If you ever wonder why Michael Bloomberg is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into gun control research at the same time that he spent $110 million last year on just federal Congressional races and even more on state legislative races (and it also doesn’t count the campaign contributions from other Bloomberg supported groups such as Everytown (here, here, and here)), compared to the $9.2 million that the NRA PAC spent on all political campaigns during the entire 2017-2018 period. Even NRA’s top year for spending on all campaigns is less than half the amount that Bloomberg spends regularly on just federal Congressional races, though most of that money was in 2016 on the presidential race. This article by Democrat pollster Doug Schoen provides an explanation for why so much is being spent by Democrats to push gun control. Bloomberg understands that he just can’t focus on politics, but that he also has to focus on changing people’s views on guns. (Note that Bloomberg plans to spend “at least $500 million” to stop Trump from being re-elected next year.)
Writing at the Hill newspaper Schoen notes:
Put simply, this can and should be a unifying issue for Democrats going into 2020. Witnin a party that is plagued by differences over health care, college tuition, and even climate change, gun control is a fundamental issue where voters want change, and the Democrats can unite around it. To be sure, this is an issue that spans from grassroots activism to national politics, and even across the ideological spectrum. My fellow Democrats would be wise to bring this issue to the forefront of the 2020 campaign. . . .
Ending gun violence is a unifying issue for Democrats, independents, and moderates. It should no doubt be a central theme for Democrats in 2020. . . .
In the 2018 midterms, gun violence was the top election issue for young people, with 91 percent of millennials saying the position of a candidate on guns is important when deciding who to vote for, according to a study that year by Everytown for Gun Safety and Courage to Fight Gun Violence. . . .
Further, according to a Reuters Ipsos poll earlier this year, 69 percent of Americans, including 85 percent of Democrats along with 57 percent of Republicans, want strong or moderate restrictions placed on firearms to stop gun violence. . . .
Note that one of the surveys Schoen relies on is by Bloomberg’s Everytown. So Bloomberg provides the research to motivate voters, the research he funds creates the talking points, polls help convince everyone that they are true, and then money to organize voters to elect politicians who support those positions.
Sure go ahead if you want a war you can’t win.