For Democrats such as Reps. Deborah Halvorson (Ill.) and Zack Space (Ohio), the court’s decision couldn’t have been more beneficial to the cause in November. | AP photo composite by POLITICO Dems quietly cheer gun ruling

When the Supreme Court extended the individual right to own a gun Monday, it handed Second Amendment advocates — many of whom are at home in the GOP — one of their most significant legal victories ever.

But who won the day in politics? The Democrats.


For them, the court’s groundbreaking decision couldn’t have been more beneficial to the cause in November. Now, Democratic candidates across the map figure they have one less issue to worry about on the campaign trail. And they won’t have to defend Republican attacks over gun rights and an angry, energized base of gun owners.

“It removes guns as a political issue because everyone now agrees that the Second Amendment is an individual right, and everybody agrees that it’s subject to regulation,” said Lanae Erickson, deputy director of the culture program at centrist think tank Third Way.

A House Democratic aide agreed that the court’s decision removed a potentially combustible element from the mix.

“The Supreme Court ruled here that you have a fundamental right to own and bear arms, and that means at the national level it’s harder — whether it’s Republicans or whether it’s the [ National Rifle Association] — to throw that claim out: If Democrats are in charge. they’re going to come get your guns,” said the aide. “It pretty much took that off the table.”

The likely removal — or at least neutralization — of the gun issue this fall is of no small matter in the battle for the House and Senate. The Democratic majorities in both chambers were built, in part, on victories in pro-gun states and districts that had until recently been difficult terrain for Democratic candidates as a result of the national party’s position on gun control.

The chorus of responses to Monday’s ruling was a group of normally dissonant voices: It proved the rare occasion when both former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could find common ground.

In a Facebook post titled “Another Victory for the Second Amendment,” Palin wrote that the case “should leave little doubt that our individual right to keep and bear arms applies everywhere and is a right for everyone.”

Reid essentially agreed, calling the right to bear arms “one of the essential freedoms on which our country was founded.”

“I am pleased that the high court has taken steps in both the Heller and McDonald cases to guarantee this fundamental right,” he said in a prepared statement, referring to both the 2008 Heller decision, which struck down the District of Columbia’s restrictive gun law, and Monday’s McDonald v. Chicago decision against Chicago’s handgun ban.

For congressional Democrats — especially those in seats outside major metropolitan areas where support for gun rights runs high — the ruling offered a chance to assert their pro-gun bona fides.

Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio), a second-term Democrat representing a rural and small-town district in eastern Ohio, quickly sent a blast to his “Constitution-loving” constituents.

“Today’s ruling has put the Supreme Court on the side of every Constitution-loving American,” he said in the e-mail. “Our right to keep and bear arms is a cornerstone of our Constitution, given to us by our Founding Fathers, and it can never be taken away.”

Also quick with praise were Democratic Reps. Tom Perriello of Virginia, Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona and Travis Childers of Mississippi, all facing tough races in November and all representing districts with large rural components where gun ownership rights are sacrosanct.

“Of course, we were watching for the decision, but if you work for someone whose response to Heller was ‘it’s about time,’ then you were probably prepared for this decision, whichever way it went,” said John Foster, campaign manager for freshman Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho), who noted that Minnick has made it a point to visit the gun ranges and ammunition and boutique gun manufacturers in his strongly conservative district.

John Anzalone, a prominent Alabama-based pollster with a roster of Southern Democratic clients, called it a “win, win, win, win” situation for everyone and, above all, “for conservative Democrats who will be able to use it as a credential that they’re conservative. This is a tough political environment; you’re going to see Southern, Western Democrats use it and stand up for gun rights.”

And it wasn’t just Southern and Western Democrats who embraced the ruling.

“The decision by the United States Supreme Court to uphold the freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution is a major victory for Americans,” said Deborah Halvorson (D-Ill.), who represents a district that extends well beyond the Chicago metropolitan area and who is in a competitive race with Republican challenger Adam Kinzinger.

The Democratic sigh of relief after the McDonald decision wasn’t exactly a surprise — 80 House Democrats and 19 Senate Democrats signed onto an amicus brief opposing the Chicago gun ban, a tacit recognition that, for many Democratic legislators, gun control advocacy is akin to political suicide.

That “highlights a pretty significant shift that’s gone on in gun politics,” the Democratic aide said.

“Last week, just the debate over the campaign finance bill highlighted how deep the NRA’s inroads into the Congress have gone with both parties, but especially with Democrats. over the last four years,” the aide said, referring to a last-minute change that exempts the NRA and other grass-roots groups from major new campaign finance rules. “There aren’t any other organizations out there that have 4 million dues-paying members, period. That’s why they’re effective, agree or disagree with their agenda.”

The NRA’s top lobbyist, Chris Cox, was careful to call this “the end of the beginning” and promised a slew of lawsuits challenging local laws.

But in the end, he said, the law is “a vindication, and it’s really what the American people have always felt and always known, that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to own a gun regardless of where you live.”