2A – Important and threatened  by Tom Reynolds

SCOPE is working on a major Get-Out-The Vote effort, of which you will be hearing a lot about, very soon.  We don’t want to play ‘ready, fire, aim’ so we are researching where to put our efforts, time and money.

A new poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research offers some interesting insights – but it depends on how you read it.   

Gun rights are under a: 

Major Threat            21% (Dem)      40% (Rep)       34% (Ind)
Minor Threat            36% (Dem)      41% (Rep)       35% (Ind)
No Threat                42% (Dem)      19% (Rep)        28% (Ind)

Very                           22%
Somewhat                24%
Not Very                   11%
Not at all                     7%  

Do Democrats view 2A gun rights as somewhat threatened (21% + 36%) – OR - not really threatened (36% + 42%.)  Depends on how you want to read it.  The same logic can be applied to the other political categories.

But there is some guidance from this poll. 

If you are a SCOPE member, you know that our 2A rights are under a major threat from the leadership of the Democrat party; socialist and communist movements do not play well with civilian gun rights.  But according to the poll, amongst Republicans (40%) and Independents (34%) just a little more than a third of them perceive 2A as being under a major threat. 

There are two conclusions that we have reached:

we must undertake a major educational effort to reach almost two-thirds of Republicans and Independents that do not see the enormity of the threat to their 2A rights;

on the good side, we have a target rich environment that – if they can be convinced of the threat and motivated – could add hundreds of thousands of votes in favor of 2A gun rights.

Those votes could have swung past elections and could easily swing this November’s elections.  See my E-mail of May 15th that shows the Republicans could have won the governorship in both 2022 and 2014, if gun owners had shown up:  S.C.O.P.E. Shooters Committee On Political Education - You be the Jury by Tom Reynolds             

And there is definitely some other good news in that polling.  In spite of the majority not believing that their 2A rights are under a major threat, 81% do believe our 2A rights are important, at varying levels.   

Across the entire political spectrum, just how important are 2A rights?

Extremely                 35%

All we have to do is convince the non-voters in the 81% that their 2A rights are so threatened that it’s time to step up to the voting booth! 

That’s all?

And, as I wrote earlier, you will soon be hearing about how SCOPE is trying to accomplish that.