National Democrats Still Losing Votes On 2nd Amendment

Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 8/21/08 @ 9:50 am - Filed Under 2008 National Elections, Featured

The Democratic Party’s draft 2008 platform has been released and once again the party is pushing an anti-gun agenda, including a renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban. A diarist at Daily Kos had an excellent post on this topic that’s definitely worth reading but I want to zero in on one specific point:

Gun ownership is election-deciding for pro-gun people and a non-priority for everyone else.

I couldn’t agree more and I think strategically the party has to decide if this is a policy really worth fighting for. It seems to me, even if I put myself into the shoes of an anti-gun person, that the risk-reward ratio is not in the party’s favor.


If they continue to push an anti-gun agenda they are going to lose a significant number of votes from people that vote on that singe issue. If they drop that agenda then those voters will now have other issues come to the forefront that will make them decide how to vote. Will they get a majority of those voters? Probably not, but it doesn’t matter because they will get SOME which is better than none.

Looking at the flipside is important too – namely what do they gain from supporting an anti-gun agenda? This really has to be a statistics driven argument for anti-gun people because there’s no moral argument to be made. It’s not inherently immoral to own a gun – I would assume nearly everyone would agree with that. I haven’t seen any statistics that would convince me the American people are any safer under any of the laws being discussed. The fundamental reason these laws don’t work is because, in general, laws are only effective at controlling the behavior of law-abiding citizens.

So what seems to be happening to me is that this issue has become a purely political one. Some Democrats are against it just because Republicans are for it and they don’t want to be seen as losing face. The trouble is they’ve already lost and they just won’t admit it. The argument really is tired and they should just abandon it – publicly. It’s a simple talking point:

We do not support federal gun laws. We do believe local governments should have some flexibility in setting their own laws but those laws must be Constitutional and still support every citizen’s 2nd amendment right to bear arms.

Obviously the part

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