“A new Pew poll finds that support for the NRA has rapidly consolidated along party lines in recent years,” thetrace.org’s latest email blast claims, “tilting each side of the gun safety debate to a more extreme point of view. Just 13 percent of Republicans now think the NRA has too much influence, down significantly from 2000, when one in three Republicans thought the NRA held too much sway. By contrast, 68 percent of Democrats believe the NRA has too much influence, up from 57 percent 15 years ago.” I certainly don’t recall seeing any Democratic speakers at the last NRA convention. On one hand . . .
Democrats and Democratic Party supporters man the civilian disarmament industrial complex. The Democratic party platform includes gun control (“We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation”). To defend and extend Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, the NRA must oppose the Democratic Party’s power.
One the other hand, the more Americans who favor gun rights the safer those rights are. By aligning itself so closely with the Republican Party, the NRA is alienating possible support amongst Democrats. Is there anything they can do to “reach out across the aisle”? Maybe start by pulling away from the Republican establishment? Or should the NRA keep on keeping on until and unless Democrats come to their senses on gun control?