Democrats Should Ditch the Anti-Gun Rhetoric

SmarterthanYou said:
As the recent election results in Virginia and New Jersey showed, Democrats have a growing problem with rural and working-class voters. They also have a problem with Latino voters and independents and non-college-educated women. That’s a lot of problems that they need to solve before 2022, or risk a historic midterm rebuke that could cost them both chambers of Congress as well as multiple state Houses and county and municipal contests from coast to coast.

The reasons for these defections are numerous, with most of the post-election analysis focused on schools (and wedge issues such as “critical race theory”), the economy (rising inflation) and the response to the Covid pandemic. But if Democrats want to repair their relationships with these key voter groups there’s another issue that can do it. It’s not climate change or Covid vaccines or even child tax credits. It’s guns.

Democrats need to learn how to talk about firearm rights and crime issues without demonizing millions of voters who own guns. What Democrats don’t realize is that the very voters they are losing by the tens of thousands each cycle are also the people who account for the largest surge of new firearm sales.

There are some 140 million gun owners in this country, and some 10 to 12 million of them purchased their first firearm in the past two years. But it’s not just the number of new gun owners that’s important. It’s who they are. Data show the biggest increases in gun purchases are among women and people of color — some of the very groups that Democrats have long relied on to form winning coalitions and who lately have shown signs of disenchantment with the party. Moreover, 48 percent of self-defined political independents own guns or live with someone who does. Most of these purchases are handguns (not assault rifles, which capture so much media attention) and most of them are driven by concerns of personal safety.

Democrats can continue to oppose gun owners’ rights to carry their weapons safely and legally, alienating an increasingly important segment of society and their potential voting electorate, or they can reposition themselves in support of gun owners on reforms aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
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You have to define 'dangerous people' first.
SmarterthanYou said:
The Second Amendment is viewed by millions of voters as a fail-safe clause protecting all other rights and liberties. Many gun-owning voters hold inviolate a belief that a government which cannot or will not protect its citizens has no right denying them the means to protect themselves.

Asian Americans, Hispanics and most especially women are buying guns because they feel threatened. Hate-filled rhetoric on social media and a few high-visibility news incidents validate citizens’ concerns about feeling vulnerable. Does owning a firearm actually make you safer? That depends, but it certainly makes you feel better protected.

Democrats might not like guns or think the Second Amendment deserves the same protection as the First, but if the Supreme Court rules against New York’s concealed carry law, it would be foolish of the Democrats to continue to promote a sweeping anti-gun platform.
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The Supreme Court is required to rule against the New York concealed carry law. The Constitution is very clear about this.

Will they do so, or will they try to change the Constitution again?

Democrats cannot afford dissidents to have guns. They are implementing oligarchies. Dissidents will try to stop that. Fascism and communism are forms based on theft of wealth. They can't afford people that want to protect that wealth being armed.

To see the goal of this, of course, one only need look at what's happening to Australia.
 
SmarterthanYou said:
or maybe you're just too stupid and ignorant about reality? i'll bet you think a skateboard isn't a deadly weapon as well?
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If I had a gun shot for everyone who hit me first.... Dozens would be killed... Of course that never happened because I'm not scared of fist fights.

Welcome to the Wild Wild West.
 
BidenPresident said:
We're against murder. Is that too hard a concept for you to comprehend?!
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Doesn't seem to bother you to allow people to murder their unborn children.
Doesn't seem to bother you about the daily death toll among Chicago gangs.
Doesn't seem to bother you concerning allowing people to beat up and quite possibly kill Kyle Rittenhouse.

You're a liar, dude.

You are against guns, too. This means you are against the Constitution of the United States. You discard it.
 
AProudLefty said:
They never had any problem with that in the 1800's, did they?
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Wasn't that mostly a state rights issue!?

I actually don't have a problem with state rights.

Let, the gun killings in the South & Midwest soar by allowing guns into the hands of those who lack restraint to refrain from or understand gun safety issues.
 
SmarterthanYou said:
As the recent election results in Virginia and New Jersey showed, Democrats have a growing problem with rural and working-class voters. They also have a problem with Latino voters and independents and non-college-educated women. That’s a lot of problems that they need to solve before 2022, or risk a historic midterm rebuke that could cost them both chambers of Congress as well as multiple state Houses and county and municipal contests from coast to coast.

The reasons for these defections are numerous, with most of the post-election analysis focused on schools (and wedge issues such as “critical race theory”), the economy (rising inflation) and the response to the Covid pandemic. But if Democrats want to repair their relationships with these key voter groups there’s another issue that can do it. It’s not climate change or Covid vaccines or even child tax credits. It’s guns.

Democrats need to learn how to talk about firearm rights and crime issues without demonizing millions of voters who own guns. What Democrats don’t realize is that the very voters they are losing by the tens of thousands each cycle are also the people who account for the largest surge of new firearm sales.

There are some 140 million gun owners in this country, and some 10 to 12 million of them purchased their first firearm in the past two years. But it’s not just the number of new gun owners that’s important. It’s who they are. Data show the biggest increases in gun purchases are among women and people of color — some of the very groups that Democrats have long relied on to form winning coalitions and who lately have shown signs of disenchantment with the party. Moreover, 48 percent of self-defined political independents own guns or live with someone who does. Most of these purchases are handguns (not assault rifles, which capture so much media attention) and most of them are driven by concerns of personal safety.

Democrats can continue to oppose gun owners’ rights to carry their weapons safely and legally, alienating an increasingly important segment of society and their potential voting electorate, or they can reposition themselves in support of gun owners on reforms aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

The Second Amendment is viewed by millions of voters as a fail-safe clause protecting all other rights and liberties. Many gun-owning voters hold inviolate a belief that a government which cannot or will not protect its citizens has no right denying them the means to protect themselves.

Asian Americans, Hispanics and most especially women are buying guns because they feel threatened. Hate-filled rhetoric on social media and a few high-visibility news incidents validate citizens’ concerns about feeling vulnerable. Does owning a firearm actually make you safer? That depends, but it certainly makes you feel better protected.

Democrats might not like guns or think the Second Amendment deserves the same protection as the First, but if the Supreme Court rules against New York’s concealed carry law, it would be foolish of the Democrats to continue to promote a sweeping anti-gun platform.




https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/11/16/democrats-gun-owners-522562
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Those calling for gun control are not advocating confiscating all guns, rather, a sensible approach to guns, I don’t think a ban on assault weapons would bother those suburban housewives the article sees as an important swing demographic, especially given the alarming rate of school shootings

And a “national carry” provision offered by the author isn’t one that both sides of the issue would ever agree upon, what floats in Texas regarding guns would never be accepted in the Northeast
 
NikodemPoplawski said:
If I had a gun shot for everyone who hit me first.... Dozens would be killed... Of course that never happened because I'm not scared of fist fights.

Welcome to the Wild Wild West.
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maybe if you shot the first one, nobody would try to hit you again............you not being scared of fist fights makes you a moron........I just told you that single punches have killed people
 
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