Every presidential candidate should support comprehensive gun control

As I write this, we’re in the initial stages of reporting on a white man shooting and killing nine people, then himself, in Dayton, Ohio.

That shooting happened the day after a white man shot and killed twenty people in El Paso, Texas.

And that shooting happened the day after a man shot and killed three people in Pomfret, Md.

And that shooting happened the same day as the shooting in Suffolk, Va., which happened two days after a shooting in Elkhart, Ind., which happened a day after the shooting in Southaven, Miss., which happened the same day as the shooting in Haskell, Okla., which happened the same day as the shooting in Rosenberg, Texas, which happened the same day as the shooting in Columbus, Ohio.

Men have shot and killed forty-three people in the past six days.

A hundred years ago, a less fatal botulism epidemic produced these reforms:

“In early December 1919, the canning and olive industries came together to fund a Botulism Commission of scientific experts tasked with producing specific strategies for safely processing olives to prevent such a crisis from happening again.

…

After much negotiation, the Botulism Commission’s findings led to strict regulations for the processing of olives — 240 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 40 minutes — and a statewide inspection service, funded by the industries, but overseen by the impartial California State Board of Health. By 1925, many of these standardized practices had expanded to other food products, covering sardines, tuna, and all vegetable products except tomatoes.”

This year, in response to measles outbreaks, three states have “passed legislation in 2019 eliminating either personal or philosophical exemptions for vaccines — or both.”

But in response to men shooting and killing 43 people in six days, we have produced … hashtags. And vigils. Additionally, I have every confidence that several people have offered thoughts and prayers, which I have yet to see connected to a decrease in men shooting and killing people.

People want more than thoughts and prayers, though. They want stricter gun laws:

And practically nobody in America likes our gun laws:

A fair number of people would like to ban assault rifles (though more oppose such a ban):

Support for more training for people responding to shootings, more background checks, more security in schools, more monitoring of students and raising the firearm ownership age is pretty clear:

Here’s where things get fun, though. A lot of people say that guns matter deeply in the politicians they vote for:

But when it comes time to vote for president, their overwhelming concern for gun policy disappears. Guns have never been an exit poll factor; you have to shift the focus to crime to get anyone to say anything. That has happened twice in presidential elections since 1976:

1996:

And 1988:

So since most people support more gun control, and since voters don’t focus on that issue at the presidential level when it comes time to vote, and since two hundred and eighty-one people have been killed in mass shootings this year, there’s zero reason for the presidential candidates to support gun control and every reason for them to make it a key issue.