Poll shows gun control fading in importance for midterm voters

Democrats from Joe Biden on down may be hoping that Americans’ concern about crime and public safety will lead them to vote for the party of gun control this November, but a new Monmouth Poll should provide a reality check for anti-gun politicians. According to the survey, gun control is actually less important to the electorate than it was four years ago.

The survey wasn’t open ended, instead asking respondents to choose the most important issue between six different choices; the economy, abortion, health care, immigration, gun control, and taxes. Crime wasn’t even included as an option, which I find a little odd, but the inclusion of gun control should have served as a proxy… at least for those voters who believe that the best way to reduce crime is by restricting the right to keep and bear arms. As it turns out, fewer Americans call gun control their top issue today than they did back in 2018.

It’s no real shock that the economy would be the most important issue, and given the media attention given to the leaked draft of the Dobbs opinion overturning Roe v. Wade I’m not too surprised that abortion is a close second at the moment. The Supreme Court’s pending decision in the New York right to carry case will turn Democrats’ attention back towards gun control, especially with politicians like Eric Adams trying to scare the bejeebers out of New Yorkers about the prospect of having to recognize the right to bear arms in self-defense, but even then I doubt that gun control is suddenly going to become a top priority for midterm voters.