Americans
want Congress to require universal background checks for gun buys
One
of the several specific new gun regulation proposals to come out of the
December 14 murders of little kids in Newtown, CT is to require universal
background checks anytime a gun is sold or changes ownership. Of all the
proposals for new, sensible gun control measures, it is by far the most
popular, favored by 90% of the public, although it now seems unlikely that it will pass the Senate never mind the Republican-controlled House.
President Obama
expressed surprise
at that high figure and commented, “"How often do 90 percent of Americans agree on
anything?"
Some pollsters thought that was a very good question and put it to the test. They asked a 1000 person polling sample to rank their support for universal background checks against a
list of five other things in American life that we all assume have very high
public support.
For example, what
percentage of people like kittens? You’d think it would be a monster number, but
only 76% said they like kittens.
Incidentally, we
hardly EVER do cat videos on Progressive Charlestown[1], but here’s one just to
show that we’re not rigid on the subject:
OK, now that you're back from watching the dozen or so other cat videos linked to the one above, here's a surprise. The
only thing Americans like better than universal background checks is….ice
cream, at 93%. Support for ice cream cut across all age groups, political
affiliations and classes.
Only
67% like baseball. I’m not one of them cuz it’s just too boring.
On
the fifth item, laws prohibiting child labor, only 71% of the respondents said
they liked these laws.
Despite
the light-hearted nature of the poll, the underlying message is pretty serious.
As President Obama said, it’s incredibly rare for 90% of Americans to agree
about anything.
Hell, in Charlestown, there would probably be a 60-40 split on what day of the week it is.
Hell, in Charlestown, there would probably be a 60-40 split on what day of the week it is.
But
when 90% of Americans say they favor a basic, commonsense measure like
universal background checks before you can buy a gun – and they don’t get it,
as seems likely to be the case or get a drastically
watered down version – what does that say about American democracy?
Now,
we will need to see if that 90% support will translate into results at the
ballot box.