The National Shooting Sports Foundation has released its 2018 Midterm Election Scorecard on members of Congress and it doesn’t take long to figure out that for Republicans, it’s mainly good but for Democrats it is a whole lot of bad news.
For example, Washington state’s two U.S. Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both eke out a 7.14% rating out of a possible 100%, same as New York’s perennial anti-gun Sen. Charles Schumer. There are a lot of Democrats with the same minimal rating, or flat zeros, the rating earned by Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California. Cantwell is being challenged for re-election this fall by former news anchor and prominent Republican Susan Hutchison.
Contrary to popular belief among gun prohibitionists, NSSF is the voice of the firearms industry, not the National Rifle Association. NRA speaks for its members and millions of gun owners who think of themselves as NRA members. NSSF, among other things, hosts the annual Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas as the industry showcase for new guns and gear.
The NSSF scorecard makes for fascinating reading unless one is a Democrat who claims to “support the Second Amendment…but.”
In fairness, several Democrats do have moderately good scores. However, there are a lot of zeros on this scorecard, and it doesn’t take a data specialist to figure out who they are. Just follow the “Ds” down the list.
When Liberty Park Press Thursday went to Facebook and asked for a show of hands from people who voted, reactions started coming in fast. The respondents are all likely gun owners and they are turning out in good numbers for an off-year election, which also signals one possible reason why nobody is still predicting a “blue wave” in the November elections.
Ratings on the NSSF scorecard highlight the dramatic divide between the political parties and their philosophies. Democrats largely come across as anti-gunners while Republicans are largely solid rights advocates.
This fall, Democrats are hoping to “flip the House” in an effort to derail the Trump administration’s agenda. They may be hoping to take advantage of the divide that, according to a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, most Americans recognize.
The Oct. 11-14 survey shows 59 percent of respondents disapprove of how President Donald Trump is handling his job. However, Rasmussen’s daily presidential tracking poll shows 47 percent of likely voters think Trump is doing a good job and 51 percent think he isn’t.
More importantly, more than 80 percent believe the nation is greatly divided about important values. Perhaps no better evidence of how visceral that division has become are the reported deliveries of purported explosive devices delivered to prominent Democrats. Those deliveries are being roundly condemned by people on both sides of the political divide, including the president. Legions of lawmen and women are investigating.
