MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Legislators in a representative democracy can follow their conscience or vote the wishes of their constituents when important issues are at stake. Or they can take their cues from people with guns.
Most likely a mix of motivations drove the Tennessee General Assembly’s flurry of pro-gun legislation last spring.
After legislators decided to allow local governments to opt out of a measure that removed the ban on guns in parks and gave owners of restaurants that serve alcohol an opt-out provision as well, the results were mixed.
Some local governments decided to keep the ban. Others decided to allow people with permits to pack pistols with their picnic supplies. Some restaurateurs posted no-weapons signs. Others chose not to.
Now a survey conducted by students at Middle Tennessee State University under the supervision of university professors has shed some light on the question of how representative the representatives were.
In a statewide telephone poll of 716 randomly selected adults, which has an error margin of plus or minus four percentage points, 54 percent opposed allowing permit holders to carry guns in state parks, 60 percent didn’t want them to pack in restaurants and 80 percent were against guns in bars.
Lest one conclude that MTSU students surely must have been limiting their survey to liberals, they also found that only 46 percent of Tennesseans approve of the way President Barack Obama is handling his job while 48 percent say they disapprove.
Forty-six percent believe Obama is probably or definitely a socialist. Thirty-four percent don’t believe he was born in the United States and 15 percent are unsure.
The survey also found that most Tennesseans don’t plan to take the swine flu vaccine that began showing up in Tennessee last week and only 36 percent generally support the health care reform proposals that are being debated in Congress.
These are mixed signals, to be sure, but when the issue is the expansion of gun rights, the popular support claimed by the legislative proponents has clearly become exaggerated.
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