After being pushed and pushed and pushed into a corner by bullies, the time for reasonable compromise is beginning to disappear. Earlier today, the New York Times published an op-ed from retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens that called for a repeal of the Second Amendment. This led the Washington Post points to public opinion polling on the Second Amendment.
But public-opinion polling shows that it would take a lot of persuading to bring the public around to that view. In February, for instance, the Economist and YouGov asked Americans whether they supported a repeal of the Second Amendment. Twenty-one percent said they favored such a proposal, compared with 60 percent in opposition.
Considering that our current “democracy” seems to be based on popular opinions of about 33 percent of the public, that isn’t so bad.
The poll does, however, show surprisingly robust support for Second Amendment repeal (39 percent) among Democrats (by contrast, 8 percent of Republicans would support a full repeal). Black Americans (30 percent) and Northeasterners (28 percent) also showed relatively high levels of support.
When nothing is being done to stem the unique level of gun violence in our country, the wave of discontent gets larger and larger. The NRA and its money-making gun manufacturing lobby, cannot help themselves—they see dollar signs every time a home invasion ends in gunfire, every time people of color march, and every time children die in school. But every single time they shortsightedly stifle any and all regulation on firearms in our country, they build another layer of families profoundly hurt by gun violence. No one was ever “coming for your guns.” But now, some of us are INDEED going to come for your guns.