When whites become a minority in the United States, the National Rifle Association (NRA) will fall and gun control legislation will finally pass, UCLA law professor Adam Winkler wrote Monday in a Washington Post op-ed.
Democrats have long advocated for gun control, an issue which repeatedly returns to the forefront in the aftermath of every mass shooting. The latest shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon is a little different, but this time President Barack Obama is making a much more aggressive call for political action.
“We are not the only country on earth that has people with mental illnesses or want to do harm to other people,” Obama said at the White House, according to The Guardian. “We are the only advanced country on earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are not enough,” Obama continued. “It’s not enough. This is a political choice that we make, to allow this to happen every few months in America. We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.”
The National Rifle Association successfully blocks attempts at gun control reform, but that may soon change according to Winkler, who points out that demographic characteristics associated with support for the NRA are all on the decline.
“The core of the NRA’s support comes from white, rural and relatively less educated voters,” Winkler writes. “This demographic is currently influential in politics but clearly on the wane. While the decline of white, rural, less educated Americans is generally well known, less often recognized is what this means for gun legislation.”
Polls show whites favor gun rights more than other races by 57 percent to 40 percent.
Whites comprise 63 percent of the population. But not for long. Hispanics are only 17 percent of the population but will likely boom to 30 percent over the course of a few decades. Unlike whites, Hispanics overwhelmingly — at 75 percent — favor gun control.
A total of 80 percent of Asian-American registered voters support gun control. While they constitute only 5 percent of the population, that number is expected to triple in three decades.
Aside from race is region. Rural Americans, 63 percent of whom favor gun rights, are on the decline. Metropolitan areas are seeing a surge in population.
The population is also becoming more educated, and education is linked with support for gun control. With increasing age is one of the only factors working in support of the NRA, Winkler thinks that white, rural America is dying. And once it’s finished, America will get its gun control.
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