A new survey of four battleground states has found that more voters support stricter gun laws than maintaining the status quo, and majorities in each state support specific proposals.
The Brady Pac, the political arm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, polled the issue in Iowa, North Carolina, Texas and Colorado, all states with competitive Senate races and a strong culture of gun ownership. The polling, shared first with The Guardian, found that roughly half of voters in these states believe gun laws should be “more strict”. In all states, more voters prioritize “reducing gun violence” over “protecting the rights of gun owners.”
Gun sales have spiked since the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, amid widespread economic and political uncertainty.
The survey found that suburban women, a critical constituency that helped Democrats take the control of the House in 2018, strongly support stronger gun laws. In North Carolina, a state Democrats haven’t captured since the 2008 presidential election, 71% of suburban women said they supported stricter gun laws. Gun control was a top issue for suburban women in 2018.
The results match similar surveys that have found growing support for gun control broadly, a concept that once polled at lower levels than individual gun safety proposals, such as requiring safe storage and banning high-capacity ammunition.
This also follows a survey commissioned by Everytown for Gun Safety that found messaging around gun-safety was among the most effective in persuading swing voters to support the Democratic nominee Joe Biden in 13 battleground states.
Taken together, the polling suggest gun control may not only be an important issue in 2020, but that it could be a decisive issue for a number of swing voters in battleground states that will decide control of the Senate and the White House.
