GOP politicians are much more resistant to gun control than GOP voters are. Via FiveThirtyEight:
Don’t be surprised if that happens again. It’s not that Republican voters are adamantly opposed to gun control, as the data above shows. But the Republican Partydominant political identity within the GOP
, which muddies the political consequences of backing gun control measures despite the poll results on individual policies. If you’re a Republican elected official, you have to be aware that a vote for some kind of gun control measure could potentially get you cast as “anti-gun” and broadly “of the left,” in a way that could make you electorally vulnerable.
You can see evidence of this in the more abstract poll questions about gun policy; most Republicans support some specific provisions, but on the general issue, they clearly fall on the side of gun rights:, some scholars view gun ownership as a “political identity,” shaping how people see politics similar to the way that race and religion do. Also, views on guns don’t exist in a vacuum: They are part of and connected to broader forces driving conservative politics.
In other words, Republican voters may say they support certain gun control measures, but perhaps not the culturally liberal, urban people pushing gun control — and the latter may be the more important factor to consider for a Republican politician trying to keep his or her job. “My grassroots tea party interviewees were very pro-gun, an issue often linked in their minds to fear of immigration,” said Vanessa Williamson, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and co-author of the book “
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