If that were the case, then it wouldn't be absolutely verboten for Democrats to support gun ownership. Maybe some smaller groups of leftists or libertarians are different, but they have little actual political relevance.
Can you show me the evidence that Democrats do not support gun ownership?
There’s plenty of talk about restricting specific types, basically based on appearance, of weapons but haven’t seen much suggesting they’d like to ban them or make them completely unavailable as is often suggested by the right.
Libertarians are not leftists and this might surprise you but sometimes political parties do things different from what many of their voters might want. Consider that very large numbers on the left voted for Bernie Sanders and support his policies, but the party had largely avoided taking them up wholeheartedly or at all.
Does anyone actually think "just some restrictions" don't inevitably snowball into more restrictions? My read is that Democrats have an overwhelming hostile position towards guns and would ban them entirely if given the political will. At best, it's a "don't talk about it" position, akin to supporting abortion and being a Republican.
> this might surprise you
The snark is not necessary. If you can't comment about politics without being dismissive and arrogant, don't comment at all.
Bernie Sanders is for restrictions on guns. AOC is for restrictions on guns. I don't know what mainstream leftist is for widespread gun ownership. Can you suggest any?
As I said in my comment, I think it's primarily a cultural thing. Left-leaning urbanites don't interact with guns, whereas right-leaning rural residents often use them for sports and hunting. While some leftist groups are for it, this is again a fringe thing that doesn't exist in real life all that much.
It wasn’t meant to be dismissive or arrogant. You can’t handle a bit of jest?
The slippery slope argument has been used many times to avoid making any changes at all. Maybe your read is based on propaganda? Maybe mine is? I don’t believe Democrats would ban all guns in the same way that I don’t believe fuel economy standards were intended to ban trucks as was argued by some on the right. Though there is a constitutional right to own guns where the right to drive an F150 sadly does not yet exist.
Restrictions of guns does not equal banning guns and Donald Trump and Marco Rubio and many other prominent politicians on the right also favor restrictions on guns.
The entire situation would be better if reasonable discussion could be had.
It just seems clear to me that most Democrats have a hostile position to guns. Maybe they'd ban them, maybe they wouldn't, but if say, AOC would go shooting at the gun range or in any way signal that she likes guns, she'd be immediately criticized harshly and lose a ton of support. I don't think I'm basing this on propaganda, but I could be wrong.
Personally, I don't think banning guns or having restrictions will do anything at all. The sources of gun violence are cultural and social. Figure out why mass shootings or gang warfare are so common, then address the root of the problem.
> It just seems clear to me that most Democrats have a hostile position to guns.
Yeah. Not all Democrats are against guns, but if you pick an anti-gun politician at random, that person is highly likely to be a Democrat. The fact that the jurisdictions with the most restrictive gun laws a pretty much always Democratic strongholds is further proof. IIRC, some had already effectively banned private gun ownership until some Supreme Court cases a decade or so ago.
> Does Chicago have the strictest gun laws in the country? It did after Mayor Jane Byrne pushed through the ban on firearms not already registered with Chicago police in March 1982. The city's ban lasted until 2010, when the Supreme Court struck it down by a majority vote of 5-4.
