Pew Research who puts out very interesting polling has completed a report on guns. I’ve never seen one of their other reports talked about here at DK despite many gun posts, so I thought I’d mention the parts I found interesting.
Politically I’d ask that people restrain themselves on their social media posts and especially when discussing with fellow Dems. Guns are just the sort of issue that can cause voters to either stay home or worse vote the opposite of the way we’d like.
Most Americans by an ever widening gap are very interested in protecting gun rights, more so than they are concerned about controlling gun ownership.
Fine you say, let those Repubs suffer, well it’s not just Republicans. Statistically says Pew it’s also Dems. Nineteen percent of Clinton supporters are more concerned about protecting gun rights than they are about controlling gun ownership. That’s one out of five. Look around at your fellow Dems, count to five. If you start slinging the pejoratives I read on this web site you might just be turning off a Dem, you could be losing us a vote.
Statistics show lessening support among Dems, I also can’t believe someone like Trump has made it this far, might we be losing Dems to the Independent classification?
Large magazines and AR style black guns? Even worse, about one in four. A lot of Dems like ARs with the regulation 30 round mags.
Where do things tilt the other way? Background checks. Most people are onboard with background checks for most everyone. Gun owners are law abiding or they wouldn’t be able to legally have a gun, and they are familiar with the background check system, if anything most people would like it strengthened so that when someone fails there is follow up. Somebody trying to buy a gun who shouldn’t.. .well maybe they need a visit from law enforcement. But that’s later, after the election, the best thing to discuss about guns now is absolutely nothing.
That’s my entire message, below are some comments about how we talk about guns.
Vocabulary
I notice Pew chose their vocabulary with care, so I thought some discussion of vocabulary is in order. Pew calls magazines clips and the word for scary black guns is assault style weapons. That’s ok. Call them whatever you like, most people will know what you are talking about. No need to be a gunsmith to talk about guns. In an ongoing private message discussion I’ve been participating in, I still don’t know what to call the gun some seem to hate. The industry tried to call them Modern Sporting Rifles, that bombed. I call them ARs or scary black guns. Assault rifle is the full auto military version as some people might remind you.
There is a benefit with using the correct term though. People assume you might know a little bit about what you are talking about. It’s like calling a cartridge a bullet, doesn’t make any real difference, people know what you mean, but calling it the right thing is ok for credibility.
Dog Whistles
There are some words that raise flags. They are words that worry someone who is already worried about losing their gun rights.
Common Sense Solutions — means repeal the second amendment when I hear it.
Gun Violence — always causes me to perk up my ears too. Consolidating suicide into a discussion that is all about homicide is an indication that the person is not only using the rhetoric of anti gun folks but padding the numbers too.
Gun Safety — as with any dangerous activity people who shoot guns all take pride in practicing some very basic safety measures (with various amounts of success) If you don’t repeat the four basic rules of gun safety, and more than likely you don’t even know them, you’ve no business using the term. Calling anti gun groups gun safety groups is offensive to all who adhere to a culture of safety.
Pejoratives — It should go without saying that calling huge portions of the Democratic Party, and much larger portions of Independents and Republicans names is not a real bright idea when we want them to vote our way.
What to say to voters?
I don’t discuss issues when canvassing or phone banking. Most people want to do the talking, I let them. I talk about returning that ballot they got in the mail. If someone brings up guns, and sometimes they do — be careful. There’s just no way to tell how people think.