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Senators Who Opposed Background Checks Voted Against Their Constituents

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


Yesterday the U.S. Senate defeated a measure that would require background checks for individuals purchasing guns. Various senators who voted against it said their constituents told them to do so—despite nationwide surveys in the past few months indicating that roughly 90 percent of the nation favors background checks. President Barack Obama yesterday accused these senators of lying to Americans and caving to pressure from the National Rifle Association.

So who voted no, and how do the citizens of their states actually feel? The table below shows answers for 25 states. The data are culled from polls conducted in March by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns political action committee, and since January by Quinnipiac University.

Surprisingly, a number of the more prominent national survey organizations I contacted did not have breakdowns by state. If you have statistics for states not listed here, please add a citation in the Comments section below.


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Senator voting no to background checks

Voters in that state who support background checks

Senator’s rating by National Rifle Association

Ayotte, Kelly (R-NH)

89%

A

Baucus, Max (D-MT)

79%

A+

Blunt, Roy (R-MO)

85%

A

Boozman, John (R-AZ)

84%

A

Burr, Richard (R-NC)

90%

A

Chambliss, Saxby (R-GA)

91%

A+

Coats, Daniel (R-IN)

89%

C+

Coburn, Tom (R-OK)

87%

A+

Flake, Jeff (R-AZ)

90%

A

Grassley, Chuck (R-IA)

88%

A

Hatch, Orrin (R-UT)

83%

A+

Heitkamp, Heidi (D-ND)

94%

A

Hoeven, John (R-ND)

94%

A

Inhofe, James (R-OK)

87%

A+

Isakson, Johnny (R-GA)

91%

A

Lee, Mike (R-UT)

83%

A

McConnell, Mitch (R-KY)

82%

A

Paul, Rand (R-KY)

82%

A

Portman, Rob (R-OH)

83%

A

Pryor, Mark (D-AR)

84%

C+

Reed, Harry (D-NV)

86%

B

Rubio, Marco (R-FL)

94%

B+

Thune, John (R-SD)

79%

A+

Vitter, David (R-LA)

85%

A

Other states polled; both senators voted yes

CT, ME, NJ, NM, NY, PA, VA

States without poll results

AK, AL, CA, CO, DE, HI, ID, IL, KS, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, NE, OR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY

 

Sources: Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Quinnipiac University

Image: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Mark Fischetti has been a senior editor at Scientific American for 17 years and has covered sustainability issues, including climate, weather, environment, energy, food, water, biodiversity, population, and more. He assigns and edits feature articles, commentaries and news by journalists and scientists and also writes in those formats. He edits History, the magazine's department looking at science advances throughout time. He was founding managing editor of two spinoff magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 freelance article for the magazine, "Drowning New Orleans," predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. His video What Happens to Your Body after You Die?, has more than 12 million views on YouTube. Fischetti has written freelance articles for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Fast Company, and many others. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti is a former managing editor of IEEE Spectrum Magazine and of Family Business Magazine. He has a physics degree and has twice served as the Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union's Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism, which celebrates a career of outstanding reporting on the Earth and space sciences. He has appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many news radio stations. Follow Fischetti on X (formerly Twitter) @markfischetti

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