Democrats plan to continue the most aggressive gun control legislation in recent decades

"This new majority will not be afraid of our shadow," said Mike Thompson, California Democrat and chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention working group. "We know we have been elected to do a job and we will do it."

Thompson, who represents a district in the Napa Valley north of San Francisco, announced his intention to introduce a bill requiring universal background checks in the first weeks of the new Congress.

The evolution of the gun control movement was evident this week following the announcement of the killing of a dozen people Thursday at a country bar in Thousand Oaks, California.

While in the past there were calls for time to mourn victims as a result of mass shootings, this week's advocates have instead reacted with a call for new legislation.

Susan Orfanos, whose son was killed Thursday after surviving the Las Vegas massacre last year, said in a television interview that she "does not want prayers. I do not want thoughts. I want gun control and I hope no one will send me more prayers. "

Opponents of the new gun laws feel that additional restrictions are not necessary.

Tennessee representative Marsha Blackburn, a Republican whose NRA supported the victorious Senate campaign Tuesday with $ 2.5 million, asked Fox News what could be done to prevent gun violence such as Thousand's shooting. Oaks.

"What we are doing is saying, how can we make sure to protect the Second Amendment and protect our citizens?" Replied Ms. Blackburn, referring to the US Constitution's plate that grants the right to bear arms.

About 61 percent of voters in the 2018 midterm elections said US firearms laws should be more stringent, according to AP VoteCast, a pre-election and polling day poll of some 90,000 who said they had voted or intended to vote. About 13% of Democrats and 8% of voters said gun control was the biggest problem for their vote.

The 2018 elections marked the first time that gun control advocates exceeded NRA spending.

The gun rights group spent about $ 20 million on the 2018 election cycle, mainly advertising to confirm the confirmation of Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, the spokeswoman said. from the NRA, Jennifer Baker.

For Everytown Gun Safety, the arms control organization supported by former Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, and a group founded by former Democratic Representative, Gabrielle Giffords, seriously injured during a shootout in 2011, spent a total of $ 37 million in 2018.

Ms. Baker said she was optimistic that the NRA-backed candidates will win in the Governor's races in Florida and Georgia, which have yet to be announced. The NRA has also invested in GOP candidates in the Senate who ousted elected Democrats in Indiana, Missouri and North Dakota. Senate candidates supported by the NRA were defeated in Montana and West Virginia.

"The biggest implication of the election with respect to the second amendment is that the majority in the US Senate will continue to uphold second-amendment-friendly judges in the lower courts up to the Supreme Court," Ms. Baker.

At the state level, voters in Washington State approved the holding of a referendum on the vote, which increased the need for the state to verify the history of the purchase of weapons fire. In Florida, Democrat Nikki Fried leads the race to the Commissioner for Agriculture, whose office regulates the state's covert weapons licenses.

Democrat Lucy McBath, who defeated GOP Party representative Karen Handel in a suburban Atlanta House contest, was the largest gun control advocate on Tuesday. Ms. McBath, a former air hostess from Delta Air Lines, became a gun control lawyer after her teenage son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed in 2012 by a man who said that the boy was playing music too loudly. The perpetrator was later convicted of murder.

McBath, who became a spokeswoman for Everytown and a surrogate for the 2016 campaign for Hillary Clinton, told her story during the election campaign and in her first TV commercials. However, in the last few weeks before polling day, Ms. McBath focused on health care and economic issues.

Everytown's final television advertisement supporting Ms. McBath did not mention gun control, focusing instead on health care. "Voters have fully understood Lucy's position on the issue of gun safety," said Everytown President John Feinblatt. "There is no doubt in the minds of voters about Lucy's story."