BLOG: Women's Feelings on Gun Control Issue May Affect 2014 Elections

Women think about the gun-control issue differently than men. To many women, say analysts and pollsters, the gun debate is less about preserving gun rights and more about preserving safety in their neighborhoods.

Those differences could have a future political impact depending on what happens after Congress considers gun-control legislation, perhaps sometime in the next month. How women feel about any ensuing legislation may affect the 2014 midterm elections.

Since the December mass shootings at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, the gun issue is engaging more female swing voters who ordinarily vote only in presidential years, analysts said. And women want to see action.

“It is the sleeping giant of 2014,” said Bob Carpenter, a longtime California Republican pollster and strategist, now based in Maryland, who just completed a bipartisan survey on women and gun violence with Democratic pollster Diane Feldman. “It could make 2014 a completely different election.”

Republicans dominated the 2010 midterm elections, taking the House from Democrats and many key state races.

“If women get to the point where they are staying engaged on this issue, they could turn out and affect the election,” Carpenter said. “They're going to wait and see what Congress — and even more, local politicians — come up with.”

Gun control is the kind of issue, said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, “that has real potential to mobilize waves of women voters and waves of officeholders. What's different here is Newtown. That cut a lot of different ways to a lot of different women.”

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., a member of the Congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, is eager to get Congress on the record on gun issues. She supports tighter restrictions.

“If we can force votes on these bills on the floor of the House and the Senate, where everybody has to be on record, it's going to make it very clear to a huge segment of the population — that being women — of where people stand. And I think that will inform the decisions people make at the ballot box,” Speier said.

In 1978, when she was an aide to former Rep. Leo Ryan, Speier was shot while touring the People's Temple cult in Jonestown, Guyana, with Ryan. The congressman was assassinated there.

Behind the scenes, an influential network of female philanthropists based in San Francisco is working to make sure the issue remains prominent, particularly to women.

Shortly after the Newtown shooting, members of the 20-year-old San Francisco-based Women Donors Network began hearing from their 200 members, all of whom donate at least $25,000 a year to progressive causes, individuals and politicians.

“People really saw this as a personal issue,” said Donna Hall, Women Donors Network president and CEO.

The network commissioned polling from Carpenter and Feldman, seeking how women felt, knowing that there were gender differences on the issue.

For example, women's policy goals on gun-violence issues differ from men's. According to a Pew Research poll from January, 67 percent of women favored a ban on semiautomatic weapons compared to 48 percent of men.

The Women Donors Network polling found that women said their most important goal was keeping children safe, followed by reducing the culture of violence.

Among other key findings from the Women Donors Network poll:

• 93 percent of women favor background checks for all gun sales.

• 79 percent want the creation of a national gun registry to track firearms and ensure that their owners know how to operate them.

The network shared its findings with more than 100 different women's organizations this month in Washington. It will continue to share ideas and resources.