ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Tonight, Tim Walz will deliver a speech accepting his party's nomination to be vice president of the United States. Walz used to be such a strong defender of gun rights that the NRA gave him an A rating at the start of his political career. Today, his grade is an F, and that reflects a larger shift in the Democratic Party and points to where policy on guns might be headed if Democrats win this election.
In the early 2000s, Matt McTighe was a Democratic campaign consultant for hire, and when it came to talk of guns, his clients would shut down the conversation.
MATT MCTIGHE: We just can't talk about it. It's not a winning issue. There's no constituency for it. Just don't make me say anything about it.
SHAPIRO: Today, Matt McTighe is with Everytown for Gun Safety. I met him at a breakfast event here on the sidelines of the DNC. He says to see the dramatic change in the party, you just have to look at a forum his group sponsored in August of 2019. The leading Democratic primary candidates met in Iowa specifically to talk about guns.
MCTIGHE: And they all showed up on, like, four days' notice. And they were all, like, trying to outdo one another of who could have the most robust gun safety policy.
SHAPIRO: Including then-Senator Kamala Harris.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: The president of the United States has to stand up to the NRA and say enough is enough - I'm not going to any longer accept your false choice that you're either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone's guns away and that we need reasonable gun safety laws in this country, including universal background checks and a renewal of the assault weapons ban.
SHAPIRO: Another sign of how much Democrats have moved on this issue? That panel discussion here in Chicago yesterday morning was called Protecting Future Generations: The Power of Reproductive Rights and Gun Safety on the Ballot.
ANGELA FERRELL-ZABALA: We've done so much to move this issue that used to be a third rail.
SHAPIRO: That's Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of the gun safety group Moms Demand Action. Now, it's not an obvious choice to put abortion and guns side by side as campaign issues. Every time abortion has been on the ballot since Roe v. Wade was overturned, voters have chosen to expand reproductive rights. You can't say the same for guns. But Ferrell-Zabala told me the movement on this issue has been dramatic.
FERRELL-ZABALA: We had a quarter of congressional Democrats aligning with the NRA or at least having an A rating or high rating from the NRA.
SHAPIRO: That was 2010. This year, only one Democratic House candidate and no Democratic Senate candidates received an A grade from the NRA. Everybody I spoke to about this told me the reason for the change is kind of an all-of-the-above convergence of things. The NRA is weaker than it used to be after a series of scandals and lawsuits, gun violence keeps killing people in the U.S., and parents all over the country have to watch their kids go through mass shooter drills at school. Matt Lacombe is author of "Firepower: How The NRA Turned Gun Owners Into A Political Force."
MATT LACOMBE: The advantage that Republicans used to have on this issue as a result of the fact that the pro-gun side cared a lot more about it than the gun control side, that has flipped in a way that maybe hasn't had the impact that reproductive rights has, but then nonetheless, sort of changes which constituencies of each party end up being most important electorally.
SHAPIRO: In fact, Congress recently passed its first major gun legislation since the 1990s. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act expanded background checks and funding for red flag laws, among other things. President Biden signed it into law in June of 2022.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: God willing, it's going to save a lot of lives.
SHAPIRO: Now, it's not surprising that gun rights activists and blue state politicians claim progress on this issue. But Gretchen Whitmer is a Democratic governor in a purple swing state, Michigan.
GRETCHEN WHITMER: We're not talking about taking away every person's gun in this country. We're talking about making our communities, our schools, our places of worship and education safer places.
SHAPIRO: She told me talking about guns and reproductive rights helped her party win a majority in the Michigan state legislature.
WHITMER: And so I do think that both of these are freedom issues. Do I have the freedom to make my own decisions about my body and my future and my family? Do I have the freedom to drop my child off at school and not worry that they are going to spend their whole day thinking about where their easiest exit place is, as opposed to being able to focus on what the lesson is of the day?
SHAPIRO: That word freedom is important. Language might be another way Democrats have turned this issue to their advantage. These days, you don't often hear Democrats talk about gun control. The phrase you hear is freedom from violence. Perhaps it's not a coincidence that tonight's theme at the DNC is fight for our freedoms. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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