A Supermajority of Likely 2016 Voters Support Obama’s Executive Actions on Guns

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Gee whiz, it turns out the public isn’t on the Republican/NRA Congress’ side on the gun issue. Yes, the public doesn’t want to be shot at by terrorists who were able to legally buy a gun, go figure. And by “public”, I mean Republicans and gun owners too.

A new poll shows that a supermajority of likely 2016 voters support President Obama’s proposed executive actions on gun control:

A supermajority of voters – 73 percent – support “an executive action by President Obama that would require anyone who sells a large number of guns per year to become a licensed gun dealer and require background checks on all of their gun sales, including those sold online or at gun shows,” with a 53-percent majority saying they strongly support such action and only 25 percent opposing it.

A majority of Republicans support an executive action on background checks. Despite their disagreement with the President on other policy issues, a 56 percent majority of self-ascribed Republicans support a potential executive action.

Nearly two-thirds of gun owners also support a potential executive action. Sixty-four percent of gun owners and 56 percent of voters who are favorably disposed toward the National Rifle Association also support a potential executive action.

Support among key groups like independents in presidential battleground states is high. As noted above, 70 percent of voters in the presidential battleground support a potential executive action, including 68 percent of independent voters, 76 percent of independent women, 77 percent of non-college women and 72 percent of mothers. Among young voters support jumps to 90 percent.

Support for potential executive action reflects the national consensus on the need for stronger gun laws. A 60-percent majority believes the laws covering the sale of guns should be made stronger while just 7 percent believe they should be weakened.

The poll was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (a global progressive opinion polling and consulting firm), on behalf of Americans for Responsible Solutions, which is an organization founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Captain Mark Kelly.

Conservatives will already be shouting “Bias!” due to their belief that just because right-leaning media and polling companies willingly misinform them, the same is true on the left. That is not usually how it works since progressives love nothing more than trolling their own side with the most banal of clarifications until they are so lost in the weeds no one cares what they are saying.

But in any case, it is also most certainly not true here, as this survey is part of an ongoing trend. For instance, in 2014 a Quinnipiac University National Poll showed that 92 percent of voters, including gun owners and Republicans, supported background checks prior to all gun sales.

The only people who oppose background checks are hysterics who shouldn’t own a gun precisely because they are hysterical and thus prone to being ruled by emotion (volatile), and gun manufacturers and their lobbyists who only care about profit.

Sarah Jones

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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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