Further gun control failed because of the people, not the NRA. [View all]

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Last edited Wed Apr 17, 2013, 11:21 PM - Edit history (1)

I know some want to blame the NRA, including Obama himself, for the failure of new gun control law in the Senate, and they did play a big role, but the bottom line is politicians want to win re-election, so they do what will win them the most votes. They cater to the people they represent on big issues because those people hold their fate. A less cynical view would be that politicians truly care about the views of the people they represent and act accordingly.

Either way, a politician is always aware of his/her political livelihood and longevity. They do answer to the people, for one reason or another.

The NRA helped, but it didn't kill new gun control today, the people did. I think there are a number of reasons for that. I'll abstain from expressing those thoughts for the time being, but I did hear a couple of times today that 90% of Americans want stricter background checks.

That didn't sound right, so I googled and found this, dated today:

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Poll: Ebbing public support for gun background checks

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/04/17/politics/senate-gun-vote-nears-background-checks-in-peril

Perhaps helping explain Democrats' problems, an AP-GfK poll this month showed that 49 percent of Americans support stricter gun laws. That was down from 58 percent who said so in January -- a month after the December killings of 20 children and six aides at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school propelled gun violence into a national issue.

Just over half the public -- 52 percent -- expressed disapproval in the new survey of how President Barack Obama has handled gun laws. Weeks after the Newtown slayings, Obama made a call for near universal background checks the heart of his gun control plan.
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The fact is Senators, politicians all, are ever-aware and always mindful of their re-election prospects. The NRA has as much power over congress as congress allows it to have. They weren't acting at the behest of the NRA, they were acting, either for self-preservation or out of a sense of duty, based on the will of the people.

But even if every piece of new gun control had passed the Senate today, the House would have killed it. It's hard to change the Constitution, hard to erode the rights protected by it, and that is as it should be.

Added on edit:

If politicians were acting AGAINST the will of the people they represent on such a huge issue, wouldn't they have committed political suicide today? Do you think they would do that for the NRA?

That doesn't make sense to me. Of course they were acting based on their own political survival. Of course they were. And that means representing, pleasing, or appeasing the majority of those who will vote for them next election. This is politics 101.