Here’s some of the fallout from MAIG’s polling data:
Politicians should understand that most of these people polled are probably not NRA members, and are probably not really familiar with the issues they are being presented. If we had polled on “assault weapons” bans back in the early 90s, you’d probably see similar support to some of the measures MAIG is supporting now. But gun owners got a rude education when they found out it was their M1 Carbine, M1As, and AR-15s that the politicians were actually talking about. They got an even ruder education when they paid attention to the issue and found out about plans to enhance the ban to cover even more semi-automatics like the M1 Garand. The gig is up on that, and that issue is poison today politically, everywhere except the few states where the antis have been successful at destroying the shooting culture.
Once these folks realize that “closing the terror gap” means their buddy can’t buy a gun because someone suspected of being a terrorist used a name that matches his once, they are going to be very angry, and they will tell every other gun owner they know, who will also get angry. Once they realize “closing the gun show loophole” means they have to pay $50 dollars to transfer a gun to their shooting buddy to avoid becoming a felon, they are going to get angry and do the same.
This is a bad issue to be on the wrong side of, and for what? What does gun control bring to the table? There’s no votes there. You can’t even win on that issue in New York City, and look at how much good it did to help pull Jon Corzine’s ass from the fire?
As a current resident of one of the states (CA) that still has a magazine and assault weapons ban, I would argue that it isn’t because the shooting culture that has been destroyed. I would argue more that the shooting culture is simply too small compared to the hippy, tree-hugging, guns-are-evil-and-make-me-feel-sad majority.
There are plenty of angry gun owners out here who are politically and socially active. These enclaves include Kern County and Orange/Riverside Counties. Unfortunately, there just aren’t enough of these areas spread throughout the state to affect state-level politics.
Unfortunately, there is also a very large silent majority of gun owners in the state. They have been beaten down so often by so many groups, Fed officials, State officials, appointed Fish & Game commissions (lead ban), etc. that they have given up fighting. I nearly joined that group after the Governator signed the Ammo Sale law this past year.
We all know that gun control is bad law and bad policy. However, it isn’t until we can mobilize that silent majority who still believe in the shooting culture to become politically active that gun control will become a political loser.
California NRA member quoted in this article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-toonerville27-2009nov27,0,7854105.story
I don’t believe he would vote for any sort of gun restrictions.