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There's no way one can look at the existing situation and realistically think that gun owners are some sort of persecuted minority, that voting bloc is the gold

There's no way one can look at the existing situation and realistically think that gun owners are some sort of persecuted minority, that voting bloc is the golden sheep of the republican party. There's a bit of a distortion field here where we as a country have not been able to pass any sort of meaningful gun control measures in decades, have some of the loosest gun control regulations outside of third world countries, and have significant repeated issues with gun violence. Yet somehow a small but significant group of people have become locked into this messaging as if there's any validity to it and have become single issue voters. Really the two groups who benefit and perpetuate this are from this are the gun industry, who has spent lots of money propagating this messaging over decades, and politicians on the right, who are able to with one hand to fill their election coffers with industry funds and with the other have a reliable bloc of voters that will never vote democrat.

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ThrowawayR2 4y ago
> "Really the two groups who benefit and perpetuate this are from this are the gun industry ... and politicians on the right ..." And those who want to want to own firearms of course: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/ https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/the-dem... There's significant ownership of firearms among suburbanites and urbanites and there's significant ownership of firearms among moderates and even among the left. And, of course, purchases of firearms, including first time buyers, increased during the recent pandemic: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-12-21/5-million-more-americans-became-gun-owners-during-pandemic https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-12-21/.... Continuing to blame the traditional conservative bogeymen and ignoring that there is broad support for firearm ownership by the voting public is just sticking one's head in the sand. Until that unwelcome reality is faced and legislation crafted that the public wants (e.g. not bans), gun control is going to remain stalled.
- dwallin 4y ago
  Do you realize you are agreeing and providing supporting evidence for the point I was making? There is significant gun ownership in this country and support for guns. The idea that gun owners are some persecuted minority is ridiculous. "They are coming for your guns" has been consistent messaging put out by those with an intrenched interest with no basis in reality.

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ThrowawayR2 4y ago

> "Really the two groups who benefit and perpetuate this are from this are the gun industry ... and politicians on the right ..." And those who want to want to own firearms of course: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/ https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/the-dem... There's significant ownership of firearms among suburbanites and urbanites and there's significant ownership of firearms among moderates and even among the left. And, of course, purchases of firearms, including first time buyers, increased during the recent pandemic: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-12-21/5-million-more-americans-became-gun-owners-during-pandemic https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-12-21/.... Continuing to blame the traditional conservative bogeymen and ignoring that there is broad support for firearm ownership by the voting public is just sticking one's head in the sand. Until that unwelcome reality is faced and legislation crafted that the public wants (e.g. not bans), gun control is going to remain stalled.

dwallin 4y ago
Do you realize you are agreeing and providing supporting evidence for the point I was making? There is significant gun ownership in this country and support for guns. The idea that gun owners are some persecuted minority is ridiculous. "They are coming for your guns" has been consistent messaging put out by those with an intrenched interest with no basis in reality.