Gun Control Politics Not a Winning Issue? UPDATED

I have written before that gun control may not a winning issue for politicians, including in districts that normally elect Democrats. Now, two news items show this continues to be true. 

UPDATE: If you need any evidence of this, a June Quinnipiac poll found:

Voters in the poll were asked about a variety of issues and how Malloy handled them. He scored best on his handling of gun policy ....... Regarding gun policy, Malloy has an approval rating of 47 percent to 44 percent.
Did you catch that? Gov Malloy "scored best", across a range of topics, on his gun policy and he only garners 47% approval versus 44% disapproval.

If you did deeper into that poll question, you will find out that Democrats and Republicans split more less 70/20% on ideological lines but Independents DISAPPROVE of Malloy's gun policy by 49% to 41%. Not a good sign for the Gov, no?

Further, those polled who have children DISAPPROVE of Gov Malloy's gun policy by 48% to 44% for those with kids under 18-years and 51% to 40% for those with kids in public schools. 

And, if you are interested in how this question has trended over time, Between March (before the final bill was presented) and June, Approval slipped 1% while Disapproval increased by 5%, a six percentage point narrowing of the gap. 

As far as I can tell, there has not been a Q-Poll asking this question since June. However, since then all of the restrictions and ammunition purchase requirements have gone into full effect which I am sure has not pleased the 30% of gun-household members who approved of Malloy's gun policy. 

So, while his views and efforts on gun control scored "Governor mid-40s" his highest approval, it is still paltry and sub-50% in a state that was so effected by the events of last December. Does anyone really think gun control is a policy that any politician should be leading with?

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Original post continues: 

As you may recall, last month two Democrat Colorado state senators lost recall elections driven by their votes on Colorado's highly restrictive gun control law. This law, being ignored by more than a dozen Colorado county sheriffs and subject to numerous court challenges, may now cost another Democrat senator her position. Riding the momentum of the recent successful recalls, another recall has been launched against Democratic Sen. Evie Hudak. Whether this effort, a second recall against Hudak will succeed is unknown, but Hudak has won and kept her seat by only the thinnest of margins at the polls. As reported by the Daily Caller:
"In both senate elections, Hudak has won by narrow margins; in 2008 she topped Republican Libby Szabo with 51 percent of the vote. In 2012, she won with only 47 percent, narrowly edging out Republican Lang Sias by 0.7 percent. Sias’ defeat was blamed in Republican circles on the presence of Libertarian Lloyd A. Sweeny, who garnered nearly 7 percent of the vote. GOP analysts believe a majority of those Libertarian votes would have otherwise gone to Sias."

What is most interesting in Colorado is that, after last month's successful recall of the two Senators, the Democrats hold only a single vote majority. Should Hudak be recalled, the balance of power in Colorado will be shaken. 

Meanwhile, NBC offers a long post titled: Almost a year after Newtown, does anyone care about gun control anymore? I will not quote it extensively here so as to avoid being (selectively) accused of violating the copyright of others. The piece describes how enthusiasm among gun control advocates is waning with one advocate calling what happened in the wake of Newtown a "sugar rush" that has now run its course. It summaries the lack of enthusiasm that met both summer tours by MAIG and the Giffords' bus tour. 

The article contains one whopper of misinformation where it suggests that "The nation’s private firearms are in the hands of just 20 percent of the population". There are two polls that routinely ask about gun ownership and those polls show self acknowledged ownership at either something in the 30%s or around 45%. No poll and no gun control advocacy group I have seen has suggested that only 20% of the population are gun owners. I am not sure where NBC found that number but the fact that the authors used it without qualification shows that this piece was written by those sympathetic to the gun control cause. 

I will conclude with the idea that the NBC piece concludes with, what is driving the "intensity gap" between gun control advocates and gun right supporters. Gun rights advocates, in the form of gun owners, have skin in the game and something to lose. They see this as an attack on their natural and Constitutional rights which, in the mind of many, has far reaching consequences. Meanwhile, gun control advocates see this as mainly another ideological issue on a broader ideological battlefield. With nothing to lose and only ideological gains at risk, they do not feel as deeply about the issue. Please note, I am not looking to diminish the grief, feelings or efforts of the families of victims, it is the non-survivor types to which I refer. 

So, for gun rights supporters, they can become very focused on this single issue and can likely vote on that single issue. What many politicians seem to have missed, especially Democrats, is that their image of the typical gun owners is incorrect, we are not all politically right-of-center independents, mainstream Republicans or Libertarians. No, there are far more gun owners who are politically moderate Democrats for whom their support of gun rights is stronger than their nominal support of Democrats on a broader array of issues. The Daily Caller addresses this:

When single-issue is a strength

So why doesn’t anyone seem to care? The easy answer from the left involves the NRA, its fervent supporters, gun manufacturers, and words like “greedy” and “heartless.” But the truth is, as always, more complicated.

To make the world safer, the gun control lobby wants fewer guns in the hands of bad guys. The pro-gun side supports the same goal. But it also wants more guns in the hands of the good guys, believing that a bullet is the best way to stop the next unfolding national tragedy.  Both sides think the other is crazy and dangerous, but only the pro-gun side seems to have supporters who are passionate enough to focus on almost nothing else.

“They’re single-issue people and we aren’t,” says Beverly Moffet, a retired judge in Columbus, Ohio, and a supporter of Americans for Responsible Solutions. “That’s their side’s greatest strength and our great weakness.”

One last thing that politicians did not fully appreciate as they voted in favor of gun laws, many gun owners were not paying close attention and did not understand that they would be caught up in what they thought were assault weapon legislation. I know more than a few shotgun and hunting rifle owners who were disengaged in the gun control debate earlier this year. It was only after the law passed and they came to realize they would have to get permits to buy new firearms and/or ammo, that they realized they were asleep at the wrong time. Certain politicians used a divide and conquer approach in an effort to try and drive a wedge between owners of "assault weapons" and semi-auto handguns and long gun owners. They may have succeeded then but gun owners are now more united than ever. Politicians should head that as well as the fact that 1-in-9 CT voters might be gun owners, and single issue voters.