In the wake of the Orlando nightclub attack that left 49 dead and 53 injured Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has sought to exploit conspiracy theories and widespread suspicion among his supporters about President Barack Obama's response to Islamist extremism.
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, has become the first Democratic presidential candidate in years to explicitly run on a pro-gun control agenda, calling on Wednesday for the restoration of a ban on assault weapons like the military-style rifle used in the attack.
Both moves are aimed at the candidates’ respective electoral bases. And yet in an election where swing voters in the centre are the real prize, both also carry political risks.
As has happened following other US mass shootings, the Orlando nightclub attack has rekindled the debate over America’s lax gun laws. With more than 30,000 people dying each year from gun violence, the US is an outlier among developed nations. So too are its laws, which allow the purchase of military-style assault rifles with limited background checks.
Gun lobby
The country’s powerful gun lobby and its support in a Republican-controlled Congress make any imminent crackdown unlikely. But it remains an important issue for many Democratic voters and one the party hopes will help mobilise them come November.
Polls show Mrs Clinton’s call on Monday for stricter background checks and a ban on sales of guns to anyone with suspected terrorist links do have broad public support.
A recent Gallup poll, for example, showed 55 per cent of Americans support stricter firearm laws, although that figure was down from 78 per cent in 1990.
“There is actually surprising consensus between gun owners, non-gun owners, Republicans and Democrats that there are certain people who are too dangerous to own guns and there should be restrictions in place,” said Daniel Webster, head of the Johns Hopkins University Centre for Gun Policy and Research.
Partisan divide
Just four in 10 Americans say they have guns in their home. But the issue of gun control remains the subject of a significant partisan divide.
A Pew Research Centre survey last year, for example, showed 70 per cent of Democrats backed a ban on assault-style weapons while just 48 per cent of Republicans did. Democrats also tend to view guns as a more urgent issue, according to Jocelyn Kiley, an analyst at Pew.
The good news for Mrs Clinton is that gun control has polled better than Mr Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the US and other radical proposals. A January Pew survey found 50 per cent of Americans believed the next president should be careful not to criticise Islam as a whole when speaking about extremists while 40 per cent thought the next president should speak bluntly.
Mr Trump’s oblique suggestion on Monday that Mr Obama was quietly sympathetic to radical Islam marked the latest in the businessman’s long-running attempts to feed conspiracy theories popular with his supporters.
– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016