The U.S. Has Never Been So Polarized On Guns

Democrats want to take action on gun control in the wake of the mass shooting Sunday in Las Vegas, the deadliest in recent U.S. history. And as the Pew Research Center has found, there is bipartisan support for a number of gun control measures. Yet the chance of the Republican-controlled Congress restricting access to guns in any way seems remote at best — at least in the near term.

Opposition to gun control laws is now a default position of the Republican Party, and guns as an issue has become one of the most polarized topics in modern American politics. More than that, it’s become a defining issue — which party people choose to identify with is inextricably intertwined with their relationship with guns and gun policy. CONT.

Harry Enten, FiveThirtyEight