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What Both Sides Don't Get About American Gun Culture
Politico ^ | 8-4-2019 | Austin Sarat and Jonathan Obert

Posted on 08/06/2019 4:31:59 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot

But increasingly, research into the culture and political views of gun owners is painting a very different portrait. Gun owners' politics don't generally fall into lockstep with the NRA ... .

One of the most authoritative and interesting surveys of the attitudes of gun owners was conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2017. That survey shows the vast majority of Americans who own guns are not members of the NRA and that most favor some form of gun control. However, most refrain from pushing for greater regulation of guns because they neither trust the government nor believe that it will protect them. They often resent the disdain for their way of life of the kind expressed by President Barack Obama when he suggested they “cling to guns or religion” as a way of expressing “antipathy to people who aren't like them … as a way to explain their frustrations."

... The Pew poll reported that 67 percent of gun owners said protection is a major reason they own a gun; 38 percent cited hunting, ... and 13 percent listed gun collecting as major reasons.

But culturally, guns aren't just a reaction to anxieties.... For their owners, guns are the material embodiments of good citizenship.

Any real gun law reform is going to need to take this community and value system into account. Liberals need gun owners as allies. ...

In order for them to be willing to do so, gun owners need assurance that liberal gun reform advocates will not march down a slippery slope from red-flag laws, regulating semi-automatic weapons and large capacity magazines and closing the gun-show loophole to intrusive regulations that start to break down a culture that millions of people value greatly—one that enriches their lives and whose roots go back before America's founding.

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: banglist
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Need to excerpt limits what I can post. Read it all at source.

Austin Sarat is Associate Provost and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Science. He is an editor (with Andrew Poe) of The Lives of Guns (Oxford University Press).

Jonathan Obert is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Amherst College. He is an editor (with Andrew Poe) of The Lives of Guns (Oxford University Press).

Despite where the authors are from, this article is fair and balanced, not the typical Leftists garbage view.

1 posted on 08/06/2019 4:32:00 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot
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To: Sir Napsalot

“from red flag laws”

Ref flag laws are part of the slippery slope not a precursor. Cops are allowed to flag you and everything is considered private like family court.

A secret court where the state deprives you of your civil liberties is tyranny.


2 posted on 08/06/2019 4:39:48 AM PDT by fruser1
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To: Sir Napsalot

Perhaps. But anyone who uses the “gun show loophole” phrase is ignorant and automatically suspect.


3 posted on 08/06/2019 4:43:13 AM PDT by 2111USMC (Aim Small Miss Small)
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To: Sir Napsalot

Pew is a leftist polling organization. Don’t believe a word of it b


4 posted on 08/06/2019 4:43:51 AM PDT by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Sir Napsalot
In order for them to be willing to do so, gun owners need assurance that liberal gun reform advocates will not march down a slippery slope from red-flag laws, regulating semi-automatic weapons and large capacity magazines and closing the gun-show loophole to intrusive regulations that start to break down a culture that millions of people value greatly—one that enriches their lives and whose roots go back before America's founding.

I'm afraid I disagree. Nothing fair and balanced about it. The authors are placing regulating semi-automatic weapons and large cap mags on the REASONABLE side of the ledger. That's horseflop.

Much of this article is meant to softsoap 2A supporters into supporting gun registration, restriction and confiscation.

Gun grabbers seem obsessed with the term 'semi-automatic' probably because it sounds vaguely sinister and contains the term 'automatic' aka a machine gun (as the lefties would term it).

Many have gone blue in the face pointing out that without semi-automatics we have...revolvers. Leftists would get the actual Wild West they're always talking about.

The cause-and-effect suggest is too ludicrous for words. Are they actually suggesting - and is anyone deluded enough to believe - that Mass Shooter X is going to say 'y'know, I might cancel for today now that I can only get a 15 round magazine.'

Of course not. X will merely take as many magazines as he can lay his hands on.

5 posted on 08/06/2019 4:45:54 AM PDT by relictele
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To: Sir Napsalot

Bad faith is what you will get trying to deal with gun control advocates. Gun owners know this for the most part.


6 posted on 08/06/2019 4:46:05 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
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To: Sir Napsalot

It’s not America’s gun culture that is the problem.
It’s a super low threshold for insults and anger and overly strict laws and intolerance that prevent the release of normal frustrations.
Gone are the days of “Sticks and stone may break my bones but names will never hurt me”. Young guys can’t even talk to girls anymore with worrying about be charged with sexual harassment.”
The result is young people whose only release is over the top.
We need to return to the days of the non-PC culture and people have to learn a higher threshold for insults.
And as an added benefit, comedians can have their old style routines again.


7 posted on 08/06/2019 4:47:56 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (Chivalry is not dead. It is a warriors code and only practiced by warriors.)
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To: fruser1

That jumped right out at me, too. The things the authors cite are themselves “intrusive regulations”, and we’re pretty far down that slippery slope already.


8 posted on 08/06/2019 4:50:08 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: Sir Napsalot
guns aren't just a reaction to anxieties

Yes, everyone who owns a gun has issues.

9 posted on 08/06/2019 4:52:37 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: Sir Napsalot

“Gun owners need assurance that liberal gun reform advocates will not march down a slippery slope from red-flag laws, regulating semi-automatic weapons and large capacity magazines and closing the gun-show loophole to intrusive regulations that start to break down a culture that millions of people value greatly”

My response to a statement like this is instead of wanting to pass laws that have never, ever been demonstrated to be credible and effective ways to stop the tragic or criminal misuse of firearms, why not work towards that goal by instead confronting the cultures of substance abuse, generational welfare dependency, illiteracy, and the neglected mentally ill? Why not spend scarce tax money on better youth and family crisis intervention initiatives instead of ineffective gun control?


10 posted on 08/06/2019 4:53:57 AM PDT by OttawaFreeper ("The Gardens was founded by men-sportsmen-who fought for their country" Conn Smythe, 1966)
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To: Sir Napsalot
Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.

The Bible. Turn back to the Bible and live by what it says. That is the solution and so many people avoid while looking for answers to all of this.

11 posted on 08/06/2019 4:53:58 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)
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To: Sir Napsalot

I am calling BS. Restrictions on firearms ownership, and use only emblodens criminals. And promotes crime. The cure is more furearms, less laws and restrictions.


12 posted on 08/06/2019 4:57:21 AM PDT by exnavy (american by birth and choice, I love this country!)
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To: Sir Napsalot

> In order for them to be willing to do so, gun owners need assurance that liberal gun reform advocates will not march down a slippery slope

There is no assurance they could give sufficient to mitigate their proven untrustworthiness.


13 posted on 08/06/2019 5:03:27 AM PDT by thoughtomator (... this has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.)
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To: exnavy
Agreed. When high school gun clubs were very common, that was accompanied with very little or basically no violence at all.
14 posted on 08/06/2019 5:05:41 AM PDT by OttawaFreeper ("The Gardens was founded by men-sportsmen-who fought for their country" Conn Smythe, 1966)
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To: Sir Napsalot
In order for them to be willing to do so, gun owners need assurance that liberal gun reform advocates will not march down a slippery slope from red-flag laws, regulating semi-automatic weapons and large capacity magazines and closing the gun-show loophole to intrusive regulations that start to break down a culture that millions of people value greatly—one that enriches their lives and whose roots go back before America's founding.

In the words of my ex-fighter pilot friend: "NEGATIVE!" Which he uses only rarely, but when there is to be no doubt. I will never trust a liberal/leftist, well, on anything, but especially about firearms. Sorry, too many decades of seeing them lie about every issue and every intent. The socialists want to destroy America, period. I will never work with them, never compromise with them, period.

15 posted on 08/06/2019 5:09:58 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps ( Be ready!)
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To: Sir Napsalot
gun owners need assurance that liberal gun reform advocates will not march down a slippery slope

Not going to happen because we know that reaching the bottom of that "slope" is their goal.

16 posted on 08/06/2019 5:11:13 AM PDT by grobdriver (BUILD KATE'S WALL!)
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To: Anti-Bubba182

Exactly. The end game here is confiscation. No matter what they are given, no matter how many times they promise “this is all we want.....really!” gun grabbers will always come back for more. Eg “we need universal background checks”. Even though that would have stopped neither El Paso nor Las Vegas nor Newtown nor etc etc.

Then it will be “universal background checks don’t work. We need a national registry.....oh but we double pinky swear we won’t use this for purposes of confiscation.”

Give ya three guesses as to what comes next.


17 posted on 08/06/2019 5:18:05 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: Sir Napsalot

“Despite where the authors are from, this article is fair and balanced,”

No it isn’t. Look up the Overton Window and get back to me. You’re being played.

L


18 posted on 08/06/2019 5:18:15 AM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: fruser1

Libtards are happily SWATting gun owners already. Red Flag laws will provide an institutional authority to do so.


19 posted on 08/06/2019 5:19:10 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: Sir Napsalot

“...gun owners need assurance ...”

“Assurance” from the likes of Bloomberg, Schumer and all the other filthy gun controllers of the world? Is the suggestion that if we’ll only just give up our semi-autos and magazines then they will leave us alone forever more? Shove that notion right out of the gate.


20 posted on 08/06/2019 5:19:38 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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