You will hear pundits quote polling that suggests a majority of citizens want tougher gun control laws, like you hear that a majority of citizens do not want abortion to be illegal. While that information might be true, it does not reflect how a bill becomes a law in the United States. In short, that polling information is really useless because laws are not passed the U.S. as a nation.
Every state has two senators, no matter how many citizens it has, and if not more than 60 Senators are willing to vote in favor of a law, the law will not be passed, even if it passes the House which more accurately reflects the population of the United States. So, the right polling should be per state.
We tend to obviscate by classifying states as red or blue, when in reality is you have states that are “pro no restraints on guns over loss of life” and other states that are “pro restraints on guns to prevent loss of life.” Citizens in these states who keep re-electing Senators over and over again have created the current situation.
So today, right now the question isn’t, what is the Unites States going to do. The real question is, what are the citizens of the state of Texas, who keep re-electing Ted Cruz over and over again, going to do? I am not optimistic.
Remember, no matter how much money the NRA gives Ted Cruz, the NRA is not casting votes for him, it’s the citizens in the state of Texas who cast those votes. Yes, the NRA bought all the past votes but that only works because Cruz is in office, and that only happens because more citizens of Texas vote for him than someone else who will vote for common sense gun laws.