Opinion
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- In a nation divided it is important to remember that the 120,000,00 gun owners vote as a block only when they feel threatened, and Democrats, you’re doing a pretty good job of that.
The “solutions” you offer does more harm than good and are often seen by those 120,000,000 as fear-mongering. What you find positive to rally your base just pisses off ½ the registered voters in the US and drives up OUR voter participation. The extreme views you use to win a primary doom you in the national elections.
So let me open your eyes.
Four thousand children die every year from texting while driving. That’s 12 times the number of people who die from all types of rifles nationally. (Only ½ of those deaths are by ARs) Banning cellphones is not a solution. But that is exactly what you are proposing for guns. For the ½ of the country that does not own a gun, it seems like a great idea. To your hard-core leftist, it seems like a great idea, but to the rest of the nation, you’re idiots.
In the age of Facebook and Instagram, you cannot unring a bell. Once you open your mouth and call for a gun ban your committed and forever tagged. Just ask Mitt Romney.
- Gun Control cost Hillary the 2016 Election. The facts are her weakness here showed up in the primary when she lost Michigan to Bernie.
- The 1994 gun ban cost you the house for almost 30 years.
- Al Gore lost due to his call for a handgun ban.
What seems like a good idea to the looney left that drives your party is not so acceptable to everyone else.
No, things haven’t changed. Bill Clinton did not run on an assault weapons ban, and neither did Obama; Hillary or Al Gore. There is a lesson there for you. (don’t tell people what you are planning until after you’re elected!) The left spent 30 plus years lying to themselves that gun bans win elections. It’s just not true.
One last thing, only 30% of the electorate are Republicans, out of 200,000,000 people that is about 60 million voters. So another 40% or so of the 140,00,000-gun owners are DEMOCRATS! They own guns too, and they feel cowed, silenced, and unwelcome in their own party. The lion’s share of them will NOT VOTE for a candidate that supports gun confiscation. They make up 40% of the NRA, and they are tired of being shouted down by the leftist in your party. They account for the major growth in people registering independent.
We, the 120,000,000 gun owners, are diverse and not your enemy. We are not terrorist or mass murders, stop treating us like ones. No one wants mass shooting, but you do not offer solutions you offer scorched earth policies.
We can have a meaningful dialogue on this, and we have real solution. But to you, Gun Control is nothing more than a way to scare voters in the primary, that puts you in a position to lose in 2020.
Thank you for your time in reading this article.
About Don McDougall
Don McDougall is an NRA instructor and member of the Los Padres “Friends of the NRA” committee. If he’s not at the range, you will find him setting the record straight with on gun issues and gun safety on AmmoLand Shooting Sports News.