Because voters are stoopid:
Washington state voters support both expanding background checks for gun sales and restricting background checks for gun sales, according to an Elway Poll released Tuesday.
The poll, the first public survey of voters to gauge support for the initiatives simultaneously, shows the pro-background check Initiative 594 is starting the campaign in better shape. But the anti-background check measure Initiative 591 also has support.
… Asked about the initiatives, 72 percent of voters said they would support I-594, while 55 percent said they would support I-591 and 40 percent said they would support both.
I know, I know. Initiatives almost always lose support as the election nears. So this far out from November, 72 percent support is where the pro-background check initiative wants to be to have a shot at winning, whereas only 55 percent support suggests the anti-background check measure is headed toward defeat.
But still… a majority of voters support contradictory positions. This is just an incredibly stupid way to legislate.
More likely you have a number that support more comprehensive background checks, but also want due process for the seizure of guns.
Hard to say for sure without seeing the wording of the questions.
Contradictory voter’s “thought” process: Yes, I support stronger background checks… for “bad guys,” “criminals,” “those people…” And, why yes, I support restricting background checks… for “law-abiding citizens like myself.” Unfortunately you can’t have it both ways. Where you sit, is where you stand.
Also, Goldy, WHY DO YOU HATE DEMOCRACY!? What about the will of the people? They need to be heard!
Give it up, Goldy. Direct democracy is a Western tradition. You’re not from these parts, so I don’t expect you to understand that. We Westerners like our initiatives and referendums.* We’ll never give them up, any more than we’ll surrender our Winchesters and water holes. Besides, I can empirically demonstrate that indirect democracy doesn’t work any better than direct democracy, for the obvious reason that voters’ intelligence doesn’t increase between the time they mark their ballot for initiatives and the time they mark their ballot for candidates. More than 100 years of research shows our voters are just as stupid when they elect legislators as they are when they pass initiatives. You’re just prejudiced against initiatives because Tim Eyman has hijacked the initiative process and you don’t like Eyman.
* You eastern snobs can pronounce the plural form of this word as “referenda” if you like, but we Westerners, who generally speaking did not take Latin in prep school, say what comes natural to us.
Doesn’t only 40% saying they’d support both (contradictory measures) mean that there’s 60% who are supporting only one measure or none at all ?
Did you also see that 35% of those responding to the poll had guns in their home ?
http://www.seattlemet.com/data.....4_Guns.pdf