David Sirota: The Lessons of Colorado’s Gun Debate

[marmar]

from truthdig:


The Lessons of Colorado’s Gun Debate

Posted on Sep 13, 2013
By David Sirota


The day after this week’s elections, the National Rifle Association got exactly what it wanted: a front-page New York Times story about Colorado results that supposedly sent “lawmakers across the country a warning about the political risks of voting for tougher gun laws.” That article, and many others like it, came after the gun lobby mounted successful recall campaigns against two state legislators who, in the wake of mass shootings, voted for universal background checks, limits on the capacity of bullet magazines and restrictions on domestic abusers owning firearms.

Despite the recalls being anomalously low-turnout affairs, the national media helped the gun lobby deliver a frightening message to politicians: Vote for modest gun control and face political death.

For all that reductionism, though, there are more nuanced lessons from these elections.

First and foremost, with statewide polls showing that most Coloradans support modest gun control and opposed the recall campaigns, the elections prove that in low-turnout situations, a relatively small group of pro-gun voters can still win the day.

Additionally, with gun extremists issuing threats of violence against pro-gun-control legislators, Colorado Democrats stopped explaining why their gun legislation was so necessary. In light of that, the election results are a reminder that when politicians don’t stay on the message offensive, they quickly find themselves on the electoral defensive. This is especially the case when, as a Pew survey documented, voters who oppose gun control tend to be more motivated single-issue voters than those who support gun control. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_lessons_of_colorados_gun_debate_20130913/

[gopiscrap]

1. THis is a good read!

[Blue_Tires]

2. This won't sit well with the

"1994" and "WOOHOO! The voters fired their asses!" gloaters...

The irony is if the situation was reversed and some out-of-state hardline extremist gun banning organization bankrolled a recall in *their* districts and a minimal voter turnout ousted some pro-RBKA pols, they would ABSOLUTELY lose their shit...

People need to keep the big picture in mind....