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There are more Americans who claim to have personally seen a UFO (11%) than oppose background checks.
To say that support for universal background checks for gun sales is overwhelming would be an understatement. A new Quinnipiac poll shows that almost every registered voter backs the policy change.
According to the poll, 92 percent of voters nationwide support background checks for all gun buyers, only 7 percent oppose background checks. I cannot think of a single issue in any political polling that has ever been so one-sided.
Just to show how incredibly fringe the opposition to universal background checks is I went looking for things that poll higher. For example more Americans don’t believe President Obama was born in the United States (17%) than oppose background checks. Twice as many Americans think the Sun revolves around the Earth (18%) as oppose background checks. There are even more Americans who claim to have personally seen a UFO (11%) than oppose background checks.
Nearly every regular American supports this commonsense reform. It may be one of the least controversial ideas proposed in decades. The fact that there is a real chance Congress may not approve it shows how unbelievably powerful the gun manufacturer lobby is.
Image by Gerhard A. E. Uhlhorn under Creative Commons license
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Only polls relevant would be those of particular lobbyists and their employers regarding legislation in D.C. Voter opinions seem to have no effect on laws, rules, or regs.
Why cant the left gender this type of fear in congress? When will we learn to primary the way the right does. I don’t know wheather to be mad, sad or amazed that the gun lobby can gender this kind of fear in congress.
BigGun ‘n BigAmmo walk loudly and tosses whopping giant huge load$$$ of payola at Congress.
It’s not so much fear that the Gun Lobby engender$, a$ it i$ greed.
Money talks…
P.S. The so-called “rightwing” and/or the Tea Party are wholly owned subsidiaries of the 1%. The Koch Brothers pay for and run the Tea Party. Those rightwingers who “primary” other “Republicans” can do so and be successful bc they are backed by whopping huge sums of money from the 1%.
the reason why the so-called “left” appears so powerless is because, generally, there’s far less money involved.
The primaries – some very close to being successful – that the so-called “left” have run have been huge real battles bc they actually involved “regular” voters, not just the mega-wealthy, who mostly are calling the shots these days. It’s harder to primary from the left due to MONEY, and the power that it is. And, finally, most in Congress are bought and paid for and no longer have any values, except fealty to their 1% paymasters.
Always follow the money…
I want the first guns registered to be Ted Nugent’s, even if we have to arrest him to do it. The symbology is just too much to resist.
Boxturtle (if he threatens to pack up and leave, we should let him)
Given his history of violent behavior, I want a background check done on Obama. Pronto.
This is absolutely the way to go. I would also say that additionally there needs to be more followup on people who try and fail to pass the background checks for whatever reason, it should be a HUGE red flag but at this point in time it isn’t. There is almost no way for the NRA to oppose this unless people get stupid and absolutist and insist on making gifts/inheritances of firearms subject to background checks as well. Outside of that, this is an excellent idea but should also be linked with laws requiring safe storage similar to the regulations used by Norway, Finland, Switzerland and Germany.
The devil’s in the details…
Arrest him ?
Obama might be able “drone” him for owning a gun soon ?