According to gun rights advocates, Democrats support gun control because they’re statists. They believe the government should take care of citizens’ safety (as well as most everything else). They don’t want to take on the responsibility of armed self-defense, and don’t think anyone else should either (excluding the police and the military). Which is true enough but not the whole truth. As the investor.com poll above indicates, Democrats cling to their anti-gun animus for another reason: they believe more guns = more crime. This despite the fact that . . .
the opposite is demonstrably true. Both individually (as evidenced by defensive gun use) and America’s falling crime rate (even as gun ownership rises to unprecedented levels).
Facts schmacts. With the disappearance of pro-gun Blue Dog Democrats, the Democratic Party has become dominated by left-leaning big city voters. Thanks to racist gun control laws and cultural antipathy, these supporters have no practical experience legally and responsibly keeping and bearing firearms. All they “know” is more guns = more crime. So gun control! Because less guns means less crime! Like this:
The vast majority of Democrats think gun control makes them safer. The vast majority of Republicans think gun control makes them less safe. It’s obvious who’s right (in both senses of the word). As I said before, the facts of the matter don’t matter. Like all people, Democrats are listening to WII-FM (What’s In It For Me). For the Democrats re: gun control? Nothing. There’s nothing in it for them. They don’t have guns.
Which is why big city Democrats have no interest in stories of defensive gun uses: they can’t identify. How could they? In most Democrat strongholds, voters can’t keep and bear arms. It’s too expensive, too bureaucratic and/or illegal. For those [mostly white] Democrats in Blue State strongholds who can afford gun ownership, those who know how to jump over bureaucratic hurdles and pull powerful strings, the anti-gun gestalt runs rampant. Owning a gun is simply not the done thing. Someone might get hurt!
All of which means asking Democrats to oppose gun control is asking them to defend your right to keep and bear arms, not theirs. Again, they don’t have guns. In effect, they don’t have a right to keep and bear arms. Worse, all they see is bad guys using guns to threaten, wound and murder. So Dems are quite happy to sacrifice your gun rights to see if gun control’s promise of less bad guys with guns pans out. Again, what have they got to lose?
As for the convincing pro-gun control Dems that privately held firearms are a bulwark again tyranny, most big city Dems aren’t educated enough to know what a “bulwark” is. Or, for that matter, tyranny (even though they live under the soft version of same). Those Dems who do understand the concept of armed defense against government tyranny are over-educated. They’ve been brainwashed to believe that civilian gun ownership isn’t relevant to questions about the government’s power.
There’s only way to change this pro-gun control Democratic dynamic: put guns into the hands of inner city Democrats. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: the NRA and other pro-gun groups must reach out to minorities and other traditional Democratic voters and teach them how to keep and bear arms. Until and unless that occurs, the political divide on guns will continue, and the balance could tip in either direction. As the antis like to say, it’s guns for everyone! Especially our “enemies.”