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POLITICS

39% See 'Pro-Gun' As Positive Label, 27% Say It's A Negative

Rasmussen Reports periodically asks Likely U.S. Voters to rate political labels, and the latest national telephone survey finds that 39% consider it a positive when a political candidate is described as being “pro-gun.”

Only 27% see this as a negative description, while another 30% say it lies somewhere in between. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

A plurality (37%) considers it a negative when a candidate is said to be supported by a union. Just 22% see being labeled as someone supported by a union as a positive thing, while 35% believe it’s somewhere in between.

Naturally, there are strong partisan divides on both labels. While most Republicans (62%) and a plurality of voters not affiliated with either party (42%) sees being labeled “pro-gun” as positive, 49% of Democrats see that as negative.

Most GOP voters (62%) say it’s negative to be described as being supported by unions, a view shared by just 14% of Democrats and 37% of unaffiliated voters.

For comparison’s sake, a separate survey finds that 38% of all voters consider it a positive when a candidate is described as “a conservative”; 37% say the same of the label “moderate,” 31% of “progressive” and 29% of “Tea Party.” Continuing in dead last is “liberal,” seen as a positive by just 21% of voters. 

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 18-19, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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