April 26, 2013 by David K. Sutton
Poll: Majority Of Pennsylvania Voters Are ‘Angry’ Or ‘Dissatisfied’ Over Background Check Vote
A Quinnipiac University poll finds a large majority of Pennsylvania voters supported the Manchin-Toomey background check bill that was “defeated” in the Senate last week. Sixty-nine percent of PA voters said they “strongly support” expanded background checks. The background check bill did not make it to the artificial 60-vote threshold needed to pass. In the Senate, barring political nonsense, it only requires a simply majority to pass a bill. But those days are long gone. The failure of expanded background checks to pass the Senate has 34 percent of PA voters “angry,” and 36 percent “dissatisfied.”
With such strong support for the measure, it should not come as a surprise that Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey (R), co-author of the bill, is now enjoying his highest ever approval rating of 48 percent to 30 percent. I probably disagree with Toomey on everything but this one issue, but at least a Republican Senator in the land of people who “cling to guns or religion” went against his party to co-author this measure. I do not, however, agree with Toomey’s statement that the Senate spoke and we need to move on. No, we need to keep trying until “sensible” gun safety legislation is able to pass a legislative body with a severe deficit of “sense.”
