I think a lot of people, including politicians, hold opinions that they can't justify in any real sense. Most politicians don't talk about gun control very much, and they don't have considered opinions on gun control. They just adopt the prevailing opinions of the group they run with.
There are lots of opinions or beliefs that you can't say out loud and still be elected in the US. You can't say you're an atheist, or that the cops aren't "the finest", or the firefighters aren't "the bravest", or that any member of the military isn't worth thanking for his service, or that America isn't the greatest country on earth. Not that these things aren't true, but that the matter isn't open for examination.
Here are a couple examples. 1) Fox News was all over Obama for not mentioning God in his Turkey-pardoning Thanksgiving Day talk. (Other presidents have omitted any reference to the Diety in the past.) 2) There was a big stir in political ads because someone said, or was quoted as saying, "Americans were lazy" about something or other. Well, maybe someone was. Maybe they took that "greatest country on earth" too seriously and stopped trying for a while. But you can't say so.