On the politics of gun control, Democrats are suddenly facing an arms race. After downplaying the issue for most of the past two decades, Democrats in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail are now advancing their most ambitious ideas to control access to firearms since at least the 2000 election, and arguably ever. …
The long-term arc of greater Democratic ambition on gun control offers one of the most dramatic measures of how the party’s shifting electoral coalition has changed its incentives on issues that divide the country along cultural lines. …
For all the Democratic talk about regaining ground among rural and working-class white voters, the party’s turn toward a more aggressive gun-control agenda makes that less likely, at least among the men in those categories. Conversely, it could help Democrats recapture some of the working-class white women who already show signs of drifting from Trump on other issues, from immigration to his personal behavior. CONT.
Ronald Brownstein, CNN
Recent polls: Guns