U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- In a Rasmussen poll conducted on September 5th and 8th, 2019, 28% of Democrats in the sample of 1,000 likely voters thought Americans should be prohibited, by law, from belonging to the National Rifle Association, or other groups that support enforcement of Second Amendment rights. From rasmussenreports.com:
The National Rifle Association is America’s largest gun rights organization with more than five million members. But a sizable number of Democrats views it as a terrorist group and believes it should be against the law for Americans to belong to pro-gun rights organizations like the NRA.
I have written about the mindset of people who are voluntarily unarmed. My observation is people who are voluntarily unarmed know they need some form of armed protection, some of the time. They resolve this issue by relying on the government for their armed protection. To do so, they believe in a combination of two things, in a variable ratio.
One, the government is benign, capable of protecting them, and not capable of malevolent actions, at least against them.
Two, the need for armed protection is minimal, and will never, or almost never be necessary for them.
Part one of this belief system translates into a desire that government not be limited in any way. If the government is limited, it might not be able to protect you when it needs to do so; if it is benign, there is nothing to fear from a government with unlimited power.
For many people who are voluntarily unarmed, any restrictions on other people (other than the government) being armed is desirable. Prohibiting people from belonging to organizations that promote the right to keep and bear arms is acceptable because the voluntarily disarmed do not see it as any limitation on them. They plan on never belong to the National Rifle Association; therefore a ban on belonging to the NRA is not a problem. This is reflected in the Rasmussen poll. Here is the question: From rasmussenreports.com:
4* Should Americans be prohibited by law from belonging to pro-gun rights organizations like the NRA?
This is simple special pleading: Take from someone else, but not me. The 28% number applied to Democrat voters. The percentage of all voters was 18%. This is very close to the number who think any limitation on government is immoral, recorded by Rasmussen at 20% on 23-24 March of 2019.
It is likely this is the same group of people who want to radically transform the United States. The United States Constitution was designed to limit government power, while allowing enough power in the various branches of government to protect the nation and keep the peace (provide for the common defense, insure domestic tranquility), while preventing the government from having the power to be tyrannical (establish Justice, secure the Blessings of Liberty).
Most people see limitations on government power as desirable and necessary. The Bill of Rights is popular; people understand if they are to have freedom, they need to allow others to exercise their freedom in turn. Even Democrat politicians used to say: I may disagree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. John F. Kennedy and Huber Humphrey both proclaimed the Second Amendment was a guarantee against tyranny.
No more. Democrats today claim the right to silence you if they disagree with you. Your speech is labeled hate speech, racist, homophobic, or sexist. Or, you are labeled a science denier and you should be locked up, if you disagree with the loud proclamations, repeatedly revised, that life on earth will end in a few years unless you grant enormous power and give huge sums of money to the government.
Today’s Democrats do not like Constitutional restraints and limited government. They have taken over the educational establishment. They teach that limited government is an obsolete concept.
The 20% of the population that believes limits on government are immoral, and/or the 18% that believe membership in the NRA should be illegal, are the results of that takeover.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.