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Three midterm votes point to potential shift in gun-rights battle

The 2014 midterms marked the first time that pro-gun rights, NRA spending was matched, even exceeded, on the campaign trail, to support pro-gun-control candidates and ballot initiatives. Votes in Connecticut, Colorado, and Washington State stand out.

The success聽of gun-control proponents and proposals in Washington, Colorado, and Connecticut in Tuesday's midterm election聽marks the biggest setbacks for US gun owners in years.

Ever since the pro-gun lobby helped defeat 20 Democrats who had voted to support an automatic weapons ban in the 1994 elections, swinging control of the House back to Republicans, it has been conventional wisdom on Capitol Hill that you don't go up against the gun lobby, without expecting a drubbing at the voting booth.聽

But the midterm votes on gun initiatives may augur a slowdown in a steady advance of gun rights and even set up聽potential showdowns between wayward gun owners who refuse to adhere to the new gun-control laws聽and police.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) both proved that American governors can sign major gun-control legislation and survive at the ballot box, testing the clout of gun owners and their lobbying arm, the National Rifle Association.

Moreover, the success of a Washington State聽referendum to close the so-called gun show loophole 鈥� that is,聽where private sales don鈥檛 require background checks 鈥� bolstered gun-control advocates like former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who says that such populist victories could mark a major turning point in the national gun-rights debate.

鈥淲hen Americans vote on public safety measures to prevent gun violence, gun safety wins,鈥� said John Feinblatt, president of Mr. Bloomberg鈥檚 Everytown for Gun Safety, in a statement. "The NRA might be able to intimidate Washington, D.C., and state legislators, but they don't intimidate American voters."

In some ways, gun politics were a marginal issue in Election 2014. In fact, fewer than 1 percent of likely voters said guns were the nation鈥檚 top issue, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll.

Still, the 2014聽midterms marked the first time that聽NRA spending was matched, even exceeded, on the campaign trail, as wealthy Americans like Bloomberg and Bill Gates put more than $50 million into play to support pro-gun-control聽candidates and ballot initiatives. Gun-control groups alone spent $4 million in Washington State, where the NRA鈥檚 spending was marginal. The NRA spent a reported $35 million nationwide聽on the campaign trail in 2014.

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told The Washington Times that the election marked 鈥渁n overwhelming rejection鈥� of gun-control candidates.

Yet, at least some of the gun-rights grass-roots activists saw the election as a warning knell.

Gun-related votes were a 鈥渕ixed bag, but where it counted 鈥� Colorado, Connecticut, and Washington State 鈥� our side lost big-time,鈥� says Mike Vanderboegh, a Second Amendment activist and former militia leader based in Alabama.

The affirmation of the Malloy administration in Connecticut, especially, says Mr. Vanderboegh, raises new questions about what the returning governor is planning to do about gun owners who fail to register their semiautomatic rifles and large magazines under a new law signed by Governor Malloy last year.

With Malloy back in office, 鈥渢he noise that you鈥檙e hearing that鈥檚 drowning out GOP triumphalism is the 鈥榮nick-snick鈥� of cleaning rods going through rifles,鈥� Vanderboegh says.

The registry law has been met with widespread disdain, with an estimated 100,000 gun owners refusing to either register their weapons or ship them out of state.

Those gun owners, in a lawsuit by the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, argue that the law runs counter to the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, which states that gun rights 鈥渟hall not be infringed.鈥� Some gun-rights groups have urged jury nullification as a method to protect gun owners who get into trouble for failing to register their arms. What gun-rights activists say is that there are potentially tens of thousands of gun owners who will refuse to register.聽

鈥淚f you haven鈥檛 declared it or registered it and you get caught ... you鈥檒l be a felon,鈥� Mike Lawlor, Malloy鈥檚 so-called 鈥済un czar,鈥� said last year. 鈥淧eople who disregard the law are, among other things, jeopardizing their right to own firearms. If you鈥檙e not a law-abiding citizen, you鈥檙e not a law-abiding citizen.鈥�

The US Supreme Court has ruled in several recent cases that lawmakers can pass gun-control laws as long as they are in the interest of public safety and don鈥檛 curtail the basic right of law-abiding Americans to buy and keep firearms for self-defense.

Victories in Connecticut, Colorado, and Washington, gun-control groups say, show that statehouses now offer new hope for gun-control efforts, such as expanding background checks for gun buyers. During the past decade, statehouses widely expanded gun and armed self-defense rights.

To be sure, regional demographics will continue to loom large. Alabama voters, after all, approved on Tuesday a measure that reaffirms the right to bear arms and adds that 鈥渘o international treaty or law shall prohibit, limit [or] otherwise interfere with a citizen鈥檚 fundamental right to bear arms.鈥�

At the very least, the rise of gun control as a potential populist winner at the referendum level does suggest 鈥渢he politics of gun control are evolving more than the longstanding pundit fatalism around the issue,鈥� as Alec MacGillis wrote in the liberal-leaning New Republic in October.