Hickenlooper in Connecticut.
Former governor meets with Sandy Hook survivors
The former Colorado governor meets with Sandy Hook survivors about gun control.
NEWTOWN, CONN.» At a library 2 miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 students were among those killed in one of the nation’s most horrific mass shootings, John Hickenlooper sat Saturday among two dozen survivors, listening to their ideas on how to curb gun violence and pitching a few of his own.
Universal background checks are a must, the former two-term Colorado governor said. Then, maybe, a ban on assault weapons. As president, he would go community by community, House district by House district, with data to convince reluctant federal lawmakers to pass meaningful gun control legislation.
“Every great social triumph was built on the ashes of previous failures,” Hickenlooper told the crowd. “We’re at a point now where we have critical mass. I really feel now we’re at an inflection point, where if everyone continues their efforts in the next year or two, after 2020 we will have the momentum — it really is momentum — to address gun violence issues.”
It’s conversations like the one Hickenlooper had Saturday on the presidential campaign trail that give gun control advocates hope that the 2020 election will be a watershed moment for an agenda that has stalled at the
national level.
“This issue is so fundamental,” said Veronica Kenausis, one of many attendees Saturday who wore a red T-shirt representing the group Moms Demand Action. “It effects everything else. Until we feel safe in our community — in our schools, our movie theaters — we can’t accomplish anything else.”
Hickenlooper is one of many Democratic presidential candidates running for president addressing gun violence, although he has more direct experience with it than many.
Coupled with strong public support for tighter regulations and buoyed by a string of victories in the 2018 election, longtime activists believe the moment is ripe for national change.
Activists hope this is their moment
“What we want is a president who is going to land in the White House with a clear mandate from voters to deliver on gun violence prevention,” said Peter Ambler, executive director of the group Giffords.
If all goes according to the group’s plans, the next president will win in part because of his or her support for a major overhaul to how the U.S. regulates firearms.
Polls suggest strong public support for a variety of gun control policies — despite the efforts of one of the best-funded, most vocal lobbies in the country.
The NRA, which has been attacked by numerous Democratic presidential candidates, did not respond to a request for an interview.
However, Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners Association, said he’s skeptical his opponents have as much public support as they claim.
“Do I think (2018) signals a major change in the firearms policy? No,” he said.
“Gun owners are more mobilized than they’ve ever been outside the Obama years. That’s what we’re finding. If we talk to gun owners and tell them the honest truth, the vast majority are willing to hear and willing to act.”
Despite numerous efforts by gun control activists to make their concerns an issue during the 2012 presidential race, neither President Barack Obama nor Republican challenger Mitt Romney would speak on the issue, said Christian Heyne, the vice president of policy for Brady, a political nonprofit that advocates for stricter gun laws.
The closest either candidate got to talking about it was a debate question that both dodged.
Now, in 2019, candidates including Hickenlooper, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and Mayor Pete Buttigieg are making gun control major platform planks. Even Democratic candidates who historically have been softer on guns — U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Kirsten Gillibrand — are clamoring to take on the gun lobby.
“I think that we’re really poised to have a landmark cycle where candidates want to really outdo each other,” Heyne said. “It’s unfathomable that the Democratic nominee will be bad on this issue.”
Candidates are consulting with groups such as Brady, Giffords and Anytownusa to develop their platforms, leading to a lot of overlap. For example, Booker, Buttigieg and Hickenlooper all want to reinstate an assault weapons ban, fund community-based programs to end urban gun violence and establish a national standard for gun licenses.
“More Americans have lost their lives by guns than have lost their lives in all of our nation’s wars combined, and yet our gun safety laws remain the same,” Booker spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a statement.
“That’s why every candidate running for president should be pressed to detail how, exactly, they would combat this epidemic — and that’s why Cory introduced the most sweeping proposal that centers around gun licensing.”
There is good reason so many Democratic candidates are rallying around gun control: The topic is extremely popular with their base and a growing number of Americans.
In 2018, 70 percent of Democrats named gun policy the second-most-important issue facing the country. Only health care ranked higher among Democrats.
Polls paint a picture — maybe
And just last week a new Quinnipiac poll found that most Americans support a wide range of gun control policies: 94 percent want universal background checks; 77 percent want individuals to have a license before purchasing a gun; 63 percent wanted a nationwide ban on assault weapons.
However, David Kopel of the Independence Institute, a freemarket think tank based in Denver, said there’s a big gap between what people tell pollsters and how they vote. He pointed to recent votes in Maine and Nevada on universal background checks.
Despite background checks polling extremely high, Maine voters narrowly defeated the ballot initiative. Nevada barely approved it.
Money likely will play a big role in what happens in 2020.
According to Opensecrets.org, groups such as Giffords spent more than $9.7 million to help elect Democrats to the U.S. House, including Jason Crow, who beat former Rep. Mike Coffman in a suburban Denver swing district in part by linking the Republican to the NRA.
The 2018 cycle was the first time gun control advocates outspent the NRA.
However, that’s largely because last year the NRA spent just a fraction of the $55 million it poured into 2016 races.
Darien Wilson, a Highlands Ranch mother of three, worked on Crow’s campaign against Coffman, a moderate Republican.
She said Crow’s stance on guns was one of the biggest reasons she supported him — and it will be a major test for her in the presidential campaign.
Wilson, in an interview this month, recalled walking her heavily Republican suburban neighborhood and being stunned by the number of voters she met who named gun violence as one of their top issues.
“There are a lot of Republicans who feel like they don’t have a home as far as guns are concerned,” she said. “I think a lot of moderates are going to cross over.”
Wilson said the momentum for candidates who support gun control legislation will keep gaining, especially as school shootings, such as the one at a Highlands Ranch charter school this month, continue.
One student was killed and eight were injured after two students opened fire at the school.
“I was picking my kids up from school and just watched siren after siren go by,” she said. “I’ve known kids who have gone to STEM since they were in the first grade. All this stuff we’ve been fighting against — it’s closer to home.”
It’s a tragedy that’s familiar to Coloradans.
The 20-year-old shooting at Columbine High School remains one of the most high-profile school shootings in the country, and since then the Denver area has experienced several more school and other mass shootings.
Hickenlooper was governor in 2012, when the Aurora theater shooting took a dozen lives. As part of his presidential campaign, he has met with the loved ones of those killed at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., Columbine and now Sandy Hook.
Karen Dryer’s son was in kindergarten at Sandy Hook when a 20-year-old opened fire in the Connecticut school. Her boy survived, but her neighbors were not so lucky.
Several years later, Dryer gave up her profession as a teacher. The aftershocks of the shooting, including regular lockdown drills, became too much for her to stand.
“Nobody should have to deal with that,” she said, holding back tears as she thought about the possibility of returning to the classroom if Congress were to pass comprehensive gun control legislation.
“I loved teaching. I’m an excellent teacher. The fact this forced me out of a profession I loved is terrible. I would love to go back.”
“Every great social triumph was built on the ashes of previous failures. We’re at a point now where we have critical mass. I really feel now we’re at an inflection point, where if everyone continues their efforts in the next year or two, after 2020 we will have the momentum — it really is momentum — to address gun violence issues.” John Hickenlooper, Democratic presidential candidate