Eric Swalwell’s announcement he is ending his campaign for the Democrat nomination served as one more reminder that gun control is not as popular as the left pretends.
If it were so popular, Swalwell would still be in the race and might even be a frontrunner. After all, he was running on a platform of gun control, ammunition control, and more gun control.
Swalwell ended his campaign on July 8, 2019, after spending just over 90 days telling establishment media talking heads Americans want more gun control but President Trump stands in the way. As recently as July 6, 2019, Swalwell tweeted video where he assured CNN viewers there was momentum for gun control and pledged that he would “ride that momentum” if elected.
Breitbart News reported Swalwell campaigned on a forced ban and buyback of AR-15s and similar commonly-owned semiautomatic rifles. He also pushed a 48-hour waiting period on gun purchases, an insurance requirement for gun owners, a licensing requirement for gun owners, the creation of a gun registry, a ban on “high capacity” magazines, and an expansion of background checks, so as to include private gun sales.
Swalwell also talked of requiring background checks for would-be ammunition purchasers.
He not only assured us that Americans in general wanted more gun control but that nearly three-quarters of NRA members were supportive of it. Yet he never polled above zero percent nationally.
How can this be?
How can the American people and three-quarters of the NRA’s five million members support more gun control yet Swalwell polls at zero percent?
There are two possible answers. The first answer would be to assume Swalwell did not communicate his gun control plans clearly enough for Americans and NRA members to see he was giving them what they wanted. But that answer does not work because Swalwell was very clear about his intentions to take away whole categories of firearms.
So this brings us to our second answer, which is that Swalwell was very clear in communicating a message that was not nearly as popular as he pretended it would be. In other words, Americans, as whole, and the vast majority of NRA members, are not looking for more gun control. Were the case otherwise, more than 18 people would have come out to hear Swalwell’s June 17, 2019, gun control speech near NRA headquarters.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.