Thursday, November 19, 2015

Gun Owners Overwhelmingly Support Background Checks, See NRA as Out of Touch, New Poll Finds

Center for American Progress

Washington, D.C. — A new national Public Policy Polling survey of gun owners finds overwhelming support for background checks and a higher likelihood of supporting political candidates who move them forward. Gun owners also believe the National Rifle Association, or NRA, is out of touch with them on these issues, and many believe the organization has lost its way altogether. While the debate over gun policy starkly divides American politics, this poll shows that support for key gun violence prevention policies has remained strong for years, even among gun owners themselves.

9 comments:

  1. Interesting how these astronomical percentages of people wanting background checks seem to consistently not get them and then refuse to hold their respective elected officials accountable at the next elections. It's almost like the survey might be wrong. Especially since the same survey also said that two thirds of them would likely base their support to some degree on this issue.
    Sounds about as accurate as those surveys showing declining gun ownership, when the real world says increasing gun ownership. I guess we'll see if the 2016 elections bear this out.

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    1. Gun ownership is declining as it has for over 40 years--so pretending that "astronomical" numbers of voters see this as a political litmus test is absurd. The gunloon world is a small fringe group--very passionate as are most zealots---but few in number.

      It's rather like the Flat Earth Society claiming they can swing elections.

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    2. "It's rather like the Flat Earth Society claiming they can swing elections."

      But in this case, they do seem to swing elections. At least that seems to be the complaint of members of the gun control lobby when their favored candidate loses.
      As for the number of voter that claim this is an issue that affects their votes, I'm just using the data from the survey mentioned in the article.

      "Gun owners are more likely to support a politician who supports background checks: 66 percent say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who backs them, compared with only 19 percent who say they would be less likely to."

      For example, if gun owners are such a minority, how exactly did three Colorado politicians lose their jobs through the recall process for their votes on additional gun restrictions? Or better yet, where were the recalls for politicians that voted against those same gun laws?
      For the most part, the voters get what they want if they want it bad enough. And that is reflected in both elections and legislation. And guess which direction gun rights is heading?

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    3. How naive you are to think the people always get what they want, or politicians vote for what their constituents want. Laughable.

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    4. Never said always Anon. Just mostly. Nothing is perfect when dealing with people. Politicians of course get to vote on legislation as they choose, but have to keep in mind that eventually they'll have to answer for those votes in the next election, or earlier.

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    5. The recall process only involved a minority of the original amount of people who voted. Not surprising you support representation by minority, that way you get what YOU want.

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    6. "The recall process only involved a minority of the original amount of people who voted. Not surprising you support representation by minority, that way you get what YOU want."

      Anon, the recall law in Colorado has been in force since 1912 with the latest amendment to it being in 1984. So it appears that the people are happy with the law as it is.
      And as I had asked before, where are the recall petitions for those that voted against these gun control laws? Especially since the State Senate went from a five seat majority in 2012 to a one seat minority currently.
      And if the percentages of people in favor of gun control is accurate, that percentage should be reflected in the voting results no matter how many or few people voted, shouldn't it?
      Getting your people to go out and vote for your favored issues is your challenge. And as can be seen, not mine.

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  2. The obvious flaw, as in most polling.....is the irresponsible binary choice given to the respondents. Most folks who answer these question, don't have an understanding that answering YES, means that they support government oversight, regulation and taxation of private transfers of a lawful item....a lawful item that are Constitutionally protected. There have been precious few polls by major organizations that have accurately parsed this line of questioning....and the difference has been stark.

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