That’s bullpucky. Trump is not pro-2A, and the bump-stock extension was passed under his administration. As with most things, his position is vague, but mostly catering to monied special interests, as evidenced by how his administration approached 3D printing (the gun industry can’t make money if people can print their own guns at home). In any case, he’s certainly not been a vocal 2A defendant, it doesn’t come up in his rhetorical rants, and his record while in office was wishy-washy at best. This hasn’t made a single iota of difference to his base.
2A is a key issue for many people, but it’s specious to claim it’s the issue that’s deciding a large number of flippable votes. NRA symbols are usually stuck next to a Confederate flag sticker, and that tells you all you need to know about that topic.
You’re literally stating that gun owners are usually racist white males…the fuck? There are way more gun owners now than ever and the diversity is no longer the minority.
I don’t think that’s what they mean, they mean that the people who are super hardcore gun rights people would never vote democrat regardless of the democrats stance on gun rights, because in addition to being super hardcore gun rights people, they’re super hardcore anti-all-other-rights people, also known as republicans. Certainly not all of them, no absolutes etc, but the vast majority. People who own guns != gun nuts.
I’m hard core pro2a and will be voting blue this year. I’m a no regulation guy who wants our politicians to fix our society via social safety nets and reform vs prohibition style legislation…there is a lot more of us now than ever
Super-hardcore “I should be able to buy full-auto rifles at Walmart” guy here - also a registered Democrat.
Democrats are iffy on guns, but the GOP sucks on every single other issue of freedom for working-class people.
2A single issue voters arent necessarily voting for Republicans more so against Democrats running on a platforms of gun control, at least with presidential elections.
And it’s not just about flipping votes by driving turn out. A stance like Harris had of AW ban via executive order would ensure those single issue voters show up and vote for the opposition.
I agree with the comment above on strategy. I don’t think pro gun control voters are going to ditch Team Blue over it either. It’s definitely a flaw with the two party system, but what are they going to do vote Republican?
The essential problem I see is that a large number of Dems that vote in primaries are anti-gun; they are not interested in preventing violence and suicide, they want to ban guns. If Dems not only dropped gun control, but embraced 2A rights (while presumably attempting to address gun violence and suicide rates in more productive/effective ways), they would hemorrhage those anti-gun voters. At the same time, it’s unlikely that they would be able to pick up pro-2A single-issue voters, because the Democratic party has such a long history of attempting to ban guns and enact strict gun control that those voters wouldn’t believe it.
It would take multiple election cycles for Dems to break that belief, and you couldn’t have any Dems breaking ranks in that time. All it would take is one Beto “dumbfuck” O’Rourke (seriously, who says they want to ban guns while running for governor in Texas, unless they’re intentionally in the tank for Republicans?) to undo any progress they might make.
To be entirely clear, the people that are anti-gun will not accept any level of gun violence as being acceptable. It doesn’t matter that the US has more guns per capita now than it ever has at any point in history, and that violent crime is at the lowest level in 40 years; it’s all about the feels to them.