Reality Check: Liberal Gun Owners Don’t Matter Enough to Democrats to Make a Difference

The Minnesota Star Tribune ran an article written by a self-described liberal who values the Second Amendment. The author says all the right things and makes all the points you’d expect someone who cares about gun rights to make.

Whether it is my father’s century-old bolt-action .22 rifle or a modern 9mm semiautomatic handgun, these tools represent a constitutionally protected right. Legislating away that right through arbitrary metrics such as limiting magazine capacity to a “10-round” maximum does not solve the root cause of violence. Instead, it threatens to transform law-abiding citizens into overnight criminals for possessing commonly owned equipment, such as the AR-15 platform.

The data supports a more nuanced view. In Minnesota, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) annual reports consistently show that the vast majority of permit-to-carry holders (well over 99%) are among our most law-abiding neighbors.

That’s nothing you wouldn’t expect to find published by any pro-gunner on the right side of the spectrum.

I realize that my opposition to “assault weapon” bans, magazine limits and intrusive storage mandates puts me at odds with the current DFL platform. However, I believe that a truly liberal society must protect the individual’s right to security. We cannot claim to value individual rights while simultaneously dismantling the very tools that allow an individual to remain secure and independent. Protecting the Second Amendment is not a “right-wing” cause; it is the ultimate defense of the individual against the uncertainty of the world. We can pursue a safer society without dismantling the constitutional safeguards that allow us to protect ourselves.

It’s a perfectly good article. Unfortunately, gun rights will remain a partisan issue until liberal gun owners are willing to strike a blow against their party to send a message.

Right now, Democrat politicians have no reason to listen to liberal gun owners, because at the end of the day, liberal gun owners still show up to vote for them. And as long as they vote for them, politicians don’t really care if you complain about them online afterwards.

Elected Dems will take your vote, and then consistently vote for gun control laws in return for the big checks they get from Bloomberg/Everytown.

I get that a liberal-leaning gun owner won’t want to vote Republican because of other issues they disagree with the party on. What they need to do is pick one chamber of their state house, assembly or senate (whichever is a closer race), and vote Republican just in that race. They can still vote Dem for the other chamber and for governor.

Tell your current Dem representative or senator you’re voting against them as a protest against their stance on gun control. If enough people on the left get organized and do that, then maybe Dems will start to rethink their constant attacks on the Second Amendment and the payoffs they get from Everytown will no longer be enough.

Liberal gun owners are still too small a constituency to matter in any Dem primaries or general elections, but in close contests, they could — maybe — swing an election with their protest votes.

 

Kostas Moros is Director of Legal Research and Education for the Second Amendment Foundation. This post was adapted by SNW from an article posted at X.