Which at times is really regulation of people, such as laws that require certain forms of behavior, and at other times regulation over the actual product, such as laws that require certain features or ban certain features.
Thus, citing research opinion findings from pew on a broad issue such as support for "gun control" is like looking at the difference between support for "obamacare" vs support for "banning pre-existing" conditions. People do not support obamacare but want pre-existing condition clauses banned.
It is up to the left to frame the issue successfully. People generally support a restriction on criminals access to guns, different places that one can or can not take a gun, etc as well as people supporting restrictions on certain products such as products that create high-capacity/high efficiency capabilities such as an automatic assault weapon with a 100 barrel clip-etc.
Thus, it is up to liberals to frame it in a way that people understand and to design the law in a way that reflects what people actually support. The control/rights discourse is simplistic. That is not the way it actually works. Thus your concern is misguided. Also, republicans talk about shit that people don't support all the time and still win elections so its not as if being on the "other side of a particular issue" means that one will lose an election. Winning or losing an election is a complex issue and if you want to actually boil it down to one or two different factors than those factors would really be "messaging" and "GOTV".
Lastly, I have never meet anyone in my life who did not support some type of gun control. You know like "should it be illegal for someone to stand on a street corner and randomly pass out loaded firearms to anyone passing by one block from an elementary school?" If you say " yes that should be illegal", then you support gun control. If you say no, it should not then I always respond with "Great, my friends and I have been looking for stupid people like you, whats your address, we will see you tomorrow!" I have never got an address. I guess thats a case of "Not On My Block".
Your gonna have to bring it deeper here .....son........your gonna have to bring it deeper
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