As two Democratic lawmakers who supported gun control face recall elections, a new poll finds that most Coloradans aren’t enthusiastic about the idea.
The Quinnipiac poll also finds that while most in the state oppose the new gun laws in general, the results are mixed when asked individually about the laws that inspired the recalls in the first place.
The somewhat schizophrenic findings were released Thursday, with just over two weeks remaining before the Sept. 10 recall elections, the first against state legislators in Colorado’s history.
It shows that voters, by a 2-1 margin of 60-31 percent, believe lawmakers with whom they disagree should be removed from office during regularly scheduled elections.
Democratic Sens. John Morse and Angela Giron are being targeted for their support of a new law requiring universal background checks for all gun transfers and for a law that limits the number of bullets ammunition magazines can hold.
The poll also shows that voters disapprove of these strict new gun laws by 54-40 percent. When broken down by party, Democrats strongly favor the new laws and Republicans strongly oppose them. Unaffiliated voters also don’t like them, by a margin of 56-39.
But when asked about the laws individually, the numbers get turned on their heads.
For example, the poll also found that 83 percent of all voters support universal background checks, with only 16 percent opposing them.
The results were almost evenly divided on the magazine limit, with 49 percent in favor and 48 percent opposed.
“With wide partisan and gender divisions, Colorado voters oppose the state’s stricter new gun control laws, but they don’t want to recall State Senate President John Morse or Sen. Angela Giron because they supported these laws,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in a release.
“Philosophically, voters don’t want a recall election every time they disagree with a legislator,” he said. “They’d rather deal with it every four years.”
Finally, a majority of respondents say that the new gun laws will not make Colorado safer and that they wouldn’t have prevented or changed the number of people killed during shootings at Columbine High School or the Aurora movie theater had they been in place at the time.
While revealing, the poll doesn’t hint at which way the recall elections will go — only voters in the contested districts will have a say in Morse’s and Giron’s fates.
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