From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Many More Voters With Guns   
   By The Editorial Board, Nov. 29, 2023, WSJ   
   More than half of American voters say that they or someone in their household   
   owns a gun, according to a poll by NBC News. That’s the highest level since   
   its polls began asking in 1999. After progressives drove up firearm ownership   
   with policies that    
   are soft on violent crime, they can’t figure out why their gun-control ideas   
   fail to pass.   
      
   The share of voters with a firearm in the household is 52%, up from 46% in   
   2019 and 42% in 2013. A partisan split is evident. Gun households now include   
   66% of Republicans, 45% of independents, and 41% of Democrats. This is no   
   surprise, in part because    
   rural areas tilt right, and that’s where hunting is a family event and bears   
   might be prowling the woods.   
      
   Notable, though, is that the numbers are increasing the fastest on the left   
   side of the aisle. In 2019, 64% of Republican voters reported that their   
   household had a firearm, compared with 33% of Democrats. The figure for   
   Republicans has risen two points    
   over four years, compared with eight for Democrats.   
      
   Twenty-four percent of black voters were in gun households in 2019. Today   
   it’s 41%, up 17 points. Over the same period, the number for white voters   
   rose three points, to 56% from 53%. Could this increase in black ownership be   
   related to self-defense    
   concerns amid the runup in urban crime? The survey doesn’t delve into the   
   reasons, but it’s a reasonable guess.   
      
   The NBC survey includes 1,000 registered voters, and the margin of error is   
   plus or minus 3.1 points. But it fits other evidence, and the trend is hard to   
   miss. The Second Amendment protects Americans who want to own firearms for   
   self-defense, and lately    
   millions more people have availed themselves of that right.   
      
   If politicians want to pass gun regulations, even red-flag laws that seek to   
   bar firearms from people with mental-health issues, these are the voters they   
   need to convince.   
      
   https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-voters-with-guns-than-ever-bla   
   k-ownership-republican-democrat-c9d98aca   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)