Gun control has become a hot button, polarized issue at a moment when the country is deeply polarized. Democrats are totally united on it and that tends to cut the other way for many people who might otherwise be on the fence. It's really hard to bring all that attention to an issue without it plugging into partisan politics as usual. Yet if you could create a political moment where republicans wouldn't feel like they were having to support the democrats or cave to a long held democratic view, maybe that could create the conditions for more by partisan movement.
In calling for Republicans to pass gun safety measures like expanded background checks, Democrats point to polls that show most Americans support the idea.
They aren’t wrong about the polling. In fact, some polls show that over 90 percent of Americans support expanded checks.
Polling, however, does not tell the whole story.
Guest: Nate Cohn, a domestic correspondent for The Upshot at The New York Times.
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