Georgia voters call for stricter gun rules
ATLANTA — A broad majority of likely Georgia primary voters want stricter gun control measures, including a growing number of Republicans who break ranks with their party leaders by calling for more limits on firearm sales, according to a pair of polls conducted for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News.
The polls of likely GOP and Democratic primary voters conducted by the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs suggest a shift in attitudes among Republicans after mass shootings in Las Vegas and at a Florida high school drew intense attention to gun laws and led to student-led protest marches across the nation.
In perhaps the most striking finding, 45 percent of likely Republican primary voters who were questioned April 19-26 want stricter rules covering the sale of firearms and 46 percent want those rules to stay the same. Only 7 percent of respondents want to loosen gun regulations to make it easier to buy firearms.
It suggests Georgia Republicans could find common ground on the debate across the aisle. A separate AJC/ Channel 2 poll released last week showed roughly 90 percent of likely Democratic primary voters want stricter firearms regulations and only a handful — about 6 percent — want the gun laws to stay the same.
“Is the ability to possess an AR-15 the biggest problem that affects Georgia? No. Rural blight is a problem. Education is a problem. The economy is a problem,” said Jon Macon, a conservative voter from southeast Georgia. “And the candidates need to talk about that instead.”
The findings mirror recent national surveys that show support for tougher
gun control laws has soared after the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., left 17 dead. A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in March found that nearly 7 in 10 adults — and half of Republicans — favor stricter gun measures.
Some Republicans facing tight races in other states have backed gun restrictions, and Florida lawmakers responded to the shooting by adopting a law to raise the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21, extend the waiting period to buy firearms to three days, and boost funding for school police officers and mental health services.
But no prominent GOP politician in Georgia has staked a position calling for significant new limits on firearm sales. In fact, the leading Republican candidates for the state’s top office are racing to outflank each other on the issue.
One GOP candidate for governor, former state Sen. Hunter Hill, swiftly backtracked after suggesting he would raise the minimum age limit to buy assault weapons to 21. A rival, executive Clay Tippins, branded him “Benedict Arnold” — a notorious traitor — over his remarks.
The state’s leading Democrats, meanwhile, have decisively embraced gun control. The party’s top candidates once jockeyed for support from the National Rifle Association and called themselves progun Democrats. Now, the two contenders at the top of the ticket — Stacey Abrams and Stacey Evans — feud over just how vigorously each will fight the NRA if elected governor.
And many left-leaning voters are egging them on, encouraged by the state party’s recent shift.
“Gun control has to be our priority — not gun rights,” said Dawn Brown, a 55-year-old attorney from East Point. “There has to be new limits on the kinds of guns we sell, the kinds of ammunition we sell and who gets to buy them. The NRA has long been driving the gun agenda, and it shouldn’t decide who should have guns.”
The poll showed anything but consensus on the most polarizing personality in Georgia politics today: President Donald Trump.
Only 7 percent of likely Democratic voters approve of his job performance in the White House, compared with 80 percent of Republicans. The “Never Trump” movement in Georgia has long since petered out, at least among elected officials, and many Republican voters indicated that loyalty to the president will be key to their votes.
About three-quarters of Democrats said opposing Trump would be an important or very important factor in casting their vote. And about the same proportion of Republicans said support for the president would help determine their position.
“It 100 percent matters to me. Whoever represents me and my state must be very closely aligned to Trump’s values and his stand on illegal immigrants,” said Brooke Williams, a 36-year-old from Macon who is temporarily out of work. “I’m a very conservative Republican, and I want whoever is representing me to be as closely aligned to Trump as possible.”
Many Democrats who hope to channel anger toward the president into November election gains are insisting on a candidate who opposes the president at every turn.
“I’m doing everything I can to make sure his policies are not in any way enabled, enforced. I am very strongly opposed to almost everything he has done,” said Brown, the attorney. “That’s a huge factor. We’ve made a lot of strides in the last eight or nine years, and they’re being gutted.”