In the big picture, gun ownership is not on the virtuous side.
That's the line they are selling, and all too many people buy into it.
I think one thing that is being missed, by both political parties and by businesses and activists who think Social media rules the world of opinion.
And that is something that in earlier times was known as the "silent majority".
It still exists, despite the current concept that everyone who matters is talking in tweets and posts. They seldom make comments, but when they feel their interests are actually threatened, they do vote.
It takes time, and something drastic to arouse their ire, but once it happens, they have the numbers to make a huge impact.
Consider this, while that frightened high schooler is being encouraged to plead for the banning of assault weapons, ask them what their grandfather thinks about that idea. Some will agree, of course, but a lot of them won't.
And not because they are all gun fanatics (many aren't) but because many of them have the wisdom to know what things just won't work.
I'm not trying to say everyone older is wiser, after all, there's no fool like an old fool. But there are a LOT of people in this country who don't post on social media of any kind. They aren't the ones being counted in online polls.
They often aren't counted in ANY polls, except the official ones every couple years in November.
I know a number of people who have strongly held convictions, and do vote, and refuse to take part in any kind of poll or survey, period. I know others who deliberately lie to poll takers and surveys, just to screw with them.
One fellow I knew somehow got on a list to be polled, during the early Clinton years. He got a call every 2-3 months, asking his opinion about the job the President was doing. This guy was about as political as a stump, didn't care one way, or the other, so he told them he was ok with what the President was doing. After a few years of this, he decided to tell them something else. He told the caller he was very upset with the bad job the President was doing. They never called him again....
The US has over 330 MILLION people if the last census is even remotely accurate. WE are NOT a homogenous mixture, spread evenly across the nation. Poll people from a metro area and from a rural area and you can get widely different responses on some issues and similar responses on others.
Personally I just don't see how you can survey 1,000 people and with confidence claim its a true representation of over 300 million people, about anything.
