"In reading through posts in this place I see an extremely strong support of essentially unlimited rights to own guns. Should I be thinking that those people are racist, bigoted, uncaring, or hateful?"
The answer is in your question: "an extremely strong support of essentially unlimited rights to own guns" is a right-wing, NRA gun-lobby political position, and as such indicates a Republican mindset. While I don't believe that all right-wingers are racists or bigoted (some are), most of them are uncaring and hateful.
The Democratic platform states the following:
Right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation
We recognize that the individual right to bear arms is an important part of the American tradition, and we will preserve Americans' Second Amendment right to own and use firearms. We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation. We understand the terrible consequences of gun violence; it serves as a reminder that life is fragile, and our time here is limited and precious. We believe in an honest, open national conversation about firearms. We can focus on effective enforcement of existing laws, especially strengthening our background check system, and we can work together to enact commonsense improvements--like reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole--so that guns do not fall into the hands of those irresponsible, law-breaking few.
Reauthorize assault weapons ban, close gun show loophole
We will protect Americans’ Second Amendment right to own firearms, and we will keep guns out of the hands of criminals and terrorists by fighting gun crime, reauthorizing the assault weapons ban, and closing the gun show loophole, as President Bush proposed and failed to do.
Strengthen gun control to reduce violence
Democrats passed the Brady Law and the Assault Weapons Ban. We increased federal, state, and local gun crime prosecution by 22 percent since 1992. Now gun crime is down by 35 percent. Now we must do even more. We need mandatory child safety locks. We should require a photo license I.D., a background check, and a gun safety test to buy a new handgun. We support more federal gun prosecutors and giving states and communities another 10,000 prosecutors to fight gun crime.
http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Democratic_Party_Gun_Control.htm
This is the
Gun Control Reform Activism Group on
Democratic Underground, and the SOP of this Group is to discuss, promote, and support the Democratic approach to gun control. This is NOT the proper forum to argue about the necessity for gun control.
To answer your second question: Yes.
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