Despite the lavishing of funds on anti-gun candidates and statements by anti-gunners that this would be the year they would mount a head-on challenge against the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), when the smoke cleared, candidates supporting the rights of gun owners were the clear winners.
Breitbart News reported, "The Second Amendment crushed gun control candidates in Senate and gubernatorial races around the country," and added that while gun-control PACs donated heavily to anti-gun candidates, "The Second Amendment trumped their endorsement and their money."
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged $50 million of his own money to gun-control candidates with his groups Everytown for Gun Safety, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America,
The New York Times reports.
Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), founded by former Arizona Democrat
Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly, amassed an $8 million war chest for the fight against guns, The Christian Science Monitor reports.
However, Giffords-favored candidates like Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist, who received $100,000 from ARS in his campaign for governor of Florida against Republican Gov. Rick Scot, and Democrat Fred DuVaul, running against Republican Doug Ducey for governor of Arizona, both lost, Breitbart reports, while hand-picked Giffords-supported candidate and Rep. Ron Barber is in a tight race in Arizona with pro-gun Republican candidate Martha McSally, who was slightly ahead in the vote count,
KVOA-TV reports.
In Senate races, NRA endorsements carried the day, including Republican Rep. Cory Gardner's defeat of Sen. Mark Udall in Colorado, North Carolina Democrat Sen. Kay Hagan's loss to the GOP's Thom Tillis, and NRA-endorsed Republicans Sen. Pat Roberts (Kansas), Bill Perdue (Georgia), Tom Cotton (Arkansas), Shelly Moore Capito (West Viginia), Joni Ernst (Iowa) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) all winning.
In gubernatorial races, the NRA also took the day, with Republicans Greg Abbott (Texas), Larry Hogan (Maryland), Gov. Robert Bentley (Alabama), Gov. Scott Walker (Wisconsin), Gov. Rick Snyder (Michigan), Gov. Bryan Sandoval (Nevada), Gov. John Kasich (Ohio), Gov. Mary Fallin (Oklahoma), Gov. Matt Mead (Wyoming), Gov. Bruce Otter (Idaho), Gov. Sam Brownback (Kansas) and Gov. Paul LePage (Maine), all winning, Breitbat reports.
Only in one instance, the passage of Initiative 594 to expand background checks in Washington state, can gun-controllers claim a clear victory.
Dave Workman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
told US News and World Report, "There is a great deal of concern that this kind of big money can be brought to bear against a whole rather large group of law abiding citizens."
"The Second Amendment won the day, Republicans won the Senate, and gun control took a beating," Breitbart concluded.