Another Reason Gun Control Failed

Wednesday 24 April 2013 - Filed under Uncategorized

There are many reasons why the gun control bill that Obama pleaded for is dead in the water. Many Americans saw his tacky rhetorical stunts during our “national conversation” as tasteless, relegating what should have been an intellectual conversation in to a party where only those willing to wear the bloody shirts of dead children were welcome. Others simply blame fear of the NRA on the part of the senators who voted against the bill. But it’s much simpler than that. It wasn’t the NRA and their fund-raising prowess: it’s NRA MEMBERS and the tens of millions of other gun owners who are completely unaffiliated with the NRA and their willingness to vote against ANYONE who appears to be anti-Second Amendment. Megan McArdle:

If you want to actually understand why gun control failed, let’s try a simple exercise. Raise your hand if you had a strong opinion about the background check bill that was in front of Congress.

Keep your hand raised if you know how your own Senator voted on it. Otherwise put your hand down.

Keep your hand raised if you actually live in a state that might plausibly elect a Republican to congress.

Okay, now keep your hand raised if that bill was in the top one or two issues that you’ll be voting on in 2014 or 2016. By which I mean, if your Senator votes the wrong way on that bill, you will vote for anyone who opposes them. Anyone–even someone with the wrong opinions on gay marriage, social security reform, transportation subsidies, the Keystone XL pipeline, carbon taxes, marginal tax rates on people who make more than $250k per annum, the deficit, and student loan repayment programs.

Now look around. Aside from those three guys in the back from Handgun Control Inc., do you know who still has their hand raised? NRA members.

Support for new gun control laws was high in the immediate post-Newtown period. But that support was evanescent; it’s already back below 50%, and probably still falling. Gun owners care year in and year out. And they vote on the issue.

This had little to do with the fearsome power of “the NRA”, or their fundraising efforts. It had to do with gun owners who will do their best to unelect any politician who votes to deprive them of what they view as constitutional rights. Those gun owners are more likely to live in swing states than the most avid gun controllers: progressives who cram themselves into a handful of cities. And they vote on the issue, unlike progressives, who, for all their furor at the outcome, put a large number of issues–taxes, abortion, welfare programs, and so forth–much higher on their list of priorities. By 2014, the odds of any “No” vote losing their job over it are pretty slim.

Exactly right. The senators who voted against the gun control bill aren’t afraid of the NRA. They’re afraid of getting voted out by their gun owning constituents. Which is precisely how representative government is supposed to work. They weren’t cowardly, or kowtowing to special interests, but doing exactly what their constituents sent them there to do.

2013-04-24  »  madlibertarianguy