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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: Arizona GOP Senator Walks Careful Line on Guns Ahead of 2020 Arizona GOP Senator Walks Careful Line on Guns Ahead of 2020 Andrew Duehren 8 hrs ago GOODYEAR, Ariz.—To open a meeting of local Republicans here last week, Butch Kuentzler had this message: “Red flag” laws, which allow families and law enforcement to remove guns from people deemed dangerous, are unconstitutional. © Caitlin O'Hara for The Wall Street JournalCustomers shooting at targets at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Phoenix last week. Those laws are at the center of the current gun-policy debate, whose complicated politics are expected to dominate the legislative agenda when Congress returns to Washington next week from a recess scarred by a string of mass shootings. Red flag measures have been buoyed by scattered Republican support, but some Democrats have dismissed them as insufficient on their own, and conservatives remain skeptical of them. That leaves some Republicans—including Arizona Sen. Martha McSally, who faces a tough election in 2020 and has said she is open to reviewing such measures—hemmed in between core gun-rights supporters and a growing suburban population backing gun control. With a Republican challenger in the race, Ms. McSally will likely have to address the issue during the primary season, even as her campaign plans to stay away from it in the general election. At last week’s Republican meeting, Mr. Kuentzler, the chairman of the Estrella Conservative Republican Club, plugged the campaign for Daniel McCarthy—a relatively unknown Arizona businessman who loudly opposes red flag laws and last week said he would challenge Ms. McSally in a primary. While the political environment in Arizona has become more favorable to Democrats, the party still treads carefully on gun policy in the state, home to some of the most relaxed gun laws in the U.S. Mark Kelly, the party’s presumed nominee to oppose Ms. McSally, became a gun-control advocate after his wife, then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, barely survived a 2011 assassination attempt. In his campaign, he is broadening the range of issues he discusses, emphasizing his background as an astronaut. “They probably won’t get around to talking about guns, because it’s just a radioactive issue for both of them,” said Stan Barnes, a Republican consultant in Arizona, of the likely contest between Mr. Kelly and Ms. McSally. Several Republican strategists acknowledged the peril of attacking Mr. Kelly’s background on gun policy, and Ms. McSally’s campaign doesn’t expect to make gun control a central issue in the race, according to a person familiar with the campaign’s plan. But Mr. McCarthy’s candidacy could make it a key issue in the GOP primary. Mr. McCarthy’s upstart campaign could pose a familiar challenge to Ms. McSally, whose bruising primary last year weakened her before her loss to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D., Ariz.). Just over a month later, Ms. McSally was named by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey to serve the next two years of the late GOP Sen. John McCain’s term. Mr. McCarthy last week canceled a meeting with Mr. Ducey, pointing to the governor’s revival of a statewide red flag proposal that had stalled following opposition from GOP legislators and pro-gun groups. Top GOP officials, including Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, called Mr. McCarthy to discourage him from running, and President Trump tweeted his endorsement of Ms. McSally in June. Bonnie Jansson, a 72-year-old who enjoys target practice with her purple .22 Ruger, said that while she is a committed Republican, Ms. McSally could lose her vote if she supported red flag legislation. “People need to get educated and not just think with their emotions,” she said. Ms. McSally will need to woo more than just traditional GOP voters like Ms. Jansson in 2020. An August poll of 600 likely Arizona voters by Phoenix-based data firm OH Predictive Insights showed that 54% believed Arizona gun laws weren’t strict enough, while 37% said they should be kept where they are. Support in rapidly growing Maricopa County, which spans Phoenix and its suburbs, will be central to winning Arizona. Ms. McSally lost the historically Republican area to Ms. Sinema in 2018. Since the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Ms. McSally has focused on a bill that would make domestic terrorism—a classification that is sometimes applied to such assaults—a federal crime, though some suburban voters want to see more done. Laura Huber, 55, a registered nurse from Peoria, Ariz., lists gun control—including expanding background checks—as one of her top political issues. A Democrat who became more politically involved after Mr. Trump’s election, Ms. Huber said a gun had recently been found in a student’s locker at a local high school. “You know, you think it’ll never happen, and everyone says that, until it does,” she said. “I know at this point if I go to Harkins or go to Target, if I get shot, people will say, ‘Oh, isn’t that terrible?’ And that will be it.” After a man shot Ms. Giffords in the head at a grocery store in 2011 and killed six people, Mr. Kelly founded a political-action committee that financed candidates supporting gun control. As a Senate candidate in Arizona, he is taking a measured approach to the issue. “I’m a gun owner. I’m a supporter of the Second Amendment. But we need some stronger federal gun laws,” Mr. Kelly said at an elementary school in Prescott, Ariz. “There are other issues that affect Arizona and that Washington has failed the people of Arizona on.” Andy Barr, a Democratic strategist who has worked for a number of Arizona Democrats, advises candidates he works for to take a similar tack. “The phrase that I never want any of my candidates using is ‘gun control,’ ” he said. “There are a lot of people in Arizona who buy into the old Western myth of people walking around with a pistol in their holster. That’s not going to change anytime soon.” Jennifer Longdon, who was paralyzed roughly 15 years ago when she was randomly shot in the back while driving, said Mr. Kelly’s public persona is inextricably intertwined with gun control. “Mark Kelly cannot walk into a room without his stance on gun-violence policy going with him, whether he voices it in that space or not,” said Ms. Longdon, now a Democratic state representative in Arizona. “So we’re leading with gun violence simply by living our lives.” Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
Calling these people idiots is defaming to actual idiots. GUNS ARE INANIMATE OBJECTS WITH NO MINDS OF THEIR OWN,much like Dimocrats. If you want to reduce violent crime,start locking up violent criminals and people who are insane. NONE of this trouble started until the ACLU,working with the Dims,went to court and had the insane asylums emptied,and their residents dumped out on the streets to fend for themselves. Gee,who could have possibly seen negative consequences coming as a result?
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