The politics of gun control

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Dems would be easier with this issue if they always hide behind public initiatives and referendums to get their agenda through.

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Dems would be easier with this issue if they always hide behind public initiatives and referendums to get their agenda through.

So they feel uneasy about executive orders by governors (like in Massachusetts) and presidents? If it is "the will of the majority" it is OK?

To strict constitutionalists, individualists, and natural rights folks a democracy of this type can represent authoritarianism all the same even if liberal gun control advocates feel somehow better about it.

 

ah yes, but I'm talking tactically. Most people aren't "strict constitutionalists, individualists, and natural rights folks" and thise that are aren't typically a key swing demographic. The trouble the gun control lobby gets itself in is that it self-caricaturises itself as an elitist movement, which harms it in the long run. Better to at least hide behind public policy votes (and as an advantage that gives legrooom for pro gun legislators).

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Dems would be easier with this issue if they always hide behind public initiatives and referendums to get their agenda through.

So they feel uneasy about executive orders by governors (like in Massachusetts) and presidents? If it is "the will of the majority" it is OK?

To strict constitutionalists, individualists, and natural rights folks a democracy of this type can represent authoritarianism all the same even if liberal gun control advocates feel somehow better about it.

 

ah yes, but I'm talking tactically. Most people aren't "strict constitutionalists, individualists, and natural rights folks" and thise that are aren't typically a key swing demographic. The trouble the gun control lobby gets itself in is that it self-caricaturises itself as an elitist movement, which harms it in the long run. Better to at least hide behind public policy votes (and as an advantage that gives legrooom for pro gun legislators).

You can't hide behind public initiatives on the federal level which makes such a strategy irrelevant to national politics

That's sort of my point. I don't think that any bill that is able to have a significant effect on gun control is likely to pass in Congress, so the Dems should demote it as a "national issue".