Rasmussen has released some new poll results on gun-related issues and the findings don’t reflect well for those grandstanding on “sensible gun legislation.”
The survey is among 1000 likely voters — the sample is more than just Republican or conservative-leaning folks.
An astounding 77% of likely voters say that politicians raise gun-related issues just to get elected and not to solve actual problems. Only 11% say politicians talk about guns to solve real-world gun-violence problems.
The survey also found that voters are divided about whether the gun-related issues are discussed enough. “Thirty-eight percent (38%) think politicians discuss gun-related issues too little. But 31% say they discuss them too much, and 24% feel the level of discussion of gun issues is about right.”
There are partisan differences. Not surprisingly, 62% of Democrats say that politicians don’t discuss gun issues enough while only 27% and 32% of Republicans and independents, respectively, say the same.
Gun issues are important to 84% of respondents when deciding how they will vote, which presents an interesting tension in the findings. Four out of five voters say the gun issue is important to how they vote, but 77% don’t believe the issue is addressed with any level of sincerity by politicians. Rasmussen explains the sentiment is universal: “Sizable majorities of voters in nearly every demographic category doubt the sincerity of politicians who raise gun-related issues” — so this isn’t isolated among certain voting blocs.
Conservatives are more likely to say that gun issues are very important to their vote and they are more likely to think the gun issue is discussed too much.
On the racial front, blacks and other minorities are more likely to say gun-related issues are more important to their vote than whites are.
Overall, these results don’t bode well for politicians who want to grandstand on the gun issue, especially during an election year. The message is pretty clear to elected officials: no one believes you actually want to solve the problems you claim you do. We might even take this a step further: voters do not believe politicians who talk about gun control. All the gun talk is about gun control. Second Amendment-supporting politicians aren’t floating the idea of more firearms liberty. On the contrary, Second Amendment supporters are always on defense against gun controllers who want to curtail firearms freedoms with idiot laws like registering ammunition purchases.
Other Rasmussen polling finds that a majority believe mental health issues relate to gun violence, but the mental health industry doesn’t have a Michael Bloomberg handing out fat campaign donations to politicians. Almost two-thirds of voters say the U.S. needs to enforce laws that are already on the books and virtually the same amount doesn’t trust the government to enforce the laws already on the books. It’s heartening to see that voters appear hip to what’s really going on.
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