Americans Back Obama’s Gun Control Plan, But That’s Not Enough

Politicians don’t usually confess to letting polls dictate policy, but two weeks after President Obama said the American people would decide the fate of gun control, he announced a legislative push for tougher, universal background checks, a limit on high-capacity magazines, and a ban on assault weapons.

All three measures do, in fact, command majority support in public-opinion surveys. But that Abraham Lincoln adage invoked recently by Obama—”with public opinion there is nothing you can’t do, and without public opinion there is very little you can get done in this town”—might not hold true here: congressional Republicans, not the American public, are likely to have the final say. [cont.]

Nate Cohn, The New Republic

Recent polls: Guns

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