By: Ashleigh Meyer

A Gallup Survey published this week revealed the issue of gun policy as the second most important issue of the 2020 election, according to polled voters.

A staggering 34 percent of Americans selected gun policy as their number one focus, while healthcare barely took the lead, at 35 percent.

What’s changed? Well, there has been a radical shift in voting trends, and some Democrats are getting elected because of their anti-gun stance.

Traditionally, individuals who voted solely on the issue of gun legislation were pro-Second Amendment Conservatives. Recent studies have shown, however, that more Democrats are coming to the polls for no other reason than to cast their votes for gun control.

Take Virginia, for example, where the issue of gun rights has turned the state into a battleground of discourse and protest. For the first time in more than twenty years, Virginia is controlled by an entirely Democratic government. Governor Ralph Northam (D) presides over a blue-majority House and Senate, and polling revealed that a Congressional candidate’s stance on gun legislation was the number one deciding factor for most Virginia voters, edging out employment and the economy. According to Forbes contributor and political strategist Doug Schoen, “Among those voters who ranked gun issues as their top voting issue, 66 percent voted for Democratic candidates in the election, compared with just 32 percent who voted for Republicans.”

It isn’t just Virginia experiencing this wave of anti-gun sentiment. Democratic candidates have identified gun control as a powerful tool to bring voters to the polls, and they are using it. Presidential and congressional hopefuls, lobby organizations, and anti-gun interest groups have spent astronomical amounts of cash on anti-gun advertising and are targeting their audience on television and social media. The emotional ads involve teachers, parents, and first responders lamenting the tragedy of mass shootings and in-school active shooter drills, blaming Republican resistance to expanded background checks and red flag laws.

It isn’t looking great for the Second Amendment. What will motivate Conservatives to invest, with their money and their time, in protecting their Constitutional freedoms? It’s hard to say. What is certain is that the 2020 election could permanently alter the way Americans approach firearms ownership.

Ashleigh Meyer is a professional writer and Conservative political correspondent from rural Virginia.