Voters not eager for more gun control

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

In the wake of two mass shootings in California, the talk has once again turned to gun control. Despite happening in the most gun-controlled state in the nation, anti-gunners would have us trip over ourselves to pass the exact same laws in response to these shootings that failed to prevent these shootings.

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Makes about as much sense as a football bat.

Anyway, that’s what anti-gunners want. Do you know who doesn’t want that? The voters.

The numbers are difficult to ignore, and after every event and the usual calls for “thoughts and prayers,” supporters of stricter gun control measures wonder why Washington does not take up legislation on guns or at least hold hearings to discuss the matter. A big answer: On the whole, voters aren’t especially focused on the gun issue, especially compared to other topics.

Consider the NBC News poll taken just before the 2022 midterm elections asking voters about “the most important issue facing the country.”

The gun issue is at the very bottom of the list, with only 3% of voters calling guns the most important issue. Above guns? A long list of topics also continually in the news: 23% of voters said “threats to democracy” was their No. 1 issue, 20% said “jobs and the economy,” 17% said the “cost of living,” 9% said “abortion,” 8% said “immigration,” 6% said “crime,” 4% said “health care,” and another 4% said “climate change.”

It’s not that voters don’t care about guns; it’s that voters have a long list of issues that concern them, and when they rank areas of interest, guns tend to sit lower on the list.

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And NBC News failed to note that “guns” as an issue have people on both sides. Many of those who see firearms as an important issue are pro-Second Amendment. They’re even less interested in gun control than the average voter.

Now, understand that I don’t think that whatever the voters want should be what the voters get. Otherwise, you get voters deciding to infringe on people’s rights simply because they can. That’s not a good direction to go.

But when the voters’ whims coincide with the protection of our civil liberties, such as the right to keep and bear arms, then yeah, I expect people to listen.

Anti-gunners will argue that polling shows broad support for gun control, but we’ve debunked that time and time again. Those polls ask rather vague questions that suggest to many that we’re talking about upholding the status quo.

That supposed support is soft and everyone knows it.

So there’s no support in Congress for gun control. There’s no support among the voters for gun control. It would seem that going on and on about gun control isn’t really a winning strategy and maybe, just maybe, it’s time to start looking for other possible solutions.

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Unfortunately, your garden variety anti-gunner isn’t really equipped to do any such thing. While I freely admit I’m not supporting gun control no matter what, they claim their position is really about saving lives. Well, if that were the case, they’d support other efforts that might do just that.

They never have.

So based on this, it looks like they should get used to disappointment.

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