Gun Control Talk Won’t Save Them
By: Noah Rothman (National Review)
Chuck Schumer doesn't even give the issue any thought any longer. Schumer just repeats the same tired, worn out talking points that "we have to do more".
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
As the news broke yesterday of a third ambush-style attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in as many months, Democrats, including those who have spent months describing ICE as an extralegal “secret police force,” blamed the violence on the ubiquity of guns in America.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was among them. “I don’t know what’s happened here and I don’t know about the guns, but we need better laws on guns,” he improvised in a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “I mean, we got something done a few years ago, but it’s just rampant. And we have to do more.” Indeed, “It’s become almost every day one of these things happen.”
This is a mantra — a catechism to which Democrats appeal when acts of obvious political violence cannot plausibly be attributed to the right. We know that to be the case because when acts of political violence can be linked to right, Democrats and their allies in the media do not hesitate to spell out the truth as they see it. The obfuscation to which Schumer appealed is, however, an instrument of political utility that may no longer be as effective as it once was.
It’s just one poll, so take it with a grain of salt. But if the Democratic Party has lost its edge on the issue of guns and gun violence, that would represent a political sea change.
In the last decade, voters could generally be counted on to tell pollsters that they supported new restrictions on gun ownership to curb violence and gun crime. Even if their voting patterns did not reflect their preferences as reflected in public opinion surveys, the public was still willing to express support for what they thought was the right opinion on guns. If the polling has caught up with the preferences that are revealed through electoral outcomes, that should affect Democrats’ thinking on this issue.
But it would be charitable to accuse Senator Schumer of thinking in this case. His was an instinctual reaction, an effort to escape from a political trap. It just seems like it’s not going to play out as Democratic partisans might expect it would.
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Now that political violence from the left is increasing, Democrats are uncertain if they should be condemning the violence or justifying the violence. The same old, tired talking points seem out of place.
They've all condemned it.
Yeah it showed in the vote in Congress. Almost unanimous............../S
Once again, the Democrats are on the wrong side of the issue.
Democrats cover their asses by being on both sides of the issues.
This poll does not line up with other recent polls.
That's why it was seeded here.
So why don't you put some of those other polls so that we can compare?
By all credible accounts, the lefties are circling the drain on the way to being swept away during the midterms.
In all the years youve been on this site , one could count all the links you have put up on one hand.
Now why would they do that? It's much easier for them to cry, complain and troll.
Still waiting for all those white supremacists we keep hearing about to start acting up
Of course gun control talk won't "save" them.
It takes bipartisan support on an issue this important and Republicans will NEVER do anything about it.
When Dems have the majority Republicans don't do anything, when Republicans have the majority Republicans don't do anything. It's thought and prayers and wear rifle lapel pins to support guns not solutions.
The only increase is the false narrative that hippie peace freaks, pink pussycat hat wearing moms, rainbow flag carrying folks, rainbow chalk drawing Floridians coloring crosswalks, sign carrying old folk protesters have all of a sudden become gun nuts overnight.
Anything to deflect blame from the higher percentage of right wing violence like we saw on J6. Anything to grab onto to make any accusation twisting the reality to frame it as a "leftist".
Solutions. Name a dozen solutions proposed by any Republican other than thoughts and prayers.
Is there any proposed bill offered by Republicans to bridge the political divide and come together with Democrats to solve the gun problems, the mental health problems, or any other common sense solutions?
The answer is no, why solve something or lower the political temperature when it's so much easier to divide and blame.
Gun control isn’t going to stop a triggered kid from taking a WW-2 bolt action rifle and shooting someone he simply doesn’t like.
That said most everyone is for common sense gun laws. The rub is in the definition of “common sense.” Even if we somehow manage that, it’s tough to see a fix for the mental health for folks as noted above.