What Voters Think of Guns

Note: Americas Majority Foundation, an organization that I work with, held several polls over the past three months, including post-election polls. In August, the foundation polled 1100 Hispanics, and in a national post-election poll, polled 1000 whites, 1000 blacks and 1000 Hispanics. Finally we polled black and Hispanic voters in New Mexico, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Illinois: states where America's PAC was involved. (We polled 3500 Hispanic voters in three states: Illinois, Wisconsin and New Mexico, and 2800 black voters in two states: Wisconsin and North Carolina.)

What do voters think of gun rights and gun control? In surveys many minorities are supportive of gun control laws, but when you ask the question, Do you have a right to defend yourself?, minorities support the right to defend themselves. The contradiction is that the gun control laws actually reduce their ability to defend themselves.

In August we asked Hispanic voters, Do we need new laws, to enforce existing laws, or should parents and residents take more control in defending their neighborhood? 41% of voters wanted existing laws to be enforced and 38% believed that residents and parents needed to take control of defending their community. Very few Hispanics care to see new laws.

In our exit polls, among Hispanic and black voters, we found that voters favored exercising their right to defend their neighborhoods from margins of 40% to 47%, whereas they favored enforcing present laws from 29% to 37% margins. Passing new laws was the least favorite option.

In our national poll, 43% believed in the right of community to defend themselves, 36% enforced existing laws, and only 20% want to see new laws be passed.

39% of white voters supported the notion that parents and residents have a right to defend themselves, whereas 40% stated that we need to enforce existing laws, and only one out of five said we needed new laws. 47% of black voters believe that residents need to take control of their neighborhood defense, whereas 31% believe we need to enforce existing laws while only 21% want new laws. Nearly 44% of Hispanics support the notion that residents should defend their neighborhoods while 38% want existing laws enforced and only 18% believe that we need new laws.

When reviewing gun control, if Republicans stick to the fight to defend oneself, this sells within minority communities. In Wisconsin, the black Democratic sheriff, David Clarke, ran on the right of the community to defend themselves and won a tough primary against gun control advocates. After the elections, 47% of black Wisconsin voters supported the notion of a community defending themselves, 31% wanted existing laws enforced, and only 19% wanted new laws.

Gun rights is a wedge issue that works in the GOP's favor and Democrats don’t want to fight this issue for they know it is a losing issue. The only real success that Michael Bloomberg had in the 2014 election cycle was his support of Robin Kelly in a special election to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr. who went to jail for corruption charges. He lost his effort to replace black Democratic Sheriff, David Clarke, who supported gun rights in the Democratic primary and his effort in Colorado went for naught as most of those candidates he supported lost.

While many minorities may view supporting the constitutional right as abstract, they do understand defending their neighborhood. The GOP would be smart to emphasize the self defense angle in promoting gun rights. Among many Democrats, they already buy his argument.