Gun ownership among American voters is the highest on record, and not just on the right.
Multiple studies show there has been a sharp rise in the percentage of Democrats who report having firearms in their homes in recent years – and some of them feel their views on the issue are not being heard by either major party in today’s polarized political climate.
Randy Miyan is the co-founder and executive director of Liberal Gun Owners (LGO), a non-profit that began as a Facebook group in 2007 for people politically in the center and left-of-center to have healthy conversations about guns.
He told FOX Business in an interview that Americans need to remove the mythology that rural conservatives are the ones who own guns, and that urban liberals don’t. Despite the trends the media focuses on, he says, “Liberals and Democrats have been owning guns the whole time.”
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Miyan said most online gun forums are dominated by those on the right who feel that “if you are even a little bit moderate and liberal – you like PBS and solar panels – then you’re destroying the country,” so many people find those spaces toxic and don’t want to deal with the “BS.” But, he also noted all social media forums have political extremists if not properly monitored.
“Everyone that is heavily committed to both sides of the issue believes that they are absolutely right. And this is the problem,” he said. “These over-committed viewpoints are actually one of the main reasons why we do not have better results for both gun rights and public safety.”
Among the extremely-online gun crowd, he noted, there are gun-right absolutists, and “take-them-away” radicals.
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After a few years, LGO cleaned house to remove extremists of all stripes from their group. The organization has received hundreds of thousands of requests from people who wanted to join over the years, but is very selective in who they let in. (They leave the NRA-type membership building to their cousin organization, the Liberal Gun Club.)
LGO is now a think tank that has around 5,000 people, including gun-owning academics, that weigh in with constructive views, statistics, and solutions aimed at preserving gun rights for Americans while addressing public safety.
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In their policy positions, they support NICS background checks, conceal carry licensure, the TSA’s current requirements for gun storage when flying, and the idea of punishment for gun storage negligence (but say training and education need priority).
LGO is against universal background checks, an “assault” weapons ban (Miyan says studies show the Clinton-era “assault” weapons ban didn’t work), magazine capacity restrictions, feature bans, red flag laws, and complex licensing systems. The think tank also believes gun ownership restrictions due to marijuana use and mental health need to be reanalyzed.
One of the greatest concerns surrounding guns in the U.S. right now is school shootings. But Miyan says many of the laws touted by politicians on the left will not actually solve the problem.
“The reality is, is that laws simply do not function the way that they are being advertised to function by the Democratic Party,” Miyan told FOX Business. “That’s also true for the Republicans, but we’re not talking about them. We’re talking about gun control.”
He also believes there are definitely some people who should not have guns, but says more people should not operate their cell phones in cars, because that kills more people than gun violence.
Still, he argues it has been the mentalities on both sides that are hurting progress in addressing the issues surrounding firearms. Democrats say they’re the answer, Republicans think they’re the answer, and the way that each party is handling it is a hindrance, he says.
Miyan believes that for the nation to have improvements on either the mitigation of gun-related negatives or gun rights, the thinking that surrounds the whole discussion has to move into the 21st century – and that’s his organization’s mission.
“Americans are hungry for evolution with this issue. There cannot be evolution with such philosophical entrenchment,” he said. “Moreso than the involved politicians: the American people need to prepare their brains for a new way to deal with guns. People need to be open to changing how they view the whole thing.”
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