XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.politics.democrats.d, sac.general   
   XPost: alt.rush-limbaugh   
   From: suckers@21stcenturydems.org   
      
   Liberals are not Americans.   
      
   One consequence of the success of the National Rifle   
   Association's expansive gun-rights agenda — and its lobbying   
   power in Congress — is that groups favoring more gun control   
   have pared down their ambitions in recent years.   
      
   The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, for instance, no   
   longer talks about banning handguns. Advocates have moved away   
   from the term “gun control” in favor of more specific language   
   like “gun violence” and “gun safety.” Democratic leaders in   
   Congress have grown timid about proposing significant new   
   restrictions on gun ownership.   
      
   In that context it's a bit of a jolt to read an op-ed published   
   Tuesday by retired Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens   
   titled “Repeal the Second Amendment.” Stevens is something of an   
   expert on the issue, having considered the proper scope of the   
   Second Amendment in the 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller.   
      
   In his op-ed, Stevens praises the work of the March for Our   
   Lives organizers and urges the group to “seek more effective and   
   more lasting reform” via a “repeal of the Second Amendment.” He   
   calls the Second Amendment a “relic of the 18th century,”   
   concerned more with the balance of power between the states and   
   the federal government than with individual gun rights.   
      
   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.   
      
      
   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.   
      
   One caveat is that other polls have shown that many Americans do   
   not know what the Second Amendment is. In 1999, for instance, a   
   Hearst Newspapers poll found that 59 percent of respondents said   
   they did not know the purpose of the Second Amendment. But   
   national conversations on gun rights since then have probably   
   shrunk that number, and the Economist/YouGov poll discusses the   
   Second Amendment in the context of guns.   
      
   Beyond that, the poll showed that a plurality of Americans do   
   not see the Second Amendment as something set in stone. Forty-   
   six percent said they favored modifying the Second Amendment to   
   allow for stricter regulations, compared with 39 percent who   
   were opposed. More than three-quarters of Democrats said they   
   supported modifying the Second Amendment, as did more than one-   
   quarter of Republicans.   
      
      
   Those numbers are surprising, given that virtually no political   
   leaders in the country are publicly advocating for a repeal or   
   modification of the Second Amendment. Democrat Hillary Clinton   
   made gun control a focal point of her presidential bid but spoke   
   of the need to “balance legitimate Second Amendment-rights   
   concerns with preventive measures and control measures.” In   
   2016, President Barack Obama felt compelled to publicly state   
   that “I believe in the Second Amendment” as he announced a set   
   of extremely limited executive actions on guns.   
      
   Even Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has for years been a   
   leading proponent of gun control in the Senate, wrote in 2012,   
   “let me be clear: If an individual wants to purchase a weapon   
   for hunting or self-defense, I support that right.”   
      
   But the polling above suggests that a significant chunk of the   
   Democratic electorate would be willing to support a much more   
   restrictive gun-policy agenda than the party currently supports.   
   The coming of age of the “mass shooting generation” may increase   
   that divide.   
      
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/03/27/one-in-   
   five-americans-want-the-second-amendment-to-be-repealed-national-   
   survey-finds/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3e88a0fc9ba6   
            
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)