Red State support for background checks should have GOP worried

A new poll has probably sparked a panic within Republican Party headquarters in Washington.

In South Carolina, one of the reddest of the Red States, voters are not happy with last week’s Senate defeat of expanded background checks for gun purchases and they may be ready to toss some GOP lawmakers out of office to make their point.

The Public Policy Polling survey was conducted in the South Carolina congressional district where controversial former governor Mark Sanford is the GOP nominee in a special election. An astounding 86 percent of the South Carolinian voters surveyed said they support background checks and only 12 percent are opposed.

It’s rather extraordinary that, not only does 90 percent of the nation support background checks, similarly lopsided numbers are showing up in places that are solidly conservative.

What’s more, by a 2-1 margin voters in the PPP poll said the GOP's opposition to closing the gun show loophole makes it less likely they'll support the party’s candidates in the next election. Some 45 percent said they are ready to vote out Republicans because of the Senate’s actions.

Gun control supporters probably view those numbers as a sign that another Senate vote on the Manchin-Toomey amendment is likely. More likely, it means there probably won’t be another vote. The ways of Washington suggest that giddy Democrats will use the ongoing poll numbers to make the Republicans squirm. Then they’ll use the issue to create some devastating TV ads during the 2014 campaign season.

Some Republicans tried to float the idea that despite the 90/10 split nationwide on this issue, in some areas of the country it's an unpopular idea to conduct background checks that prevent criminals, terrorists and the mentally unstable from buying firearms. But poll after poll has shown that big majorities all across the nation favor background checks.

The Republicans – and some Red State Democrats – have aligned themselves with the NRA leaders and lobbyists. In so doing, they stand not with the gun owners of America but with those on the fringe, the survivalists who are waiting for the guys in black helicopters to come and take their guns.