I’m not a huge fan of ballot initiatives. They’re pure democracy, which is just mob rule. The mob is notorious for denying people their rights, particularly when they’re some out-group or hold unpopular positions on something, so I’m always going to be wary of that.

That’s especially true when it comes to guns.

The Trace has a history of presenting anti-gun ballot initiatives as just democracy. However, two can play that game.

It just seems we can’t play it as well as they do.

Citizen-led ballot initiatives have become a key way for voters in many states to push through new gun policies or strike existing ones. In recent years, Oregon voters approved a measure to require permits and safety training to buy a gun, and voters in Washington state passed universal background checks on gun sales, raised the minimum age to purchase semiautomatic rifles, and imposed a 10-day waiting period on such weapons.

When The Trace first surveyed the electoral landscape in January, over a dozen gun-related initiatives were vying for the 2024 ballot in four states. All of those initiatives failed. 

A few more initiatives were submitted in the intervening months, but only one will actually go before voters this November.

We looked at the states where initiatives didn’t make it onto the ballot and found that they were stymied by understaffed signature-gathering efforts, party infighting, and unfavorable odds, among other hurdles. We delve into more details below.

The only one that is on the ballot is there because of Colorado’s constitution, where increases to state revenue have to be approved by the voters and this measure is a tax on gun manufacturing and sales. Everywhere else, they failed.

Now, ordinarily, that’s good news.

However, at least some of those measures were pro-gun, such as two proposals in Arizona. One of those would protect gun rights for people with marijuana cards and the other would bar the state from doing business with companies that refuse to work with the firearm industry.

Additionally, a measure in Michigan that would overturn the state’s red flag law failed to get on the ballot.

In fact, a lot of these were pro-gun measures, shockingly enough.

However, let’s also understand a key difference here between the pro-gun and anti-gun positions when applied to ballot initiatives. Our side of the debate is about protecting people’s rights.

Our rights, however, aren’t subject to mob rule. Majorities have supported some pretty awful things in the past. The Salem Witch Trials, for example, weren’t exactly denounced by the masses in Salem at the time, now were they? And let’s not forget that Prohibition passed via a popular vote in two-thirds of the states we had at the time. It was popular. How did that work out?

So while I’m sorry to see pro-gun measures fail to make the ballot, overall, I don’t care for ballot initiatives as a general thing, but especially when many of them are used to restrict our rights. If it means we need to work a little harder to protect or restore them, then so be it.

We’re on the side of the angels here, so I believe we’ll get there. We just need to stop this mass appeal to restrict the rights of those who disagree, which is what The Trace is really bummed about, if you ask me.