According to a National Post-Election Omnibus Survey, support for sensible gun laws is strong, not only among those who voted for Obama, but also among McCain voters.

The poll, conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland, found that 3 in 4 (76%) voters favor reasonable gun regulations in general, with 4 in 5 (83%) who favor Brady criminal background checks for all gun sales, including 84% of McCain voters and gun owners. The results also highlight that the NRA had little sway over voters.

The findings indicate that sensible gun legislation is a unique opportunity for the Obama Administration to build bridges to moderate voters in both parties.

The Brady Campaign has issued an in-depth report called "Guns & The 2008 Elections: Common Sense Gun Laws Won, The NRA Lost, & What it Means."

The analysis highlights what happened in states with high gun ownership and states where the National Rifle Association spent millions on ads to attack the Obama-Biden ticket.

The report shows that support for gun laws can be a winning message for politicians and not a dangerous political "wedge" issue. It makes the case that voters want pragmatic solutions to protect their families and communities from gun violence and know that sensible gun laws won't hurt legitimate gun owners.

The election of Barack Obama as President and Joe Biden as Vice President was a decisive victory for common sense gun laws.

The Brady Campaign issued a strong endorsement of the ticket in October because of the candidates' strong support of reasonable gun laws. Sarah Brady, Chair of the Brady Campaign, hailed the election as "a good day for people who want to reduce gun violence in America."

The election is a critical loss for the National Rifle Association. The gun lobby spent millions to defeat the Obama-Biden ticket and failed. The NRA's scare tactics about gun confiscation no longer works given the decision in the Supreme Court's decision in DC v Heller.

Sarah Brady went on to say that the election was "...a bad day for extremists who are stuck in the rhetoric of the past." There is no indication that any candidate, at any level, lost their election because of their support of reasonable gun measures.

A recently released Brady Center report entitled, Mass Produced Mayhem, highlights how the availability of assault weapons has changed the balance of power between law enforcement and criminals, endangering police officers and communities. At least 15 police officers have been killed and 23 wounded since the ban expired in September 2004.

Brady President Paul Helmke said that "Our communities are less safe today than they were four years ago, when devastating weapons like AK-47s were not readily available to thugs and other dangerous people." Helmke urged policy makers to take action immediately to get military-style assault weapons off our streets.

The Brady report notes that Senator Barack Obama said in his convention acceptance speech that we should keep assault weapons out of the hands of criminals. Senator John McCain has opposed a ban on assault weapons.

The U.S. Supreme Court's Second Amendment decision in D.C. v Heller may have the "unintended consequence" of helping to enact stronger gun laws, according to a report issued by the Brady Center.

In June, the Justices disagreed by the narrowest of margins, 5 - 4, on whether the Second Amendment provides an individual, non-militia based right to bear arms. All nine Justices agreed, however, that a wide variety of gun laws are presumptively constitutional, including restrictions on carrying concealed weapons, guns in schools and other sensitive places, and bans on "dangerous and unusual" weapons.

While the decision gives criminal defendants a legal tool to use to potentially avoid criminal convictions or mitigate their punishments and will inspire the gun lobby to challenge gun laws, it may also clear some of the wedge politics that have blocked the nation from passing sensible gun laws in the future, the report says.