Wait, 44% of GOPers Are Ready for an Armed Revolt?

There's a pretty disturbing result in a new Fairleigh Dickinson University poll on gun violence out today: 44% of Republicans say they believe that "in the next few years an armed revolution might be necessary to protect our liberties." To be fair, Republicans aren't alone—27% of independents and 18% of Democrats agreed with the statement as well—but the GOP was the only group in which more agreed with the sentiment than didn't.

The poll raises some "disturbing" questions, writes David Sirota at Salon. Like, how many Republicans "are buying weapons to arm themselves in order to foment an armed revolution? Maybe none, but maybe a lot. I don’t have an answer, but this poll suggests the question should at least be aired." Second, can democracy even exist "when almost one-half of one of the major parties seems to support the concept of violently thwarting it?" You could argue that these people are only hypothetically supporting a revolution "to protect liberties." But then, in the "incendiary language" the conservative media uses, "everything in the Democratic/liberal agenda is an assault on 'liberty.'" Click for the full column. (More gun control stories.)