Guns and Political Suicide

[Scuba]

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/guns-and-political-suicide/

Heitkamp was one of four Senate Democrats who voted against a proposal to require gun buyers to pass a background check for sales made over the Internet or at gun shows. In doing so, Heitkamp joined a successful 46-vote minority that killed a key legislative goal of the Obama administration. The amendment received 54 votes, but failed to reach the 60 vote threshold to overcome a filibuster. The three other Democrats voting “no” were Mark Begich of Alaska, Max Baucus of Montana, and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

A shift of those four votes would have dramatically changed the politics of the debate over gun legislation. Together with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who voted “no” to preserve parliamentary maneuverability, the four dissenting Democrats would have brought the total number of votes in support of the background check amendment to 59. If gun control advocates had been within one vote of winning, they would have been able to put tremendous pressure on Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican of New Hampshire, to vote yes. As it is, she is facing an onslaught of criticism in her home state for her no vote.

...



There are broader implications. The Broockmany-Skovronz paper suggests that politicians left, right and center have been making decisions on the basis of mistaken premises about their voters. One hypothesis is that the roots of this misperception originated in the early 1980s, particularly with the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, of a Republican Senate majority, and of a working conservative majority in the House.

...

In the long run, the best hope for gun control advocates is the changing demographic make-up of the membership of their prime adversary, the National Rifle Association. Not only is the N.R.A. disproportionately dependent on older white men, a declining constituency, but strong majorities of current members, from 74 to 85 percent according to the polls cited above, defy the organization’s leadership and support background checks.

[aikoaiko]

1. "the best hope for gun control advocates is the changing demographic make-up of the [NRA]

With this I agree and why I became an a member a few years ago. Next year I have voting rights.

There is a reasonale future ahead of us if we can keep the extremists on the fringe.

[baldguy]

2. The NRA is run by the extremist RW weapons industry, not by it's "members".

It exists to maintain & increase the sale of guns. The idea of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," is doomed to failure, because the leadership of the NRA doesn't care what it's members believe - and the article itself proves this. NRA members favor universal background checks by an overwhelming majority - yet the NRA campaigned against the bill.

In the long run, we need to work to take power away from the NRA, not add to it.