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Victories for Gun Safety in 2016: Gabby & Mark on the 2016 Elections
November 9, 2016 — In the midst of perhaps the most unexpected election results in American political history are real victories by gun violence prevention advocates.
First, in New Hampshire, in a rejection of her votes against expanding background checks for gun sales, we defeated Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte. Ayotte’s loss is a cautionary tale for those who might think the voters aren’t paying attention and that candidates won’t be held accountable when they vote against gun safety. Details of our aggressive program to unseat Ayotte and elect Governor Maggie Hassan are below.
Second, gun safety polices won at the polls via ballot initiative in California, Washington State, and Nevada. California easily passed new laws instituting background checks on ammunition, among other policies. Prop 63 was endorsed by ARS and written by our charitable arm, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. In Washington, ARS partner, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, easily passed an innovative Extreme Risk Protection Order law, which will temporarily restrain access to guns by those in crisis. We donated heavily to the effort. In Nevada, voters approved Question 1, which institutes universal background checks, making it the seventh state to do so since Sandy Hook. Congresswoman Giffords stumped for the measure in the waning days of the hard fought campaign.
Third, voters continue to support stronger gun laws and reject the argument that doing more to prevent gun violence runs contrary to the Second Amendment. In a nationwide exit survey, more than half (53%) of voters want stronger gun laws, including nearly half of independent voters (47%) and exactly half (50%) of voters who do not have a college degree. Only ten percent of voters said they want weaker gun laws. And in New Hampshire, where preventing gun violence became a much debated issue in the campaign, 6 in 10 support stronger gun laws.
http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/news/
First, in New Hampshire, in a rejection of her votes against expanding background checks for gun sales, we defeated Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte. Ayotte’s loss is a cautionary tale for those who might think the voters aren’t paying attention and that candidates won’t be held accountable when they vote against gun safety. Details of our aggressive program to unseat Ayotte and elect Governor Maggie Hassan are below.
Second, gun safety polices won at the polls via ballot initiative in California, Washington State, and Nevada. California easily passed new laws instituting background checks on ammunition, among other policies. Prop 63 was endorsed by ARS and written by our charitable arm, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. In Washington, ARS partner, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, easily passed an innovative Extreme Risk Protection Order law, which will temporarily restrain access to guns by those in crisis. We donated heavily to the effort. In Nevada, voters approved Question 1, which institutes universal background checks, making it the seventh state to do so since Sandy Hook. Congresswoman Giffords stumped for the measure in the waning days of the hard fought campaign.
Third, voters continue to support stronger gun laws and reject the argument that doing more to prevent gun violence runs contrary to the Second Amendment. In a nationwide exit survey, more than half (53%) of voters want stronger gun laws, including nearly half of independent voters (47%) and exactly half (50%) of voters who do not have a college degree. Only ten percent of voters said they want weaker gun laws. And in New Hampshire, where preventing gun violence became a much debated issue in the campaign, 6 in 10 support stronger gun laws.
http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/news/
The need for sensible gun control has become a mainstream goal of a majority of Americans in an effort to reduce the gun violence on our streets and in our communities. The NRA, GOA, ALEC, and the Koch Brothers have saturated our country with guns, and there isn't very much we can do about that. What we CAN do, however, is to regulate where those millions of guns can be kept, carried, and used.