Just What Is The NRA's Hold Over Members Of Congress?....

[TeddyR]

29. I don't find guns and cigarettes to be an apt comparison

Setting aside the fact that ownership of one is protected by the Constitution, the tobacco companies lied for years about the dangers of tobacco, ultimately losing lawsuits on the issue, and the government ultimately required warning labels explaining the dangers. I doubt anyone is unaware of the fact that if someone shoots you with a gun that it is at the very least going to hurt and potentially cause death, and if they don't realize this then I question their intelligence.

And gun ownership is increasing while public support for stricter gun control laws is decreasing. There is broad support for the actions taken by President Obama but support for stricter gun control laws is at best pretty evenly divided. See this poll - http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/views-gun-control-polling-summary-poll/story?id=36096424, or this one - http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/21/politics/gun-control-poll-americans/index.html. As others have pointed out, gun ownership rights are vastly expanding at the state level. For example, Texas became the 44th (or 45th?) state to permit open carry of firearms.

Of course, there is disagreement over the impact of gun control laws -- I tend to think that they do some good, and those like the president proposed are worth pursuing -- but the reality is that much of the gun violence isn't directly related to gun control laws. For example, Vermont has some of the most permissive gun control laws in the country but the murder rate is relatively low, while the District of Columbia and Chicago historically had some of the most restrictive gun laws and still suffered from some of the highest murder rates in the country.