Reply #8: If very liberal Democrats would simply stop trying to take away firearms ... [View All]

our party would instantly get a hell of a lot more votes.

Most gun owners believe in "rights to free speech, free assembly, free press, petition the gov't, privacy, etc, etc etc." but they are single issue voters and the Republicans have these voters locked up tight.

I talk to a lot of conservative gun owners and they agree with me on most of the issues that Democrats support but they simply refuse to vote for a Democrat because they feel they would be endangering their hobby and risking the loss of their best means of self defense.

Remember, many of these people have a significant amount of money and time invested in their enjoyment of the sport. Many people who oppose gun ownership are serious but have NO money invested and therefore are not as driven to go to the polls.

While it is true that we have a higher rate of gun violence in our nation than in many others that have draconian gun control, it is also important to realize that we have over 300,000,000 firearms in our nation and over 40 million gun owners. The other nations have few gun owners and few guns.

It is also important to consider that much of the violence caused by firearms in our nation is due to criminal activity and organized drug gangs fighting over turf. Taking firearms away from honest citizens will do little to stop criminals and drug gangs. Mexico has extremely strict gun laws and yet their army is fighting well armed drug cartels and may be losing the battle.

As a party we have often shot ourselves in the foot trying to push "feel good" gun laws which accomplish little or nothing but do turn gun owning voters against us.