady-endorsed candidates won.

In the U.S. House, in matchups between Brady Campaign-endorsed candidates and candidates either endorsed or “A” rated by the NRA, better than 84 percent of the Brady candidates won.  More than 91 percent of all Brady-endorsed House members won.  High-profile NRA supporters defeated yesterday included incumbents Marilyn  Musgrave in Colorado; Phil English in Pennsylvania; Ric Keller and Tom Feeney in Florida and Joe Knollenberg in Michigan.  Successful Brady-endorsed candidates won in states like Maine (Chellie Pingree), Kentucky (John Yarmuth), Iowa (Dave Loebsack) and Virginia (Gerry Connolly).

The New York State Senate switched from Republican to Democratic control in part because of successful Brady Campaign-endorsed candidates in two key races who campaigned aggressively on the gun issue.  In addition, several Brady-targeted incumbents in Illinois state legislative races were defeated.

While economic and foreign policy issues dominated the campaigns, Helmke pointed out that gun laws were discussed regularly during the primaries and general election with all major candidates frequently answering questions and taking positions on the topic.  The NRA’s extensive ad buys in battleground states which ended up in the Obama-Biden column were significant. 

“President-Elect Obama has talked repeatedly about his support for sensible gun laws and the need to keep dangerous guns out of the hands of dangerous people.  He even highlighted his support for restrictions on assault weapons in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver,” Helmke said.  “Obama’s message on guns, recognizing that the Second Amendment gives people the right to own guns subject to reasonable restrictions, is consistent with what we’ve been saying since the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Second Amendment last June.”

Indeed, Brady Campaign officials believe that the Supreme Court decision in D.C. v. Heller may be part of the reason that the gun lobby’s old rhetoric trying to scare legitimate gun owners about possible confiscation of their privately-owned firearms, was rejected at the polls.  “Guns are no longer a ‘wedge’ issue for most voters,” Helmke said.  “Rather than being frightened with false alarms about the government taking their guns away, most voters want to do something to make it harder for dangerous people to get dangerous weapons and to stop the trafficking in illegal guns.”

Some additional facts and numbers about yesterday’s results:

More than 91 percent of Brady Campaign endorsed candidates nationwide won their elections.

• Some Brady endorsed candidates who won House seats – like Alan Grayson in Florida and Gary Peters in Michigan – were considered underdogs for much of the election cycle.

• Not only did the NRA leaders endorse a candidate for President they had previously called “one of the premier flag carriers for enemies of the Second Amendment” and graded only a “C+,” but none of their highly-graded supporters – Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, Ron Paul or Bill Richardson – lasted long in the primaries.

• In head-to-head races between candidates endorsed or “A” rated by the NRA and candidates endorsed by the Brady Campaign, the NRA lost more than 80 percent.

• The NRA ran at least nine different television ads attacking Obama in at least eleven states. Obama ended up winning ten of those 11 states.

“We know many elected officials still consider anything dealing with guns to be controversial, but yesterday’s elections should encourage them to start moving forward,” Helmke said.  “We know we still have to work hard to get common sense gun laws adopted.  But gun violence victims and the survivors of loved ones lost to gun violence should be hopeful that we can make some real progress to protect our families and communities from gun violence in the next few years.”

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As the nation's largest, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading the fight to prevent gun violence, the Brady Campaign, with its dedicated network of Million Mom March Chapters, works to enact and enforce sensible gun laws, regulations and public policies. The Brady Campaign is devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities.

For continuing insight and comment on the gun issue, read Paul Helmke's blog at www.bradycampaign.org/blog/. Visit the Brady Campaign website at www.bradycampaign.org.