Americans Oppose Gun Bans

Opinion

Gun Survey
Americans Oppose Gun Bans

Fairfax, VA – -(Ammoland.com)- Last week, we looked at a Gallup poll that found a majority of adults now oppose a ban on so-called “assault weapons” and discussed how even Everytown for Gun Safety is now running campaign ads focused on anything but gun control to help push their agenda.

Gallup also released two other interesting data points from their latest survey. The first finding is that 61% of Americans “favor stricter laws on the sale of firearms.” This is a decrease from a recent high after the Parkland shooting, but we have not yet returned to the lows of the late 2000s and early 2010s[MC1] .  There are marginal upticks in the percentage of Americans who feel that gun laws should be less strict or kept as they are now.

Support for stricter gun laws is strongest among Democrats (87% in favor), and three in five Independents (61%) favor stricter gun laws. A majority of Republicans believe gun laws should be kept as they are (55%).

We just don’t know which gun laws Americans believe should be made more strict. Gallup tested an assault weapons ban, as we discussed last week, and found a majority of Americans oppose a ban on assault weapons.

Gallup’s other recent release found that an even stronger majority of Americans oppose a law “that would ban the possession of handguns, except by the police and other authorized persons.” You may recall that 57% of American adults are against a ban on semi-automatic rifles, even when they are misleadingly called “assault weapons.” Seventy-one percent (71%) of Americans oppose a handgun ban. Even most Democrats (55%) oppose a handgun ban – and this is the group among whom support for stricter gun sales laws is nearly universal.

There is a concerning trend for support of a handgun ban. Support increased five points between 2016 and 2017 and has held since steady at 28%. While this is a minority of the American public, writing them off would be foolish. These are the people who support radical anti-gun politicians and organizations, who conspire to advance piecemeal gun control under the guise of “doing something.”

We don’t have the data necessary to see the percentage of Americans who both support stricter gun sales laws and oppose a ban on semi-automatic rifles or handguns, but the data that is publicly available is strong – and clear. Americans clearly oppose a ban on the manufacture, sale, or possession of semi-automatic rifles and oppose a ban on handguns[MC2] .

What this survey does not measure is the respondents’ familiarity with gun laws, and misleading claims about gun laws are routinely spread. The former President claimed that it’s easier to buy a gun than it is to buy a computer, a book, or a vegetable. Claims that it is harder to buy allergy medication than it is to buy a gun circulated on social media several weeks ago, propagated by an anti-gun public relations professional and echoed by the father of a Parkland, Florida, shooting victim. Nothing happens in a vacuum, and such claims may stick.

So here we are. A majority want stricter laws concerning gun sales and majorities oppose prohibitions on the sale or possession of semi-automatic rifles or handguns. There is some room for interpretation of the question language, and the impact of high-profile shootings in the data is apparent even to anti-gun activists. Perhaps some of that majority simply want “to be better” in terms of crime. Some may actually think that it’s easier for a teenager to get a Glock than a book.


National Rifle Association Institute For Legislative Action (NRA-ILA)

About:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org

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250 savage guy

Exactly what law do they want? When told that there is already a ‘law’ the sheep dont understand why the ‘bad’ guys dont obey the laws! Even if there were no guns like in England and Japan, criminals will and do use knives, swords, meat cleavers, hammers, sharpened screwdrivers. This gun banning movement s being funded by madman george Soros and many foreign governments that want to disarm Americans. During WW2 the japs were afraid to invade the usa as they knew all the Americans owned guns! Now they want to turn America gay and drug addicts. This same group… Read more »

TheHolyCrow

If anyone comes to your house to confiscate your guns, first ask him/her if they are Americans. If they say yes, call them a TRAITOR, then spit in their eye followed by a knee to the crotch. Most likely the gun grabbers will use foreign troops, like the ones caught on the trail cams that Oath Keepers sent a clip out about yesterday. Yeah, while everyone has their eye on the Caravan, heavily armed military type are crossing the border carrying full auto rifles and large backpacks filled with gawd knows what. One of the trail cams was from the… Read more »

A.x. Perez

2/3 of the American people want stricter laws to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.
2/3 of the American people want laws designed to make sure honest people have access to guns for self defense.

That was the stat in the Eighties. Curious how it is now.

Wild Bill

@AxP, Same survey from the same word processor. Or maybe, to save time, effort and expense … they just changed the dates!

Colonialgirl

You control the “results” of a poll by the questions you ask and the people you ask those questions !
Most polls are nothing but piles of anti-gun donkey dung; Look at the stupidity over who was going to be elected President and watch the hag crash into the dirt.

joefoam

This is the reason that liberals/democrats/leftists either lie or not address the subject of gun control. too many voters would not elect them if they proposed those bans.

jim

no dumocraps

MM

There will always be bad guys with guns! I sure sleep better at night with my good guy gun beside the bed!

Vincent Brady

You really need to ask the MILLIONS of Jewish men , women and children and others at concentration camps and gas chambers whether they thought gun control was an good idea! Oh wait, you can’t, they were murdered without any ability to defend themselves because they were disarmed and suffered meaningless deaths! Think MILLIONS of deaths, not 11 or 1,000 or 10,000 dead, freedom always has a price to be paid willingly or unwillingly for you to express your opinion.

Anthony

Gun control does not work! If you disarm the honest people, then only the criminals will have them. The only thing that keeps more shootings from happening is the fear that there will be an armed citizen that will shoot back!

Ben

Should be no different than buying any other item. All these laws should be repealed. Murder is already illegal.

Green Mtn. Boy

I’m all for opposing the Leftard’s that propose civilian firearms disarmament .

TheHolyCrow

I’m all for hanging them. After a fair trial for TREASON, a proper conviction, a thorough tar and feathering, and the obligatory rail ride down to the hanging tree, of course. Wouldn’t want to leave any of those steps out. No sir !